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WEST LAFAYETTE – The NCAA on Wednesday approved two significant changes, including removing divisional requirements for conferences to decide who will compete in championship games.
The Division I council also voted to eliminate the number of players a football program can sign in a new recruit class over the next two academic years.
The Big Ten will likely eliminate the divisions at some point, but not in the immediate future.
Following Wednesday’s announcement, the Pac-12 issued a statement saying the league was scrapping the division format beginning next season. Top two teams play for the Pac-12 title based on conference records.
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The Big Ten isn’t ready to move that fast. The conference is expected to retain its East-West divisional format in the short term and is expected to await structure for the College Football Playoffs, which will remain at four teams through the 2025 season.
Division elimination is an annual discussion among Big Ten athletic directors, but the topic was not on the agenda of recent conference meetings in Chicago last weekend, Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski said earlier this week.
“There are many different models that you would need to consider and evaluate if you want to plan for the future – how many opponents do you protect each year? How is the rotation through the rest of the teams?” Bobinski said during an interview in February.
The Atlantic Coast Conference aims to eliminate divisions and adopt a 3-5-5 planning format — three permanent games and rotating every two years at five schools. Dumping divisions would allow home-and-home games with each conference opponent on a four-year cycle.
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Can the Big Ten achieve that kind of balance in a 14-team league playing nine league games, and how many rivalries need to be protected when divisions are eliminated? The Purdue-Indiana game is not going away, like Michigan and Ohio State. Other trophy games would remain, but some would not be played every season.
It’s no secret that the Big Ten East is the powerhouse of the two divisions, and the top two teams usually come from that side of the conference.
If the league does away with divisions, it’s not impossible to see a scenario where Ohio State and Michigan could play back-to-back weeks. Teams currently compete on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the Big Ten championship game is next weekend.
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Would a rematch in another week be good for the league and TV? And what if it happens several years in a row?
From Purdue’s perspective, eliminating divisions would make it harder to reach the championship game. Playing out west, the Boilermakers know the six opponents they’ll face each season and the final against Indiana.
After five seasons under Jeff Brohm, the program is in a better position to contend for the West title but still has work to do to claim first place, as evidenced by the combined 1-8 record against Wisconsin and Minnesota will. However, Brohm is 4-1 against Iowa and 13-7 against West teams not named Wisconsin and Minnesota.
With no divisions, the evolution of the schedule — protective rivalries aside — would matter if Purdue were to advance to the top of the standings. In the end, the Big Ten usually decide what is best for the league and not individual schools.
The NCAA Division I council also approved a measure that removed the cap on signing no more than 25 players in a recruiting class. The number was increased to 32 in October to address issues with the transfer portal, but now a program can sign as many players as it wants in a single class but not exceed a total of 85 scholarships on the list.
Mike Carmin covers Purdue Sports for Journal & Courier. Email [email protected] and follow @carmin_jc on Twitter and Instagram