Ohio State Football: Big Ten will likely go division-less

The Ohio State football team has dominated the Big Ten East ever since the division was created. Last year was the first time in five years that they didn’t win the division. The creation of divisions has made the Big Ten less competitive since it started back in 2011.

With the addition of USC and UCLA in 2024, I would expect the Big Ten to go division-less. It would allow the Big Ten flexibility in adding other programs to the conference and not be tied down to any geographic area. That’s clearly part of the plan if they are adding two Pac 12 members.

Going division-less also allows the Big Ten to showcase their top two teams in the Big Ten Championship every year. The biggest problem they had with that initially was making sure that the Ohio State football team didn’t have an immediate rematch with Michigan.

Adding another premier brand in USC (and maybe Notre Dame too) makes it less likely that those two programs will be facing each other immediately after The Game. Penn State looks like they are getting themselves back on track too. It might be better for the Big Ten this way.

I think this is the way the conference was trending even before they added USC and UCLA. Now that they are actively looking to expand the conference even further, it only makes further sense for the to get rid of the divisions. They may even do it as early as next year.

I’ll be interested to see what the timeline is for making a decision on the divisions. I’d be shocked if they kept them in place once 2024 rolls around, but you never know. I’d expect a scheduling model similar to what the ACC just adopted for this year.