Two out of three ain’t bad. It’s really not.
If you’re Iowa Fan, as the national radio talk-show hosts would call you, accept the Big Ten divisional alignment for football without complaint. You made out OK. Maybe even great.
Sure, you’d have liked to be in the same division with Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin. But you got the first two. Wisconsin, meanwhile, got none of the three.
You weren’t getting all three when it became clear there wouldn’t be a strict East/West split of the 12 schools. You weren’t getting all three when it became clear Ohio State and Michigan were headed to opposite divisions.
Three of the five teams in your division — Nebraska, Minnesota and Northwestern — are easy drives for your fans, and the latter two are places where your followers can scoop up a lot of tickets and make it less of a road game.
Camp Randall Stadium will never be mistaken for Kinnick North for an Iowa-Wisconsin game, and the Badgers won’t soon be regarded as anything but a really tough ballclub.
And for its crossover game, Iowa gets Purdue. Meaning, instead of playing Ohio State or Penn State or Wisconsin every year, the Hawkeyes play the Boilermakers.
Who has the competitive advantage here: Iowa playing the Boilermakers every year, Michigan playing Ohio State every year, or Nebraska playing Penn State every year?
Until Purdue becomes a perennial Top 25 program, the answer is Iowa.
Iowa Fan, as much as you enjoy the Iowa-Wisconsin series, wouldn’t you rather let Minnesota battle the Badgers each season instead of your guys?
However, don’t be surprised if Iowa is in what is considered the tougher division as time passes. The future is a mist, of course, but I see four programs that could be consistently good down the road in Michigan, Nebraska, Michigan State and Iowa. Northwestern has its years. Minnesota? Not so much.
In the other division, you have Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin. But Illinois, Indiana and Purdue have climbing to do. And who knows which direction Penn State will go once Joe Paterno calls it a career?
Of course, things change and keep changing. No matter how the Big Ten arranged this, it would never be more than an educated guess when it came to creating competitive balance.
There will be years when one division is top-heavy. Ask the Big 12, which couldn’t have foreseen how dominant the South would be over the North as that league grew older, even if it seems obvious in hindsight.
Had Iowa been separated divisionally from Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin, a lot of Hawkeye fans would be dipping into the waters of conspiracy and making Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez the Big Ten’s answer to BP’s Tony Hayward.
Sometimes tradition can hold you back, though. Michigan will play Ohio State every year and wouldn’t want it any other way. But the Wolverines’ five division mates, Iowa included, won’t play the Buckeyes every year.
And they probably wouldn’t prefer it any other way.
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