by Fitzgerald Cecilio

Park Ridge, IL

Big Ten presidents and chancellors have approved recommendations to divide the conference into East and West divisions for the 2014 season and implement a nine-game conference schedule starting 2016.

The league made the changes, based on recommendations from the athletic directors, following the arrival of new conference members Maryland and Rutgers.

The Big Ten East will include Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers while Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin belong to the Big Ten West.

With the new setup, every East division team is located in the Eastern time zone while every West division team, except Purdue, is located in the Central time zone.

In explaining the move, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said that geography was the first priority in aligning divisions followed by preserving rivalries and then competitive balance.

"It's pure geography," Delany said. "Last time, we were a combination of competitive balance and geography being last. So those names weren't available to us last time. We didn't have a lot of discussion on it."

Before making the decision, the league also considered the results of a Big Ten Network survey in December asking fans about the new division alignment.

"It's good for the fans, it's good for the players. It strengthens our schedule from the perspective of the postseason and binds the conference together in a powerful way," Delany added.

The Big Ten joins the Pac-12 and Big 12 with a nine-game league schedule for 2016. The conference last played nine league games in a season in 1983-84.

The East division teams will have five conference home games in even-numbered years, while West division teams will have five conference home games in odd-numbered years. Big Ten teams will play all of the other conference squads at least once every four years.

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Big Ten Approves Divisional Overhaul and Nine-Game Schedule