The Divisional Dance Is Done

The Big Ten has announced the split. It breaks down like this:

Michigan
Nebraska
Iowa
Michigan State
Minnesota
Northwestern

and...

Ohio State
Penn State
Wisconsin
Illinois
Purdue
Indiana

I am cautiously optimistic about this. It preserves the Iowa-Minnesota rivalry, potentially starts a new one with Nebraska and at least for the next two years, I'd expect (Michigan will be back) I'd say it'll be a two horse-race between Nebraska and Iowa with maybe Michigan State a breath behind for this division. This has the potential to be a very competitive division, probably more so than the other one, which is going to depend on either Penn State or Wisconsin fielding teams that can get past Ohio State, which is a pain in the ass to do on their weak years for most of the conference.

Whether the Iowa-Wisconsin rivalry will be back at some point (or Minnesota-Wisconsin, another big one) is still something I'm sure they'll be working out, but from Iowa's point of view, I like this. It'll be a challenge, but one I'm sure we can play up too.

P.S. Iowa's protected cross-divisional rivalry game is Purdue? Our hated rivals, the Boilermakers? Do what now?

(As a side note: not that I care about Goldy the Gopher, but can someone please do something about Minnesota football? Seriously. If I was Gopher fan tonight, I'd be a little pissed off, because Minnesota as it stands now, as a tougher ticket to punch than any of the other teams in the Division. If Brewster doesn't do something drastic and soon, then I think he's toast and they're going to want a big name who can shake things up to put behinds in the seats of that fancy new stadium they got up there.)