What if the Big Ten eliminated divisions? Here's what it could look like

With the ACC considering eliminating divisions and moving to a 3+5+5 format, we wondered what would that format look like in the Big Ten? Many Big Ten fans, especially in the Eastern division, have been calling for divisions to be axed for a few years. No team from the West has won the Big Ten Championship since the B1G went to the current division format. Wisconsin won the first two B1GCG in 2011 and 2012 out of the then Leaders division.

3+5+5 means 3 protected games that are played every season, while the other 10 teams would be put into pods of 5 and played every other season.

When picking the matchups I decided to focus on three things;
Rivalries
Current in-division opponents
Crossover opponents
Schedule balance

My priority was to preserve as many of the historic rivalries as I could. Next, I wanted to give as many teams two current division opponents and one cross-over as possible. With rivalries getting priority, four teams have protected games that are currently in their division. The rest all follow the 2 & 1 format, and no team plays two opponents currently in the other division. Naturally, the historically better teams in the B1G have tougher schedules, and in some cases, I had to choose a tougher schedule over preserving a rivalry to make sure a consistently good team didn't have too easy of a protected schedule.

Rivalries that have been around the longest and/or have the most games played were given priority. Some teams have more than 3 rivalry games so some get left out. Michigan vs Northwestern has been played 75 times since 1892, but it was not enough to be a protected game. Here are all of the protected rivalries in our 3+5+5 format.

Now let's take a look at how it all shook out for each team in the conference.

Illinois vs Northwestern is the 4th most-played rivalry in the Big Ten. That matchup and their rivalry with Purdue are protected. Their third game is a former division crossover in Maryland.

Indiana vs Purdue is the second most-played rivalry in the Big Ten. That game along with their rivalry with Michigan State is protected. Their third game is a former in-division matchup with Rutgers.

Iowa has no former East division cross-over opponents as they have three protected rivalries. The Hawkeye's matchups with Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin all go back to the 1890s.

Maryland only joined the Big Ten in 2014 so they do not have the rivalries many teams do. Their rivalry with Penn State does go back to 1917. Rutgers joined the conference in the same year. Illinois is a cross-over with the former West division.

Michigan has three of the most played rivalries in the conference and some of the biggest in the country. While they haven't played much with the current division format The Little Brown Jug is protected in this format, along with in-state rivals Michigan State, and of course "The Game" with Ohio State will be played every season.

Like Iowa, the Spartans have three protected rivalries with current in-division opponents. Penn State has become a bigger rivalry in recent years and it joins Michigan and Indiana as protected games. MSU would only have to play the Buckeyes every other year.

No Big Ten game has been played more times than Minnesota vs Wisconsin. That game combined with Iowa, and the Michigan rivalry, comes to three protected games for Minnesota played a total of 344 times.

Despite being newish to the Big Ten, Nebraska has two historic rivalries with Iowa and Wisconsin. Those games are protected along with a division cross-over with Ohio State.

Northwestern only protects one rivalry, their game with Illinois. Their second most-played rivalry is against Michigan, but that doesn't make the cut for the Wolverines. The Wildcats get Purdue as well as a cross-over with Rutgers.

Ohio State does not see rivalries with Illinois and Purdue protected. Instead of joining The Game are current in-division opponents Penn State and a cross-over game with Nebraska.

Penn State stays in the East division with rivalries against the Spartans and Maryland protected, as well as an annual matchup with the Buckeyes.

Purdue gets one of the easier protected sets in the conference. Thanks to rivalries with Illinois and Indiana, and then an in-division matchup with the Northwestern.

Rutgers, new to the conference in 2014, does not have any established rivalries aside from Maryland being the closest thing. They get a division matchup with Indiana and a cross-over with Northwestern.

Wisconsin the last of four teams to stay in their division. With historic rivalries against Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa each protected.

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