INDIANAPOLIS — When the Big Ten was considering how to adjust its schedule for the pandemic-impacted 2020 season, Mike Locksley suggested ditching divisions and moving to a conference tournament-style approach.
The Maryland coach didn’t get his wish at the time, but he’s thrilled that the Big Ten has dropped divisions with the addition of four new schools (Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington) for the 2024 season. No longer is Maryland guaranteed to face Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State every season, a trio of teams Locksley called “murder row.” While Maryland gave Ohio State and Michigan all they could handle last season, the wins have been hard to come by against the conference’s elite East division teams. Since joining the Big Ten in 2014, the Terrapins are 3-25 against Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.
A division-less Big Ten, even with the inclusion of football heavyweights Oregon and USC on this year’s schedule, has Locksley dreaming big. Maryland does not have Michigan or Ohio State on the schedule this season.
“When you expand the room by getting rid of divisions, you allow more opportunities for teams like us,” Locksley told CBS Sports. “With the NIL stuff coming into play, you never know what happens when you open it up like that.”
The Big Ten East has dominated the conference, winning the last 11 Big Ten Championship Games. The conference’s two most recent national championship winners — Michigan (2023) and Ohio State (2014) — both resided in the East. Those three powerhouses seemingly put a ceiling on the season potential for other division residents like Maryland, Rutgers and Indiana. Only Michigan State was able to break through, winning the conference in 2013 and 2015, before falling on hard times in recent years.
Conversely, over the last decade, Big Ten West schools Iowa and Wisconsin have made a killing on the easier path to the championship game. The two schools have won seven of the last 10 Big Ten West division titles but were unable to capture the league crown. Even Northwestern, which has a 7-20 Big Ten conference record over the last three seasons, made two Big Ten Championship Game appearances over the last decade.
It’s why, even if overly simplistic, it’s easy to label every former Big Ten East school not part of that “murder row” as winners of the conference’s expansion to 18 schools. The competition got tougher overall, and there were hundreds of questions lobbied this week at Big Ten Media Days on the impact of longer travel to the West Coast schools. But simply eliminating three annual games that felt like losses makes a huge difference, especially when it comes to talking yourself into a College Football Playoff berth. If the Big Ten deserves four annual playoff teams, like Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule lobbied for this week, the path gets easier when three of the likely entrants no longer all reside in the same division.
Consider Rutgers another winner in that department. This season, Rutgers doesn’t have any of Michigan, Ohio State or Penn State on the schedule, three programs likely to start the season in the top 15. Instead, the Scarlet Knights get three of the newcomers (UCLA, USC and Washington) on the schedule, which are no cakewalk but look far more reasonable on paper.
“When I came to Rutgers and we were in the Big Ten East, I loved it,” said Rutgers coach Greg Schiano. “I thought it was the best division in all of college football. Now, it was hard, but I embraced that. When they changed it, I’m OK with that, too.”
If schools like Maryland and Rutgers are winners, there have to be losers, too. This season, Purdue likely earns that ignominious honor. The Boilermakers get the two preseason Big Ten favorites, Oregon and Ohio State, plus Penn State on the slate. Purdue, which made the 2022 Big Ten title game, finished 4-8 last season after getting Michigan and Ohio State as its two cross-division opponents. Purdue was recently picked to finish last in the Cleveland.com and USA Today media polls, something that coach Ryan Walters directly addressed with his team.
“I did mention a large chip on the shoulder of everyone in the building, and 18th out of 18 is a big reason why,” Walters said during media days.