Comments on The Other Side of Spartan Sports: Big Ten Divisions: The mistake the Big Ten shouldn...

The Big 12 also tried this with trying to produce ...

2010-08-24T05:57:24.126-05:00

The Big 12 also tried this with trying to produce Oklahoma/Nebraska title games. It didn't work. Maybe Tom Osbourne can talk some sense into David Brandon and explain to him the difference between college football and selling crappy pizza.

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/aug/21/breaking-fr...

2010-08-22T13:11:15.445-05:00

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/aug/21/breaking-from-tradition/

Pac-10 Commissioner: “My bias is for coming up for something that’s easy to understand for fans. I want an easy narrative to follow and it’s important that we have competitive equilibrium. Those are the two things I’m going to emphasize.”

Why does the Big Ten place no value on "something that's easy to understand for fans" and "an easy narrative to follow"?

When I wrote that, I had the following tiers in mi...

2010-08-22T13:02:01.033-05:00

When I wrote that, I had the following tiers in mind:
Very Good: Ohio State (106 wins), Nebraska (98 Big 8/12 wins), Michigan (94), Penn State (86)
Pretty Good: Wisconsin (79), Iowa (71)
Middle Class: Purdue (63), Michigan State (63), Northwestern (59)
Crummy: Illinois (45), Minnesota (44), Indiana (33)

I don't consider all-time results relevant. No...

2010-08-22T12:54:59.622-05:00

I don't consider all-time results relevant. Nothing that happened before about 1990 matters all that much. In recent decades, scholarship limitations have evened the playing field, and the universal availability of games on television has made recruiting a more democratic process. Historic league and national championships make the fans proud and keep them coming back for more, but have nothing to do with what the competitive dynamics are like today.

Since 1993, when Penn State joined the league (and the point from whence most of the statistics have been aggregated), Minnesota has 44 league wins to MSU's 63. That's a clear trend. Minnesota has been more aggressive in scheduling I-AA/I-FCS teams than MSU (we just played our first-ever I-FCS team last year) so I don't know that overall records are a very good way of comparing the teams.

I think you're letting your bias show through ...

2010-08-22T12:41:12.269-05:00

I think you're letting your bias show through a little with this statement:
"Penn State never misses one very good team and one middle class team (Ohio State and Michigan State), but Wisconsin never misses only a pretty good team and a crummy team (Iowa and Minnesota)."

By all metrics, Michigan State and Minnesota are comparable and by most estimates, Michigan State is worse, especially since the Gophers beat MSU in 2009, 42-34. (Although it would be fair to count both as "crummy" teams.)

Counting from 2000 (rankings are AP Poll/Coaches poll):
2000 - Minn - 6-6 (bowl loss to NC State), MSU 5-6 (no bowl).
2001 - Minn - 4-7, beat MSU 28-19, MSU - 7-5 (bowl win over Fresno State)
2002 - Minn - 8-5 (bowl win over Arkansas); MSU - 4-8 (no bowl)
2003 - Minn - 10-3, ranked 20/17 (bowl win over Oregon); MSU - 8-5 (bowl loss to Nebraska)
2004 - Minn - 7-5, (bowl win over Alabama); MSU - 5-7 (bowl loss to Hawaii)
2005 - Minn - 7-5, (bowl loss to Virginia); MSU - 5-6
2006 - Minn - 6-7; (bowl loss to Texas Tech); MSU (4-8, no bowl, one conference win, set the record for the greatest comeback from a deficit in college football in getting that one win.)
2007 - Minn - 1-11 (no conference victories, worst season on this list for both teams); MSU - 7-6 (bowl loss to Boston College).
2008 - Minn - 7-6 (bowl loss to Kansas, Minn ranked highest 20 during year); MSU - 9-4 ranked 24/24 (bowl loss to Georgia, ranked highest 17/15 during year).
2009 - Minn - 6-7 (bowl loss to Iowa State); MSU - 6-7 (bowl loss to Texas Tech).

Other notable matchups: MSU blew out Gophers in 2004, 51-17; but Minn returned the favor in 2005 with a 41-18 victory.
Gophers: six national championships, 18 Big Ten championships. MSU: six national championships, six Big Ten championships.

In my mind, Matt, a division that had Wisconsin, I...

2010-08-22T12:37:39.715-05:00

In my mind, Matt, a division that had Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska, with a protected inter-divisional game against Michigan, would be just as attractive, no?

You can write to your school's leadership as follows:
Dr. Robert H. Bruininks
President, University of Minnesota
202 Morrill Hall
100 Church Street S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0110
upres@umn.edu

Mr. Joel Maturi
Director of Athletics, University of Minnesota
516 15th Avenue S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0130
icaadmin@umn.edu

Mr. Clyde E. Allen, Jr., Chair
Board of Regents, University of Minnesota
600 McNamara Alumni Center
200 Oak Street S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455-2020
allen190@umn.edu

Even though it probably won't happen, as a Gop...

2010-08-22T07:37:28.818-05:00

Even though it probably won't happen, as a Gophers fan in Mpls, I'm salivating at seeing a division that includes the Gophers with UM, MSU, OSU, WI & IA. Those are must-see games on the schedule every year and could help with recruiting knowing the team gets to visit the Big House & the Horseshoe every couple years.

Very well-thought out. Since you fixed this, how about the playoff next? I have my own thoughts on that (16 teams). Too long to get into here.

The funny thing about Adam's point is that the...

2010-08-22T05:41:16.366-05:00

The funny thing about Adam's point is that the ACC basically tried to do the same thing with Miami and Florida State when they split their divisions in 2005. Since then, only once has either of them even made the title game and instead Virginia Tech has made it the most often. Set the divisions geographically and things will work themselves out.

The other thing that chafes me about this is that ...

2010-08-21T23:19:16.175-05:00

The other thing that chafes me about this is that splitting OSU and UM is obviously intended to produce an OSU/UM rematch in the championship game. There's something I find inherently distasteful about gerrymandering the divisions to produce a rematch, and I find it particularly distasteful when it's these two teams that they're doing it for. It is the rare sort of act that is both disrespectful to the league's traditions AND disrespectful to the other members in the league, whose rivalries apparently are not important enough to gerrymander the divisions to produce a rematch. Are the rest of us chopped liver?