Big Ten decision: Well-kept secret

Say this for Penn State athletic director Tim Curley — he can sit through an hour-long meeting and still not get blindsided by a curveball question.

Curley, along with Ohio State A.D. Gene Smith and Big Ten Network president Mark Silverman, visited Youngstown this week as part of a campaign to get Armstrong Cable on the BTN’s roster.

But, there’s been so much speculation about the future of the Big Ten, specifically, how the league will be split into divisions for football, that we couldn’t resist at least asking.

So, as the meeting broke up and the participants were heading for the door, we quietly asked, “So, when Penn State plays Nebraska, will that be a divisional game?”

The response? Laughter — probably at our feeble attempt to get a scoop — but we’ll prefer to take it as acknowledgement that, hey, at least we tried.

The reality is sometime in the first week of September the league will announce its plan for 2011 and beyond.

Speculation is growing that Ohio State and Michigan will be placed in separate divisions and “The Game,” which has been the last regular season game for both teams since World War II, will be moved, perhaps as early as mid-October.

The only way the OSU-Michigan game stays where it is now, is if both are placed in the same division, and the sentiment seems to suggest that the league as a whole would get more value of a potential second showdown between the rivals in the conference championship game.

Strictly from a geographical standpoint, it’s virtually guaranteed Ohio State and Penn State will be paired.

There’s also sentiment for Nebraska to be joined with Iowa and Minnesota, the western-most schools in the conference.

Nebraska has played Minnesota 51 times and Iowa 49.

But Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany told the Husker Sports Network said competitive balance and preserving rivalries will take precedence over geographic concerns.

However, even with an eight-game conference schedule (the league will consider going to nine games as early as 2015) there shouldn’t be any concerns about maintaining any of the current rivalries.

Under that scenario, Ohio State would play its five divisional rivals and have three cross-over games. The league is almost certain to designate at least one of those cross-over games as a permanent game — especially if it’s Michigan.

The league could also easily do the same with Northwestern-Illinois, Indiana-Purdue, or Minnesota-Iowa, the league’s other annual year-end rivalries.

Addressing the competitive balance issue, since 1993 (Penn State’s first year of football in the Big Ten), Ohio State ranks first with 170 wins, followed by Nebraska, Penn State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa.

So, combining the geographic, competitive balance and rivalry issues, here’s a scenario that could result:

Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana in one division; and Michigan, Nebraska, Michigan State, Iowa, Northwestern and Minnesota in the other.

One thing is certain — no one is saying anything.

Rob Todor is sports editor of The Vindicator. E-mail him at todor@vindy.com.