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Football
Big Ten Expansion Means Change is Afoot for OSU vs. Michigan Rivalry
By Tony Gerdeman

When the Big Ten announced on Thursday that they had chosen Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis as the inaugural venue for an eventual Big Ten Championship Game in 2011, the “Where” of the situation had been settled.

The “How”, however, still needs to be figured out.

The make-up of the divisions was one of the hot topics this past week at the Big Ten media gathering, and the two most bombarded parties were Ohio State Head Coach Jim Tressel, and his counterpart at Michigan, Rich Rodriguez.

The big question was whether or not the coaches preferred playing in the same division, or would they be okay if they were split up. While you would think that two entities such as Michigan and Ohio State wouldn't really see eye to eye on much, both Tressel and Rodriguez admitted that the decision-makers likely won't be busting their doors down for insight.

“Nobody really in the league office has asked for my opinion yet”, said Rodriguez. “I don't expect them to, because I think they know what they're doing.”

“No one that has any power has asked me how I would do it,” said Tressel, echoing Rodriguez's sentiments.

“But however they do it is going to be exciting. However they do it, it's going to create new things for us.

"And I'm sure that people in charge of that, our athletic directors, our Big Ten office, our college presidents, they're going to set us up with the best possible deal we can have.”

The strange bedfellowing didn't stop there either. When asked whether or not they preferred to be in the same division, they both had the same vague answer.

“I have not put one thought into that,” replied Rodriguez. “Because right now I don't care. You know, I care that we play Ohio State every year, and I think fans care that we play Michigan State every year. I'm just worried about getting a first down against UConn right now.”

“It doesn't matter to me as long as we're playing them,” said Tressel. “One thing we can't have is to ever lose that game. Now which division, I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. I'll go in whatever division they want. I told someone yesterday, the only thing is I'll strike if we ever get put in a situation where we don't play them. I'll picket.”

This divisional discussion comes, however, with a few asides.

If the two schools were to be placed in the same division, they would never again play eachother for the Big Ten Championship. The greatest rivalry in all of sports—a college football rivalry too big to play for some gimmicky annual trophy—would now at most only ever decide who gets to go to the conference championship game to play Wisconsin or Nebraska or Iowa.

Oh, and that championship game would take place one week after everything was just spent by both teams, coaches and fans.

But it would still be the regular season finale. However, if Ohio State and Michigan are separated, the chances are that the gray late November sky would be replaced by a cloudy October sky or a blue September sky.

“As soon as you go to a two divisional setup, you've taken on a different look to your schedule,” Tressel explains.

“Let's pretend that they're not in our division. Then I would say if I were setting the schedules, I would make sure that the last three games of the year are divisional games, so that you would never have someone playing one another two weeks in a row.”

That's just one coach's vote, and as Tressel stated before, nobody has asked him for his input.

If we assume the Big Ten would agree with Tressel's logic about saving the end of the season for divisional opponents, is giving up an annual season-ending build up to the Ohio State-Michigan game worth the tradeoff? Is the chance at a Big Ten Championship Game between Michigan and Ohio State worth losing that late November date?

Imagine Jim Tressel's “310 days” speech if Ohio State and Michigan were in opposite divisions.

“I can assure you that you will be proud of your young people in the classroom, in the community, and most especially in 261 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the football field. And then possibly again in 317 days at a neutral site.”

Don't think the Big Ten would lean towards eliminating the year-end meeting if the two teams were in separate divisions? Think again. No other BCS conference with divisions has cross-divisional matchups to end the season. They are all inter-divisional or non-conference games.

You know what conferences DO do it, however? Conference USA and the MAC.

Do you think the Big Ten has any interest in being like Conference USA or the MAC?

The other concern that arises then is that if these two teams DO play twice in a year, will it dilute the rivalry?

“I think it would sell out if you played three times a week, in Ann Arbor, Columbus, or Chicago,” responded Rodriguez, when posed with the dilution theory. “I don't think there would be any problem with that game selling out.”

Obviously there wouldn't be, because one game is the annual game, which the home crowd looks forward to for two years; and the second game would be for the conference championship.

Tressel agreed with Rodriguez's assessment that the rivalry wouldn't suffer any ill effects no matter what is coming.

“I think change is exciting,” he said.

“And I'm looking forward to watching how that change unfolds. But I have no trepidation at all that it will affect the great Ohio State-Michigan rivalry.”

So for the fans, it comes down to whether you want to give up the season-ending rivalry simply for the CHANCE to play your rival for the conference championship, or do you want to keep the finale the way it is, and NEVER play your rival for the conference championship again?

You've got a little time to decide—though don't be upset when the Big Ten fails to come calling you for your input.

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