Maverick
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I think they are naming the divisions water and earth... or sun and moon..... maybe its gonna be corn and beans...??
And the new divisions are...
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I think they are naming the divisions water and earth... or sun and moon..... maybe its gonna be corn and beans...??
DarrenTheGreek
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It's safe to assume the divisons are:
"East" Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana
"West" Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern
The 2 "wild-cards" are Minnesota and Illinois. I've seen multiple rumors that have these teams flipped around.
Pros for putting Minnesota in "West"
1. Preserves MN-Iowa rivalry
2. Preserves/Resumes MN-Michigan JUG game
3. Preserves ILL-OSU trophy game
Cons for putting Minnesota in "West"
1. Becky seperated from natural rivals Iowa & Minnesota.
2. Northwestern and Illinois are seperated.
"East" Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana
"West" Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern
The 2 "wild-cards" are Minnesota and Illinois. I've seen multiple rumors that have these teams flipped around.
Pros for putting Minnesota in "West"
1. Preserves MN-Iowa rivalry
2. Preserves/Resumes MN-Michigan JUG game
3. Preserves ILL-OSU trophy game
Cons for putting Minnesota in "West"
1. Becky seperated from natural rivals Iowa & Minnesota.
2. Northwestern and Illinois are seperated.
year of the gopher
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What? When? By the way, Coach Bill Cooper lost his job at OSU because Michigan's Lloyd Carr owned him. I am glad we will not play PSU and OSU every year. But, I safely predict, you guys will cry like babies about an "understandable" bad record on those years when we WILL get OSU plus Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa and Michigan.Sorry, but that will be just too hard to get to the title game.
Wow, you really ARE whining about having to play good teams. We are a charter member of the BIG TEN CONFERENCE. We are one of the biggest universities in the country in the 15th largest media market in the country. We can and should be big boys and play other big boys. Has our program been bad over the last forty years? Yes, more often than not. But that doesn't mean it has to continue and I don't think it will continue.
I, for one, think the program is in better shape than it was four years ago. I think we have better athletes going onto the field this year than I've seen in my time as a Gopher fan and I think this year's team is going to prove a lot of prognosticators wrong about Gopher football. I think the team and the coach are fired up and I think it's about g**d**n the fan base got fired up too!
Yes, my dad gum chili is indeed ON FIRE!
year of the gopher
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What? When? By the way, Coach Bill Cooper lost his job at OSU because Michigan's Lloyd Carr owned him. I am glad we will not play PSU and OSU every year. But, I safely predict, you guys will cry like babies about an "understandable" bad record on those years when we WILL get OSU plus Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa and Michigan.
Oh yeah, and it was JOHN Cooper.
MrGopher
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I hope you are right ChemEGopher but what I'm hearing is that you can swap Illinois and Minnesota. We are going east with Becky I'm afraid.
Okay, let's look at that rationally.
Why would Illinois (rivalries: NU, Ind, Pur, OSU) belong in the other division?
Why would Minn (rivalries: wi, Ia, Mich, (Neb)) belong in the other division?
The only reason I can think of is for the sake of wisky and for NU. wisky would be more comfortable in the SE division if Minn was with them. The same for NU with IL.
Neither has a distinct advantage in terms of moving-the-needle, or Big Ten records over the last 17 years. More rivalries are lost. And it messes up the geography even more (isolating the michigan schools).
GophersInIowa
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I think what Gopherhurrin is saying guys is that we should join the Sun Belt.
Assuming this is the case, what do you think the rivalries are:
MN-WI
MI-OSU
ILL-NW
NE-IU?
MSU-PSU
IA-PU
What rivalries are lost other than IA-WI?
DarrenTheGreek
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Keep in mind that Barry really wants a UW-Nebraska rivalry and has pretty much already said that UW-Iowa might die. If Minnesota went "West" and got UW as the protected game then UW would have no room for Iowa or Nebraska. Do you think Barry is going to stand for that? He's definitely got more power than that. Thus he'll pull Minnesota "East" with him and get Nebraska as his protected game.
Michigan - Ohio State
Michigan State - Penn State
Nebraska - Wisconsin
Iowa - Minnesota
Northwestern - Purdue
Illinois - Indiana
Puke.
Michigan - Ohio State
Michigan State - Penn State
Nebraska - Wisconsin
Iowa - Minnesota
Northwestern - Purdue
Illinois - Indiana
Puke.
hyaluronic
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Are you sure about the Sun Belt? We would have to play MTSU and Troy every year!
DarrenTheGreek
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This is why I think Minnesota is going "east". If MN is west the cross-over games are too much of a mismatch.
Iowa/MSU/Nebraska vs PSU/Purdue/Indiana
Iowa/MSU/Nebraska would be crying bloody murder if they have to play PSU every season.
THIS.
It makes no sense for Illinois to be separated from all of their rivals with Minnesota separated from most of theirs. Unless the Big Ten just decided to defecate on Minnesota and Illinois, but that seems unlikely.
Yeah, it makes no sense, but I've seen Minny and Illinois swapped up as well in the past like that, and I don't get it at all. Hopefully the Big Ten is smarter than that.
What? When? By the way, Coach Bill Cooper lost his job at OSU because Michigan's Lloyd Carr owned him. I am glad we will not play PSU and OSU every year. But, I safely predict, you guys will cry like babies about an "understandable" bad record on those years when we WILL get OSU plus Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa and Michigan.
for me the goal should not be just get to the B10 titile game but get to the Rose Bowl. going to have beat some of these teams regardless to accomplish that anyway so what is the difference if we play OSU in the regular season or the title game? probably going to have to beat them one way or another.
Gopherhurrin
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OK, I get and agree with your point. If we get to the Big Ten championship game with this schedule we will be one of the top three or four teams in the country without a doubt. And yes, I do not see our program as being in that league in the foreseeable future. My goal was to have our program move up, way up, to the 4-4 average Big Ten program from where we have been now for my entire, long, adult life. Mason was 3.4 wins, average. With the many advantages of TCF I hoped we could get up to 4.0 Big Ten wins per season. At 4.0 we would have some 6-2 with the hope of the perfect season. With this proposed schedule we will not average 4.0, we will have many 3-5 season or worse.
I'm sorry. I really, really am sorry. You have to walk before you can run and in college football you HAVE to be able to win some games in order to improve your fan base and recruiting. With this schedule we will be permanently buried as a "have not" in the Big Ten. This is not the NFL where we can build up with a "losers first" draft and/or free agency.
"You have to walk before you can run" and this proposed schedule is going to leave us with a smallish stadium, limited crowds fully contaminated with Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska fans and a very poor record to recruit against. I will leave the bravado to those of you are young and foolish. I want a fair chance with a balanced schedule. I'm just no longer into the whole "we shall win because we are braver than they are" school of thought.
year of the gopher
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Young and foolish? You know neither my age nor my wisdom.
Having to walk before you run sounds like a Mason excuse for cupcake non-conference schedules. We've been there and done that and we need to raise our own expectations or we'll be forever trying to walk rather than trying to run.
So....what would be your suggestion for best division alignment for Minnesota, as well as maintain competitive integrity between the two divisions? Does such an alignment even exist? This alignment would be VERY solid for us if the OP is true, considering the alternatives.
ChemEGopher
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My head is spinning. We'll find out at 6 PM tonight though.
SelectionSunday
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Assuming for the moment these are the final divisions, how do you think the protected rivalries would look?
Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska & Northwestern
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue & Wisconsin
In Order of "Rivalry" Strength
1. Michigan-Ohio State
2. Minnesota-Wisconsin
3. Northwestern-Illinois
4. Nebraska-Penn State
5. Michigan State-Indiana
6. Iowa-Purdue
Though they wouldn't get "true" rivals, Michigan State & Iowa certainly would have no reason to complain about their yearly cross-over game.
Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska & Northwestern
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue & Wisconsin
In Order of "Rivalry" Strength
1. Michigan-Ohio State
2. Minnesota-Wisconsin
3. Northwestern-Illinois
4. Nebraska-Penn State
5. Michigan State-Indiana
6. Iowa-Purdue
Though they wouldn't get "true" rivals, Michigan State & Iowa certainly would have no reason to complain about their yearly cross-over game.
FireDaveLee
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He will not offer an alternative division. He's been asked this multiple times and has yet to offer one.
MSU and PSU play for the Land Grant Trophy. I think they would be the rivalry. I think that Iowa/Nebraska vs. Indiana/Purdue is the only mystery to be solved here.
ChemEGopher
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This now becomes the big question. Does Delany have the balls to break up the oldest rivalry in College Football? Behind Mich-OSU & Neb-PSU,, I thought WI-IA were destined to be matched up on "crossover saturday." With this alignment, I'm not so sure.
ruralgopher
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Easy. Red v Red; black/gold v black/gold. So Simple!
Why does anyone think that Delaney would give a crap about Iowa? Their TV market means nothing. He's not going to break up the oldest rivalry for the Heartland Trophy.
Also, why does Nebraska/PSU make any sense when they don't have a great history against each other, Paterno will leave soon and they are 1500+ miles away?
MrGopher
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While that might seem the case, remember that the Big10 is trying to maximize matchups between nationally recognizable programs. i.e. Nebraska - Penn St.
Plus MSU has a lot of history with both indiana and Purdue, so I don't think either would be too bad.
Iowa really gets the leftovers, and the loss of the wisky game. Too bad. Gaining Nebraska (for them) should outweigh losing wisky every year.
Feeling Minnesota
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this just shown on espn bottom line
2727Gopher
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According to ESPN's sources, the original alignment discussed in this thread (we're with Michigan, MSU, Iowa, Nebraska and Northwestern) is going to be the final one and we're going to have Wisconsin as our cross-over. While I'd prefer straight East/West, this is very good for us.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5519832
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5519832
GoAUpher
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Iowa wouldn't. Their fans see it as a budding rivalry. MSU won't either since it is already a protected rivalry. And Nebraska thinks they are a top dog. I doubt they whine like Gopherhurrin.
gophermartin
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MSU and PSU/Ind trophies
Guys....MSU plays for a trophy with Ind AND PSU.
Brass Spittoon with Ind
Land Grant Trophy with PSU.
Not sure which one is more important to them.
GM
Guys....MSU plays for a trophy with Ind AND PSU.
Brass Spittoon with Ind
Land Grant Trophy with PSU.
Not sure which one is more important to them.
GM