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Big Ten does Iowa a big favor

Apr. 29, 2013 8:55 am
The realignment of the Big Ten Conference's football divisions (effective in 2014) is good for Iowa's football program, good for Hawkeye fans, and good for the environment.
It's one of those too-rare moves by a conference these days that actually is a win-win instead of a win-lose or a win-lose-lose or a lose-lose-lose-lose.
From a competitive standpoint, it would be hard to argue that Iowa being placed in a division opposite both Michigan and Ohio State is a bad thing. One never knows, but it isn't hard to envision those two programs being the class of the conference in the decade ahead. It doesn't hurt the Hawkeyes to shed Michigan. Not at all.
For Iowa's fans who travel, how could they not be pleased with either three or four of the Hawkeyes' road games being played each year against one of the six-nearest Big Ten schools to Iowa City?
The distance from Iowa City to its future West Division members: Wisconsin, 178 miles. Northwestern 230. Illinois 242. Minnesota 303. Nebraska 303. Purdue 324.
From East Division schools: Indiana, 378 miles. Michigan State 426. Michigan 445. Ohio State 535. Penn State 773. Maryland 904. Rutgers 985.
This year, the average distance from Iowa to its five Legends Division members is 341 miles. But with the move to the West, Iowa's average distance to division-mates drops to 263 miles. That's a lot of fossil fuel saved, for the teams and their fans.
Plus, these games will pit teams less than 200 miles apart who were not playing each other every year under the current set-up: Northwestern-Purdue (136 miles), Northwestern-Wisconsin (140).
Purdue and Indiana (109 miles apart) are split up, but will play each other every year. Theirs is the only cross-division rivalry game that will be protected.
Common sense reasons aside, it's just more fun for Iowa fans to have all the Big Ten teams from Iowa's border states in the Hawkeyes' division. You don't have to think about it, you just know you're going to play Wisconsin and Illinois every year, like you should have been in the first place. Ditto Nebraska and Minnesota and Northwestern.
For those who assume the East will be better than the West most years, realize that of the first two Big Ten championship games, three of the four teams were future West clubs, and both winners (Wisconsin and Wisconsin) are headed to the West.
Sure, sure, Ohio State was unbeaten last season. But those who have been probation-riddled (Ohio State, Penn State) reside in the East.