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Yes, with the new 9 game schedule every team has a fixed crossover game. Which means that there is one team in the opposite division that they play every year, while they rotate the other six teams; playing each once at home and once on the road over a six year cycle.

The fixed crossovers are

Indiana-Purdue
OSU-Nebraska
Michigan-Wisconsin
Penn St-Iowa
Michigan St-Illinois
Maryland-Minnesota
Rutgers-Northwestern

I believe they said that they would reevaluate it after every six year cycle.

this is an area the BIG messed up... PSU and UNL should be the crossovers due to their history.

But then again, I'd move MSU to the west and create a crossover weekend in Sept where MSU/Mich play, OSU/Wisky and UNL/PSU... not sure of the rest as I'm a little ignorant to any historical significance of potential matchup's..

Indeed.  The ultimate fish bowl team in any sport.  I've witnessed few markets that show similar characteristics.

agree.  I have yet to see or experience it either.  Michigan actually has many similarities in the fact that many of their fan base believed a Michigan coach had to be part of the Bo legacy or coaching family.   If JH stayed in the NFL, I think you'd find a much more divided fanbase. 

Which I never understood... Granted, I absolutely wanted to protect the bucket game. But it was really the only East/West natural rivalry after they created the divisions.

And neither team is ever going to be "expected" to be challenging for their division. While perhaps they didn't want to have a carve-out ONLY for 2 specific teams, it's not like it would have impacted the conference championship race in any appreciable manner to let the little kids have exclusive access to the little kids' table...

I think it would mess up scheduling balance.  At least this way they can say you play every crossover team twice (H-A) every six years, except for your permanent crossover rival.  Then, the only gripe is in the inbalance in crossover rivals.  Otherwise they'd open themselves up to accusations of schedule imbalance because it's tough to get a rotation down otherwise.

Basically, any game they wanted to "protect" should have been put in the same division.  The problem is how to do that.  The obvious solution would have been to put Rutgers or Maryland in the West and move Purdue to the East as far as game protection goes, because sorry "Maryland-Rutgers" isn't a thing in the Big Ten, but simply from a distance standpoint it doesn't work because those are the two easternmost teams.

after removing the Indiana teams, they appear to have ranked the remaining teams in each division by helmitiness.

I'm fine with it but it's still kind of surprising given Michigan's trophy game with the Gophers. 

I hear they have a really nice trophy case in Minnie.


I don't think they ever show it to recruits though. 

That's sort of convenient cherry-picking by ignoring Michigan, ND, PSU and WVU

under Tressel and Meyer for like 20 years- how many kids has Michigan/ND/PSU gotten from Ohio that Ohio State really wanted? Not very many. It's been a whole lot of slim pickens lately.

I feel like while the state of Georgia produces A TON of talent, the kids there don't necessarily grow up die hard Georgia fans like 90% of the kids in Ohio grow up die hard Buckeyes. The top Georgia kids go anywhere. The top Ohio kids? 99% of the time they are going to Ohio State if Ohio State wants them.

That's the big difference between the two programs. If Georgia could lock down the state the way Ohio State does- Georgia would be a juggernaut. They can't though. And I don't think they ever will be able too. It's just a different dynamic. The pressure for kids to stay home just isn't as great. I remember Chris Spielman saying he was about to commit to Bo Schembechler and Michigan and his father called him a traitor and told him nah uh buddy- you're going to Ohio State. I think Buckeye is bred into these kids at a young age in a way that really isn't in any other state.