NEBRASKA /A.P. SPORTS
BIG 10 FB DIVISIONS, NU 2-YR SCHEDULE SET (with audio)
By John Axtell
Sep 2, 2010 - 8:21:50 AM
The Big Ten Conference has announced the two 6-team divisions it will use for football when Nebraska becomes a member next year ... and the Huskers will be in one with Michigan and Iowa.
Rounding out that division are Michigan State, Minnesota, and Northwestern. The other division has Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
Each school will play the other 5 in its division and 3 from the other, including one cross-division matchup guaranteed on an annual basis.
The guaranteed cross-division matchups are Nebraska-Penn State, Michigan-Ohio State, Purdue-Iowa, Wisconsin-Minnesota, Indiana-Michigan State, and Illinois-Northwestern.
The league also unveiled the conference football schedules for the first two years of the new alignment.
Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne says he'd known about the division lineups for some time, but not the schedule until just a few hours before the formal announcement yesterday since Nebraska's not a formal member of the league yet.
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney describes as the schedule as offering "Competitive Balance," which Osborne says is a laudable goal but required some hard divisional and scheduling decisions.
Nebraska's first Big Ten Schedule has the Huskers hosting Ohio State, Michigan State, Northwestern and Iowa, while playing at Wisconsin, Minnesota, Penn State and Michigan.
The road games against the Penn State and Michigan will be played on consecutive weekends, which Osborne admits concerns him a bit because of the travel involved.
The Big Ten division winners will meet in the new Big Ten Championship Game to determine the league champion and its representative in either the Rose Bowl or the BCS National Championship Game.
The inaugural Big Ten Championship Game will be December 3, 2011, in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium ... home of the Indianapolis Colts.
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