Starting in 2024, the Big Ten will look a little different. To start, they are welcoming southern California sunshine with UCLA and USC as well as adding in some big time contenders in the pacific north west with Oregon and Washington. All four of these teams are strong competitors and will be striving to win in the now much deeper Big Ten. Additionally, there will no longer be an East and a West division in the conference. Each team will have permanent rivalries who they will play every year coupled with a shuffling of opponents played every other year within the entire mix of the now 16 team Big Ten. How does all this bode for the perennial powerhouses of the conference in Ohio State and Michigan?

I think common belief amongst fans would say, ”Yeah, no divisions and an expanded playoff will absolutely benefit Ohio State and Michigan.” Certainly that is easy to support. Look no further than this year with Ohio State boasting a 1 loss season keeping them out of the playoffs. Next year, this scenario would place them soundly in the 12 team playoff. So yes, through the lens of giving more teams a shot at winning the natty, the expanded playoff absolutely benefits these two juggernauts. However, that is a result of the expanded playoff rather than the structure of the Big Ten.

Obviously with stiffer competition joining the conference, the road to victory will inherently become more challenging as there will be more meat at the top. It will no longer be a one game season for the entire conference at the end of the year between Ohio State and Michigan. Let’s be real, the west hasn’t had a real shot in the past decade. So the winner of “The Game” being basically crowned conference champ will be going away due to a division less conference. Personally, I love that.

However, I wanted to look at this through a different angle, specifically focusing on the two blue bloods who have dominated the Big Ten in recent history. What will the downstream effect of having a division less conference mean for these two programs. Certainly heading into next year, both Michigan and Ohio State will garner the betting favorites to win the conference even with the west coast squads joining. So let’s just say chalk holds up next year. We end the season with an undefeated Michigan and an undefeated Ohio State entering “The Game.” Anyone who knows what a football looks like knows the bitter hatred and emotion that rolls into that game. You don’t even necessarily need to follow college football to know that these two rivals absolutely hate each other. Just flick on the TV in the last week of November and you’ll see right away what this rivalry means to each of these schools. We have two schools, undefeated, pouring in so much emotion with so much riding on the outcome of the game into this week.

This brings me to the question of “will the new big ten, devoid of divisions, help or hurt these programs.” In this scenario, which may not be all that crazy in the future, the two undefeated squads face off putting in 110% of their effort into the entire week. Not just the game. A hard fought and passionate game will ultimately end up with a winner and a loser. In this case, the Big Ten title will feature the undefeated winner of “The Game” and will most likely feature the 1 loss loser of “The Game.”

This then presents itself for back to back games between Ohio State and Michigan. This is where the emotional roller coaster of this scenario prompts me to question whether the removal of divisions will ultimately hurt these schools. Players and coaches are absolutely drained after this game every year, because it’s not just your standard 6 days of prep, it’s year long prep for this game. Now you’re asking these same to teams to battle it out again the following weekend? These programs will be drained having to battle this out in back to back weeks.

Now, let’s stick with this scenario. Let’s just say the winner of “The Game” also wins the rematch in close fashion in the conference title. Where does that leave these two teams? The undefeated squad is probably now the #1 team in the country, but where does that leave the two time loser to the #1 team in the country in close fashion? It probably leaves them in the playoff!

So now, we have Michigan and Ohio State teams limping into the playoff (including the winner of these games). The winner will get a bye in the first round so that definitely helps but the loser will have to enter playoff play after 2 back to back weeks of playing their arch rival. That’s a massive disadvantage for that school. How will these kids and coaches respond emotionally?

Also, this scenario is also applicable if “The Game” and the conference title are split. You still have an intense rivalry in back to back weeks before entering playoff competition.

You could point to similar situations such as this year where Alabama had to prepare for the Iron Bowl and then take on Georgia. I think it is a little different entering your rivalry game with one team in the playoff mix and the other just barely clinching bowl game birth. Ohio State and Michigan were BOTH fighting for their season. The loser of that game falls short of their goals of winning that game, winning the conference and getting playoff birth. The loser of the Iron Bowl (this year) changes no outcome for them other than they lose to their rival for a year.

With Ohio State and Michigan being projected at the top of the sport, it is very likely for this scenario to play out. I’m very eager to learn how this will impact these two programs in the long run.