B1G ADs excited about geographical shift

CHICAGO - The Big Ten's next realignment shifts 180 degrees from its last divisional layout, and the league's athletics directors are happy with the change of direction.

This fall marks the third and final year of the Legends/Leaders experiment, where the Big Ten split into football divisions based on historical competitive balance. The geography was awkward, long-standing rivalries like Iowa-Wisconsin were shelved and the divisional nicknames were panned.

With the league expanded of Maryland and Rutgers in 2014, the league voted to alter its alignment based solely on geography. Six schools are located in the Central time zone, while eight reside in the Eastern time zone. Purdue, which is located just east of the Indiana-Illinois border, joined the West.

It's a positive step toward preserving rivalries, administrators from both the East and West divisions said last week.

"It's made our fans much happier," Wisconsin Athletics Director Barry Alvarez said. "You can drive actually to all of our divisional games: Nebraska and Minnesota and Iowa. We protect all of our bordering states. It's fan-friendly, and I think it was just the opposite divide the last time for us."

Wisconsin was the league outlier in the Legends/Leaders divisional alignment. Border rivals Iowa, Northwestern, Michigan State and Michigan were placed in the opposite division. The Badgers' historic rivalry with Minnesota was preserved, but the schools were placed in opposite divisions. Illinois was Wisconsin's only border opponent located within its division.

With the East-West divide, the Badgers regain its long-standing rivalry with Iowa and face its closest rival, Northwestern, each year. But Wisconsin regularly will miss the Michigan schools. The Badgers will miss the Wolverines for at least five years, and their growing rivalry with Michigan State was nipped in the bud.

But Alvarez's priority was resuming Wisconsin's series with Iowa, a protected annual rival under the 11-team setup. The schools are tied 42-42-2 after 86 games, and their campuses are three hours apart.

"I was more concerned losing Iowa than Michigan State," Alvarez said. "We've had great games with Michigan State. But the proximity, a three-hour drive to Iowa City for our fans and their fans was very convenient. That was hard, that was very difficult for us to lose. Even (losing) Northwestern, a two-hour drive, more so than Michigan State. I think about our fans in regards to those games."

Michigan State was discussed heavily about moving west despite its eastern orientation. The Spartans played two classics against Wisconsin in 2011, including the inaugural Big Ten championship game. The Spartans also wanted a game against Northwestern every-other year.

But Michigan State remains a valuable draw for eastern schools Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan and joins the historically more difficult East division. The Spartans regularly will play games at newcomers Rutgers and Maryland, which Athletics Director Mark Hollis sees as a plus.

"Our true rivalries historically - at least in our minds - we're continuing to play them regularly," Hollis said. "That's Ohio State and Michigan and Penn State. Like it or not, you've got to win games to win championships. Those are the games everybody bought tickets for, and everybody would pay more to come and see. So that connection's there. I think we have enough games out West that will continue. I don't see an issue.

"We started going through, what's important, what's the value? As I look at alumni numbers and donor numbers and I'm starting to look out to the two additions and look at where our donors are. And I kind of want to be in that ballpark."

When the league pushed through Legends/Legends three years ago, Hollis advocated for a division with in-state rival Michigan as well as Northwestern. He called the Michigan series "critical, it has to take place." He's still uncomfortable with not playing Northwestern annually, but he sees potential for Michigan State in the new Eastern markets.

"I continue to maintain that Northwestern was a place that we want to go to frequently, and I think you'll see that play out in the conference schedules over the long term," Hollis said.

Early in the process administrators discussed Northwestern as a potential candidate for the East division. The Chicago market has value for all Big Ten schools, but that move quickly was shot down.

"In the end, we're where we wanted to be. We wanted to be on the western side," Northwestern Athletics Director Jim Phillips said. "We're in the Central time zone with five other schools. So the six of us and bringing Purdue over from the Eastern time zone made perfect sense. We have great rivalries. We have one with Iowa, we feel like. Wisconsin, we started a nice one with Nebraska, although it's only been a couple of years. It makes sense for us to be where we're at. But there wasn't a ton of discussion.

"It wasn't as if Northwestern was a school that was thought of as East and we moved it West. When it started we were on the West and we stayed there."

Near the end, Indiana was heavily discussed for moving west instead of Purdue. The Hoosiers' campus at Bloomington is located about 20 miles east and 90 miles south of West Lafayette. But when the final decision was made, Indiana's Fred Glass was for a true East-West divide, both for geography and in culture.

"If you're going to go geographic split, then you ought to do a geographic split and not tinker with it too much," he said. "The geography of it is Purdue is in the west, and we're in the east. I like being in the East (division), actually. We look more east at Indiana, I think, than we look west and probably follow more closely the goings on in Ohio and Michigan more so than in Iowa and certainly Wisconsin and Nebraska."

It's a new era for Big Ten football, and splitting based on geography is just beginning. The league will negotiate a major television contract in 2016, when it also rolls out a nine-game schedule. There are new markets to integrate, especially in New York City, where it will have an office. For Hollis, it's exciting.

"It's a new horizon," he said. "It's funny that the big city in the country has become the new horizon of our conference. It's created a lot of new opportunities."