Big Ten Announces New Division Allignments

The Big Ten Conference office announced new seven-team football division alignments, beginning in 2014, and nine-game conference schedules set to start in 2016, on Sunday.

The new divisions will be called the "East" and the "West".

That's right, no more "Leaders", and "Legends" divisions.

The new division alignments will feature Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers in the East Division and Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin in the West Division.

Maryland and Rutgers are scheduled to join the 14-team conference in 2014.

In the first two years of the new format, 2014 and 2015, each school will play every team in their own division, plus two teams in the other division. Then, beginning in 2016, the number of conference members each team will play from the opposing division increases to three as part of a new nine-game schedule, which would be the first since 1984.