Indiana and Purdue fans don’t agree on much. But football fans of both schools like the Big Ten’s idea of placing the teams in the same division.

“I wouldn’t want to see the rivalry go away,” Mike Steigmeyer, an Indiana fan from Fort Wayne, said Wednesday while sitting near the bar at Champions Sports Bar downtown.

“No, me neither,” added Purdue fan Kevin Gerber, also of Fort Wayne, who was seated to Steigmeyer’s right.

Purdue has won seven of the last eight matchups with IU, but “even though Purdue continues to dominate,” Steigmeyer said – as Gerber gave him a fake punch to the gut – “I wouldn’t want to see the rivalry go away.”

The Big Ten on Wednesday night announced football divisional alignment for the 2011 season. IU and Purdue join Ohio State, Penn State, Illinois and Wisconsin in one division, and Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern and Michigan State make up the other division.

In a news release, the Big Ten said names for the divisions will be announced later.

Commissioner Jim Delany said the conference followed three principles in setting up the divisions.

“We wanted to divide the divisions in a way that they were as equal competitively as possible. No. 2, we wanted to preserve as many traditions and rivalry games as we could,” Delany said during a teleconference.

“And lastly, we wanted to consider geography, but not to the extent that it would dilute either principle one or principle two.”

The move is tied to Nebraska’s entrance into the conference. The Cornhuskers officially join the Big Ten for the 2011-12 season.

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

The Big Ten also released new conference schedules for the 2011 and 2012 season. As in the past, IU and Purdue will meet for the Old Oaken Bucket the last week of the regular season.

The biggest rivalry game in the conference – Michigan vs. Ohio State – will also remain the regular-season finale. Although the Buckeyes and Wolverines have been placed in separate divisions – and could therefore meet a week later in the championship game – Delany felt it was important to maintain the tradition.

“We heard the fans,” Delany said. “Their voice matters, and we listened. As we heard from Indiana and Purdue fans; maybe less numerous but equally heartfelt.”

Each team will play the five schools in its division and three teams from the other division, including one cross-division matchup guaranteed on an annual basis.

The guaranteed cross-division matchups are Illinois-Northwestern, Indiana-Michigan State, Ohio State-Michigan, Penn State-Nebraska, Purdue-Iowa and Wisconsin-Minnesota.

Purdue got several of its requests met with the alignment.

Coach Danny Hope said he thought protecting the Boilermakers’ rivalry game with Indiana was key, as well as being able to maintain the rivalry with Illinois for the Cannon Trophy. Both of those things happened.

Indiana coach Bill Lynch echoed those sentiments.

“It is great to see that our traditional rivalries are respected in the new divisions,” he said in a statement.

lpope@jg.net