Penn State situation will impact Big Ten's competitive balance

NCAA sanctions levied against Penn State will impact the Big Ten competitively with the Nittany Lions ineligible to compete in a bowl and for the Big Ten championship for four years. But Commissioner Jim Delany said the league has no plans to realign its football divisional structure.

"We have not discussed that," Delany said Monday. "I don't think we would. Obviously they'll be ineligible for postseason play and a number of other competitive sanctions that will affect them. You say never.

"I don't think that we have any plays to realign teams and institutions. Our structure is set for decades and not years. It's based on decades of data and decades of competitiveness, institutions' competitiveness ebbs and flows. Obviously sanctions will undermine competitiveness in the short term and perhaps the mid-term, but I don't think that will lead to a serious discussion with realignment of divisions."

Nebraska joined the Big Ten in 2011 and the league split into two football divisions based on competitive equality rather than geography. The league evaluated data from 1993 through 2009 and considered Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Nebraska first-tier programs. Those schools were separated with Ohio State and Penn State placed into the Leaders Division, while Michigan and Nebraska became Legends Division members.

In 2012, both Ohio State and Penn State are ineligible for bowl games. Ohio State was banned from the postseason after a scandal involving players receiving impermissible benefits including as free tattoos. Former coach Jim Tressel later lied to NCAA investigators about his knowledge of the case and resigned.

Wisconsin, which won the inaugural Big Ten championship game last year, was the only one of the other four schools to post a winning regular-season record. The other three schools -- Illinois, Purdue, Indiana -- finished a combined 6-18 in league play last year.

Among Legends Division schools, only Minnesota had a losing record last year. Legends teams were 27-21 in league play.

"Clearly it will have competitive impact," Delany said of the sanctions. "We have divisions, we have schedules, we have reality. We'll deal with it. It will have an impact; there's no doubt about it. Two teams in the same division are ineligible, you only have four teams competing for the divisional title. That's a very significant competitive effect. But I don't see us making any structural changes as we look forward to the 2012 season."