Could Nebraska have played for more Conference Titles without Big Ten Divisions?
Last week we told you about an idea that the Atlantic Coastal Conference was floating around in which they would scrap their conference divisions. Unfortunately, they were beaten to the punch on Tuesday morning as the Pac-12 announced that they would be scrapping their division system. This news comes on the heels of the NCAA announcing that conferences no longer had to use a division format to decide participants for a conference championship game for leagues of 12 teams or more.
The Pac12 has stated they will select the two teams to play in their conference title game based on their conference winning percentage starting this season. With that format in mind, how different would a Big Ten Championship Game have looked with a no-division format? Would Nebraska have played in more than one Big Ten title game? Let’s look at every match, starting with the first game in 2011 until last year. Then, we will take the two teams with the highest winning percentage in the Big Ten for that season and see if it would have created a different matchup for the Big Ten title. The head-to-head matchup will be the only tiebreaker used.
Scroll below and take a look at how different or not the conference championship game would have been in an entirely new format.
2011 - Wisconsin 42 Michigan State 39
Without divisions, we would have had the same match-up as Michigan State was 7-1 on the year while Wisconsin was 6-2.
(AP Photo/AJ Mast)
2012 - Wisconsin 70 Nebraska 31
Without divisions, we would have had a different match-up. Nebraska would have played Michigan as the Wolverines had a 6-2 conference record compared to Wisconsin’s 4-4 record. Wisconsin only won the Leaders Division due to Ohio State and Penn State being ineligible due to NCAA sanctions.
(AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
2013 - Michigan State 34 Ohio State 24
Without divisions, we would have had the same matchup.
Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
2014 - Ohio State 59 Wisconsin 0
Same match-up using winning percentage.
(AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
2015 - Michigan State 16 Iowa 13
Same match-up as before with conference winning percentage.
Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
2016 - Penn State 38 Wisconsin 31
The 2016 championship game would have had a different match-up as Penn State and Ohio State both have 8-1. Wisconsin was 7-2.
Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
2017 - Ohio State 27 Wisconsin 21
Same match-up based on conference winning percentage.
2018 - Ohio State 45 Northwestern 24
There would have been a different match-up in 2018 as Michigan would have replaced Northwestern as both teams had an 8-1 record and Michigan won the head-to-head against the Wildcats 20-17.
© Kyle Robertson/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
2019 - Ohio State 34 Wisconsin 21
Same matchup using conference winning percentage.
© Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via Imagn Content Services, LLC
2020 - Ohio State 22 Northwestern 10
Without divisions, we would have had the same match-up.
Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
2021 - Michigan 42 Iowa 3
2021 would have seen a different match-up as Michigan and Ohio State both had 8-1 records and Iowa was 7-2.
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