Awful. You take the two programs that are clearly the cream of the crop for Big Ten football, tOSU and Penn State, and put them in the same division -- big mistake. It's not so awful that Wisconsin has to play the two top teams, you need to beat the best if you want to be the best, but it's awful that some team in the other division is going to cakewalk to the championship game every year. Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan, MSU, and Northwestern are all mediocre teams -- whichever team happens to be having an "up" year or stretch of years will waltz to the championship game where a lucky bounce puts them in the Rose Bowl. Iowa especially benefitted from this, with a protected rival being Purdue, they can get to the championship without facing anyone. This fact should infuriate Badger fans.

If Michigan ever rises to prominence again and makes the other division half respectable, we have back-to-back MI-tOSU matchups to look forward to. Boring. Not to mention, a split essentially results in a tie, taking away their bragging rights for a clear yearly winner and leaving controversy about true conference champ in its wake. And in the dozen years or so it might take MI or Nebraska to become top tier again, it'll be great seeing Iowas and MSUs sleepwalk to the championship game. If I was in Iowa's shoes, I'd be jumping for joy right now. Ugghhh.

Add to this the unfair travel schedule for both the Badger team and its fans -- neutralizing one of our advantages, fan support in places like Iowa City and Evanston -- and it's extra worse to be a Badger right now. The deprecation of the Iowa rivalry game is just the cherry on top of the crap pie. Total fail, takes away all the excitement of realignment. Barry should be ashamed and I hope he gets lots of hatemail and heckling. I was hoping to hear something on the news today about vandalism to his statue.

Heck, this has killed my excitement for college football *this* year, knowing that travesty is just around the bend. Thanks for ruining everything, BA.

In summary, two best teams in the same division. Stupid, but great if you're a scrub team like Iowa or MSU benefiting in the other division. We all know Michigan and Nebraska are nothing and it will take forever -- if ever -- for them to become something again. Our team and fans have to tavel more, both have negative consequences. We lose a rivalry game that a lot of people care about. Wonderful stuff.

So Nebraska is at the level of tOSU/Penn State and is a lock to stay that way going forward like tOSU/Penn State are? No. It's fine and dandy that MSU, Northwestern, etc are all better than the bottom feeders in the Badgers' division. That just furthers my point that any scrub team from the collection of mediocre teams in the other division will wind up in the championship each year. It also further shows that they did not do a very good job constructing the divisions if one division has 5 approximately even teams and the other has 3 crappy teams and 3 very good/great teams.

I guess I just can't get past how bloody lucky Iowa got. They could own their division while being inferior to Penn St, tOSU, and Wisconsin. Every year, the team coming out of that division could be the equivalent of fourth place in our division. I have no faith in Nebraska amounting to anything top tier going forward nor Michigan becoming anything special again. (I could see some pretty unespectaculer Nebraska or Michigan teams being labeled as "back" due to handling their weak division schedule, though!) I have all kinds of faith that tOSU and Penn State are entrenched powerhouses, and I have more faith in the Badgers' continued success than I do the Hawkeyes. It seems very possible that the other division's top team will consistently be worse than two or even three teams in our division. That's awful. Or great, if you're an Iowa, MSU, or Northwestern fan, I guess.

One division has two entrenched powerhouses and the team (Wisconsin) with arguably the brightest future going forward. The other division is a mediocre medley of has-beens and flash-in-the-pans. Terrible alignment.

And that's just a critique of the leage structure as a whole.  Add in what this has done to our logistics and geographic rivalries and it's a total piece of crap from a Badger fan's perspective.

I am aware of everything in your post, Homer. It does not change my posts. I'm not clouded by emotion -- what a condescending thing to say. We'll have to disagree about Nebraska and Michigan someday being better than tOSU and PSU. Maybe in 20 years. Two decades of a crappy, unbalanced setup isn't acceptable. To me, it's a terrible alignment of teams. And it's worse for Bucky due to geography and logistics.

I'm not looking forward to inferior teams from the mediocre division getting a shot at the big ten championship game every year while two better teams from the good division sit home. And I think it will be this way for 20 years.