Indiana Football: How would radical realignment idea affect the Hoosiers

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WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – NOVEMBER 30: Head coach Tom Allen of the Indiana Hoosiers is seen during the game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Ross-Ade Stadium on November 30, 2019 in West Lafayette, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

Indiana Football: How radical idea would affect the Hoosiers

When looking at each school’s records in the 2010s to make competitively balanced divisions there were some surprising finds. If you went strictly by win-loss records the divisions would be:

One

Ohio State
Akron
Toledo
Miami (OH)
Cincinnati
Ball State

Two

Michigan
Michigan State
Purdue
Indiana
Kent State
Ohio

It almost looks identical to the divisions based on geography with Kent State and Ohio swapping with Miami (OH) and Ball State. It really doesn’t do anything to make it any more competitive. This shows the big difference between playing in a mid-major conference and the Big Ten.

Indiana was eight and Purdue 11th on the list based on just wins and losses. This is obviously because they don’t play in the MAC or they would have more wins.

So we would need to dig a little deeper and split the Big Ten schools first and then split up the rest. Our thought is they would want to split up Michigan and Ohio State so we would start there. For argument’s sake, we will say whichever one gets Michigan State the other gets Purdue and Indiana. Like it or not but Purdue and Indiana probably equal Michigan State recently in football.

So we came up with this:

One

Michigan
Michigan State
Cincinnati
Ohio
Kent State
Ball State

Two

Ohio State
Indiana
Purdue
Akron
Toledo
Miami (OH)

It’s not a perfect situation but as close as we could come to really balance the divisions. Indiana would have them and two other Big Ten schools, while the other has only two but they add Cincinnati who has been better than both Purdue and Indiana over the last decade.

Would this really benefit the Hoosiers? Yes, even though they would still be stuck with Ohio State, they would have a legitimate shot every year to be second place in the division, while only having to really pull off one “upset” to win the division.

They haven’t beat the Buckeyes in 24 tries, but only beating them instead of having to beat them, Michigan, Penn State, and Michigan State is a situation I think any Hoosier fan would take.

Next. 5 teams the Big Ten absolutely needs to consider adding. dark

This of course is a wild idea thought up by Forde, but one that would be fun to think about. It will never happen, but if it did, I think the Hoosiers would benefit. Especially with the direction, Tom Allen is taking the Hoosiers.

Indiana fans could only wish.

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