With Rutgers and Maryland set to join the conference in the 2014, the Big 10 has officially announced the divisional format it will use beginning that season. The conference has elected to go with an East-West layout (Option number two of the three choices they proposed in December) and Rutgers will obviously make their home in the East. Accompanying them in the Eastern Division are Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Penn State, while Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, and Wisconsin occupy the Western division. It is a true geographical split, and all the teams in the east are in the eastern time zone, and all the teams in the west are in the central time zone, with the lone exception being Purdue.
It's certainly exciting seeing Rutgers in the same division as those other great programs, but this division option was probably the worst case scenario of the three proposed options for Rutgers. The East-West division structure is extremely unbalanced competitively, and Rutgers is in the tougher division. When the Big 10 originally separated the conference into divisions when Nebraska joined in 2011, they made sure to split the traditional powers (Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and Nebraska) and the emerging powers (Wisconsin and Michigan State) up evenly, but this time that was apparently not an issue, since four of those six teams are now in the east division.
Things are going to be very tough for Rutgers, but it might not be as tough as it seems. The only two of these programs who should definitively be better that Rutgers are Ohio State and Michigan. The Buckeyes have of course been a national power for a while, save for the post tattoo-gate disaster of 2011, and they are only going to get scarier under the direction of Urban Meyer. The Wolverines have fallen on some hard times recently, but Brady Hoke has them back on track, and they look poised to become a powerhouse program again.
Penn State would have fit in the same group as those two a few years ago, but they are facing an uphill battle to stave off their downfall, as they deal with their extreme scholarship restrictions and a bowl ban. Additionally, NFL teams are probably going to keep coming after Bill O'Brien, and if he leaves, will anyone want this job with the all of those factors working against them? Michigan State briefly rose to the top tier of the conference, but I'm not sure if they can keep it up. Their rise coincided with Michigan's down fall, and they will have a tough time maintaining the uptick they saw in recruiting, due to Michigan reestablishing themselves. Indiana may improve under Kevin Wilson, and Maryland might be able to be more successful with a different coach, but I'm not going to worry about them yet.
The Big 10 will play eight conference games in 2014 and 2015, and will begin playing nine game slates in 2016. Thankfully, they are making it so the teams in the same division will play the same number of home and road games in a given year. The eastern teams will get five conference home games in even years, and the western division teams will play five conference home games in odd years.
It's going to be tough for Rutgers to win this division, but it certainly won't be impossible. Every Big 10 school other than Indiana, Minnesota and newcomer Nebraska has won at least a share of the conference title with in the last thirteen years. The East Division champion should be favored to win the Big 10 Championship Game in most seasons, so if Rutgers wins their division, they should be able to win the conference. Rutgers just has to hope their up years happen at the same time Michigan and Ohio State experience down years.
No comments:
Post a Comment