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What if the Big Ten Kept Legends and Leaders? The Names Sucked, But the Divisions Were Balanced

HERO Sports by HERO Sports
October 11, 2018
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What if the Big Ten Kept Legends and Leaders? The Names Sucked, But the Divisions Were Balanced

If Michigan beats Wisconsin in Week 7 — and Ohio State and Penn State take care of business vs. Minnesota and Michigan State, respectively — the Big Ten East will have three playoff contenders. The Big Ten West will have zero.

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On Sept. 1, 2010, 12 weeks after Nebraska accepted the Big Ten's invitation to join the conference, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany revealed the conference's football divisional split that would take effect in 2011 when the Huskers became the 12th member. (The divisions weren't named Legends and Leaders until December 2010.)

Legends: Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Northwestern

Leaders: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin

The divisions' names were greeted with laughter, and while each team had an annual crossover rivalry game, the split of rivals Ohio State and Michigan (and, to a lesser extent, Minnesota and Wisconsin) were greeted with anger. After three years, in 2014, the divisions were scrapped in favor of a geographic East-West split that included new members Rutgers and Maryland. 

East: Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers

West: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin

What if the Big Ten kept the original alignment? What if they put Maryland in the Legends and Rutgers in the Leaders (or vice versa) and the Big Ten was still playing football with the original alignment from 2011?

Penn State wouldn't play Michigan each year, and ratings for the annual Maryland-Rutgers game would be lower than re-runs of "Cavemen" at 3 a.m., but the divisions are more balanced.

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Annual opponents for each team (crossover game in red): 

Legends

Iowa Maryland Michigan Mich. State Minnesota Nebraska Northwestern
Purdue Rutgers Ohio State Indiana Wisconsin Penn State Illinois
Maryland Iowa Iowa Iowa Iowa Iowa Iowa
Michigan Michigan Maryland Maryland Maryland Maryland Maryland
Mich. State Mich. State Mich. State Michigan Michigan Michigan Michigan
Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Mich. State Mich. State Mich. State
Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska Minnesota Minnesota
Northwestern Northwestern Northwestern Northwestern Northwestern Northwestern Nebraska

Leaders

Illinois Indiana Ohio State Penn State Purdue Rutgers Wisconsin
Northwestern Michigan State Michigan Nebraska Iowa Maryland Minnesota
Indiana Illinois Illinois Illinois Illinois Illinois Illinois
Ohio State Ohio State Indiana Indiana Indiana Indiana Indiana
Penn State Penn State Penn State Ohio State Ohio State Ohio State Ohio State
Purdue Purdue Purdue Purdue Penn State Penn State Penn State
Rutgers Rutgers Rutgers Rutgers Rutgers Purdue Purdue
Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin Rutgers

Given the current state of Nebraska's program, a more appetizing crossover game for Penn State would be Michigan State, but with no guarantee that the Big Ten would change the initial crossover games from 2011, I've left Nebraska as Penn State's Legends opponent.

Assuming the Big Ten still adopted a nine-game schedule in 2017, each team's schedule would include two crossover rotational games selected by random order. For example, Ohio State might play Iowa and Maryland in 2018, Michigan State and Minnesota in 2019 and Nebraska and Northwestern in 2020. Either the Buckeyes' cycle continues with Iowa and Maryland in 2021, etc. or resets with a new rotation (e.g. Minnesota and Northwestern in 2021, Maryland and Michigan State in 2022, Iowa and Nebraska in 2023).

Although divisional strength ebbs and flows across each conference, this alignment is undeniably more balanced than the current alignment. Would it suck losing the annual the Michigan-Penn State game? Of course. Same goes for Iowa-Wisconsin, Michigan State-Ohio State and Michigan State-Penn State. 

Would it suck having more balance in the Big Ten? No.

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