Big Ten College Football Welcomes Nebraska to Conference Play in 2011

How to break apart and restructure a traditions old college football conference is on the minds of university presidents, athletic directors, and coaches of the midwest's Big Ten Conference. Nebraska has knocked on the door and is being welcomed into the conference as its twelve entry. Penn State joined the conference in 1990.

Nebraska will play its first Big Ten game in 2011, and finishes its last conference competition in the Big Twelve this season. Currently, Nebraska is coached by former Ohio State team member Bo Pelini, who played for the Big Ten Conference Buckeyes from 1988 to 1991 as a defensive back. And the Cornhuskers are on the rise after several bumpy years.

What Will the New Big Ten Look Like?

Also in the offing for Big Ten officials is building a new schedule that will maintain the integrity of the conference's most hyped rivalry -- The Ohio State University versus the University of Michigan, a game that fans would commit murder over if it were lost in the traditional sense. This last game on each team's schedule in the fall, just before Thanksgiving, many times has been the key to which Big Ten foes will represent the conference in the Rose Bowl and in a top Bowl Championship Series (BCS) game.

With the traditional Rose Bowl pact between the Pac Ten and the Big Ten also running out, the proposal for the new Big Ten conference lineup that is getting a lot of "votes" is an East-West great divide. The two divisions would look like this:

East -- Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue.
West -- Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Wisconsin.

Maintaining Big Ten Tradition

The thought in keeping OSU and Michigan in the same division is that game's tradition could be kept because it would be impossible for them to meet again in a couple weeks' time in a conference championship game. A Big Ten Conference title game will be played for the first time in December of 2011.

A title game played between the two new division winners will determine where some conference bowl eligible teams will end up. It will also be an opportunity for the contestants to play an extra game less distant in time to their awarded bowl game. The Big Ten currently is the first conference to end the regular season (in November) before the BCS title count down begins on New Year's Day.

The Rose Bowl participants have been a contractual matter between the Pacific Coast Conference (next named the Pac Eight, then the Pac Ten) and the Big Ten Conference almost every year since the 1946 season, when Illinois defeated the Pacific Coast's University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) 45 to 14. That first Rose Bowl game was played on January 1, 1947 in Pasadena, where the Rose Bowl parade grew up and is enjoyed each new year.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany

On Big Ten Media Day, televised on August 2, 2010, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany told his audience that other Big Ten Conference sports would not be expanded to divisions. Changes to bring Nebraska into the conference schedule at present would affect football play only, since other sports have playoffs or championships in place, he said.

Delaney is the Big Ten's fifth ever commissioner, having gained that position in 1989. He also served as Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner from 1979-'89.

The commissioner said traditional rivalries, travel considerations, geographical locations, and creating a schedule in which conference teams play one another more often, rather than less often were all criteria considered by the committee working on the new conference structures. A historical stretch dating back 17 years for each conference member was the main-stay of the committee's reference to make informed structural changes, the commissioner related.

Big Ten Conference's Future

Commissioner Delany said the Big Ten Conference's storied history spoke for itself with four bowl wins over ranked teams in the 2009-'10 season. The committee responsible for 2011 changes has such recent history, as well as past traditions to guide it, he said.

A decision about the final new Big Ten Conference divisions is expected before the end of September.

Presently, the Big Ten Conference leads the nation in most ever BCS wins with 21. The SEC has 19 all time victories; the Big Twelve, 17; the Pac Ten, 14; the ACC, 12; and the Big East, 12.

Michigan represents the nation in most college program wins with 877. Texas is second with 845 total victories.

Resources: The Official Ohio State Football Encyclopedia, by Jack Park and The Ohio State University, 2002