Greetings to all of you, My name is Cliff and I'm one of the new additions to the InsideTheShoe team. As a buckeye fan and alum living in Florida I will be sharing some of my unique experiences here in "SEC Country" (or "ACC County" whoever is winning normally dictates that..but that's for a later post) as well as random Ohio sports thoughts and game analysis.
For now I'm gonna give my best guess on how the divisions will shake out in the Big T1E2N (all of this is subject to change with the likely addition of any new teams).
I think the conference will be split into Eastern and Western divisions with the dividing line being right between Illinois (west) and Indiana (east). Here's how it shakes out:
East
Indiana
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Purdue
Penn State
West
Illinois
Iowa
Minnesota
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern
Wisconsin
I think this format works best because it maintains the regional rivalries (OSU/UM, UM/MSU, Wisc/Minn, etc..) within the conference while actually creating others (Neb/Iowa, Neb/Wisc) and setting the stage for a damn good conference championship game. Championship game sites could rotate among regional NFL stadiums (Indy, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Minnesota, etc..). The Big Ten West is looking pretty tough right now!!
I can see it now, Ohio State and Nebraska playing for the 2012 Big Ten Championship at.....drumroll.....Soldier Field
