Here are my thoughts.
- There is no way they will put 3 of Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Nebraska in one division. I would be shocked. With that in mind, they'll split them up 2-2. The Big Ten will not want another Big 12 south vs north situation.
- Geographically, the only scenario that will support the 2-2 scenario is north south (N=MN, WI, MI, MSU, NW, PSU, S=NE, IA, IL, PUR, IN, OSU). This doesn't make sense to me though, because what is the point of geographic divisions if Minnesota is going to be grouped with Penn State (opposite ends) and not Iowa (close rival)? I don't see this happening either.
- Any other geogrphic scenario puts Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State in the same division so I don't think those will happen either. Of these, the next closest balance for football would be Northwest/Southeast, but in that lineup the SE division would have Ohio State, Indiana, Purdue, Illinois and Michigan State. That equals a loaded basketball division so it will not happen.
So what I think they'll do is just some kind of balanced mix. I went through and did my own rankings of football and basketball programs and here is what I came up with.
A.
Penn State
Michigan
Indiana
Purdue
Michigan State
Iowa
B.
Ohio State
Nebraska
Illinois
Minnesota
Northwestern
Wisconsin
- Each division has 2 football powers
- The basketball balance is decent.
- In-state rivalries are maintained
- Theoretically, the conference 'sbiggest football rivalry with Michigan and Ohio State is setup for a potential conference title game. Not a bad thought at all from the Big Ten's perspective.
- The big downside is that Iowa would be in the opposite divison from what would figure to be their 4 biggest rivals: MN, WI, NE and IL.
- You could fix that and actually improve the basketball balance by swapping Minnesota and Purdue, but then the instate rivalry between IU and PU is lost. That would look like:
A.
Penn State
Michigan
Indiana
Michigan State
Minnesota
Iowa
B.
Ohio State
Nebraska
Illinois
Northwestern
Purdue
Wisconsin
My $.02.