–> The Big Ten announced future 2024-25 schedules last week, officially marking an end to the infamous and legendary Big Ten West division.
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As a pre-adolescent boy in Rogers, Minnesota who just began to fall in love with college football, I was intrigued by the Big Ten’s decision to separate its football conference into the “Legends” and “Leaders” Divisions in 2010. It seemed like a fun way to spice up the conference with the addition of Nebraska to the fold. As my infatuation for the sport those call college football continued to grow, my love for my hometown Gophers continued to grow with it. With Gophers football returning to an on-campus stadium, and new head coach Jerry Kill bringing in his new system it was a fun time to become fully entrenched into my Maroon & Gold fandom and the Big Ten conference as a whole.
A few years later the Big Ten added Maryland and Rutgers to the conference. Along with it came the end of the Legends and Leaders Divisions and in came the West and East Divisions. The change of division names might’ve made more sense than the addition of both institutions. When the new divisions were implemented the West Division took home both of the first two Big Ten Championship games, which were won by a team that call themselves the Badgers. The following TEN (10) seasons were all won by the East Division champions, by an average margin of 19.1 points.
With the East Division’s dominance along came the West Division’s mockery. Between the consistent 11:00 a.m. kickoffs announced by Beth Mowens, an inordinate amount of punts and inept offensive playcalling by anyone with the last name Ferentz; the Big Ten West had become the meme of Power 5 college football. For 10 straight seasons, the second-place team in the East (who was likely the second-best team in the conference) sat at home watching the West Division’s champion get embarrassed on a national stage in the conference championship. But this is what makes college football college football and it was what made the boy from Rogers, Minnesota fall in love with the sport. Culture grows on the vine of tradition and the tradition of the Big Ten West has been so perfectly Midwest.
Sitting in below-freezing temperatures watching Alex Hornibrook and Phillip Nelson lead their teams to a flurry of 3 & outs was what made the Big Ten West so perfectly Big Ten West. In the last three seasons watching Northwestern, Iowa and Purdue suck just a little bit less than the rest of the division and proceed to lose by an average of 24 points in the conference championship game, while much better Michigan or Ohio State teams sat at home and watched is what made the Big Ten West so Big Ten West. And being a fan of the Gophers; a team that hasn’t won a conference championship in my lifetime or even my parent’s lifetime — never being completely out of the running for a trip to the conference title game much of the season is what made the Big Ten West so Big Ten West.
Not to write an obituary before death, but as we inch closer to the start of the 2023 college football season, I plead with any fan of Gophers football or even the Big Ten Conference to enjoy the final season of Big Ten West football for all its glory. As the glitzy and glamourous USC and UCLA enter the conference in 2024, it will mark the end of the tremendous theater that was the most memorable division in college football and likely divisional college football as a whole. Nobody likes change and the new-look conference will likely provide us with new memes and memories, but nothing will ever quite be like the Big Ten West.