The Big Ten could have put an emphasis on geography with its football divisional alignment.

It could have stressed rivalries, making the Michigan-Ohio State contest a showdown to see who would play in conference championship game.

The Big Ten decided to split its 12 schools, first and foremost, with competitive balance in mind. And it did a pretty good job.

Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State and Penn State, four of the 10 winningest programs in the history of college football, were divided evenly in the two yet-to-be named conferences.

Indiana and Purdue join the Buckeyes, Nittany Lions, Illinois and Wisconsin in one of the divisions. The Wolverines, Cornhuskers, Michigan State, Northwestern, Iowa and Minnesota form the other division.

The winners of both divisions will meet in the Big Ten Football Championship. The inaugural title game will take place Dec. 3, 2011 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

How did the Big Ten grade out?

Rivalries

IU and Purdue are tied together. Michigan and Ohio State are not, but the showdown is preserved as a crossover game. Penn State won’t meet Michigan State at the end of the year, but the Nittany Lions will start up a new tradition with Nebraska. Several of the trophy games remain intact, maintaining many of the traditions the conference is built on.

“Everyone gave up something,” Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said during a teleconference Wednesday. “But we have to look at what we retained, what we created new and what we hope to do when we get to the nine (conference games) and how we handle the rotations.”

Scheduling

The thought of moving the Ohio State-Michigan game from the final week of the regular season caused outrage in Ann Arbor and Columbus.

The Big Ten listened and decided to keep the game right where it was. Ditto for the Old Oaken Bucket battle between Indiana and Purdue.

The conference contemplated filling the last two weeks with divisional games.

“By looking at divisional rivals only, we are really hamstringing ourselves into a tight way of approaching it which wouldn’t allow us a change over time,” Delany said. “What we’re going to see is rivalry games and trophy games played in eight of our nine weeks. We think it gives us a lot more flexibility and allows us to tip our hats. We said we wanted to do tradition. We said we wanted equal competition. We felt we could do equal competition and tradition by making this move.”

The result

Just because Ohio State and Michigan are in separate divisions doesn’t guarantee the dream title game many would envision. The ACC had similar thoughts when splitting up Florida State and Miami but they have yet to meet in a title game.

Still, the Big Ten has created enough of a fresh look to add intrigue to the divisions and create buzz for the conference.

lpope@jg.net