<p>I’d propose more of a Northwest-Southeast division, with the Northwest consisting of Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois, and the Southeast consisting of Rutgers, Penn State, Ohio State, Purdue, Indiana, and Northwestern. (Yes, I know Evanston is north of Champaign-Urbana, but for Rutgers and Penn State Evanston is a much easier travel date than Champaign-Urbana). You could easily allow each school to schedule one out-of-division traditional rivalry game to preserve the Mich9igan-Ohio State match-up.</p>
<p>This division consolidates a lot of traditional rivalries in-division: Michigan-Michigan State, Michigan-Wisconsin, Wisconsin-Minnesota, Minnesota-Iowa, Purdue-Indiana, as well as the recent but intense Penn State-Ohio State rivalry and the anticipated Penn State-Rutgers rivalry. It provides considerable geographic contiguity within the divisions, though each school would need to schedule some out-of-division conference games. It splits up the traditional football powerhouses (Michigan in the Northwest and Penn State and Ohio State in the Southeast) and provides rough parity between the divisions. After the “Big Three” football powers, I’d say that Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan State—all in the same division as Michigan–have fielded the most competitive football teams recently. Minnesota and Iowa in the Northwest are up-and-down teams, highly capable of knocking off a strong opponent or even contending for the division title some years, as are Purdue and occasionally Northwestern in the Southeast. Indiana has lagged of late, and Rutgers has enjoyed some success in another conference but is a bit of a wild card in the Big Ten until it establishes how it holds up against a steady diet of Big Ten competition. Thus while the Southeast with Penn State and Ohio State arguably would be a stronger football division at the very top, the Northwest division arguably has slightly greater strength through the middle and lower levels.</p>
<p>I think this division works for basketball, too. Michigan State (in the Northwest) is top dog, followed by Illinois and Wisconsin in the Northwest, along with Ohio State, Purdue, and Indiana (bad now, but they won’t stay there) in the Southeast. Minnesota and Michigan in the Northwest show signs of becoming competitive, and as in football Iowa is capable of the upset or strong year in basketball, making for a relatively strong division top-to-bottom. Penn State in the Southeast is a much improved basketball team that could compete with the aforementioned top Southeast division teams, and Rutgers, while still a wild card, is likely to be pretty good against Big Ten basketball competition. Northwestern has long seemed pretty hopeless in basketball, through they came close to making the NCAA tournament this year and in any case, they’ve got to go somewhere. Overall, then, these basketball divisions seem fairly evenly matched, with the biggest marquee names (Michigan State and Indiana) divided between the two divisions.</p>