With Big Ten divisions gone, how will playing styles of East vs. West evolve? (2024)

The heavy metal symphony that was the Big Ten West Division had a tempo that was loud, thunderous and modestly successful. It also left a residue its teams would like to shed.

Wisconsin and Iowa directed that sound over the decade of geographical divisions with high-level defense and risk-averse offensive strategy. The Badgers won four division titles, the Hawkeyes claimed three and every West team that wanted a spot in the Big Ten title game knew it had to match those programs’ physicality.

Illinois, Minnesota and eventually Nebraska hired coaches willing to compete up front like Wisconsin and Iowa. Northwestern strengthened its core areas and twice won the division because of its defense. Purdue zagged away from that style with an open offense, which helped the Boilermakers win their only division title in 2022 with a 6-3 Big Ten record.

But teams that modified their style of play to win the West now eye adjustments to a bigger Big Ten, one that welcomes four West Coast schools and reincorporates the former East Division schools into one structure. Instead of two seven-team divisions, it’s an 18-team arrangement.

“I came into the league expecting to be in the Big Ten West really for the rest of my career,” said fourth-year Illinois coach Bret Bielema, who played at Iowa and was head coach at Wisconsin from 2006-12. “And now it’s evaporated. But I think the part about college football that is really awesome is the newness, right? For us, it actually will help us recruit.

“We play at Oregon, we play Michigan at home in our 100-year anniversary game (at Memorial Stadium) and we play at Penn State. That gives us three teams that are national messaging for recruiting, and we’re playing all three. I literally have a schedule laid out of our next two years of the teams we’ll play and I’ll say, ‘Hey, you come here and play for us, this is who you’re gonna play.’ It’s pretty cool.”

The new Big Ten rotation features at least one home and one road matchup against every team over a five-year period. No longer does Illinois identify Iowa or Wisconsin as the teams it must beat to reach the Big Ten title game. Now it must beat everyone.

The new structure could force teams to identify deficiencies it once masked in the West Division. Or, as Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said, the new league structure could reinforce the tenets of what teams can recruit to and make them successful. For Iowa, it might involve changing its offensive system — which it has — but remaining true to its complementary brand. For Wisconsin, the overhaul was made last year with coach Luke Fickell, who introduced a three-receiver formation as its primary grouping in 2023. The others will change in their own ways.

“We have to attack the season a little bit different,” Fickell said. “I think it’s a little bit more unique in how you go about camp and understanding that for us Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, there’s going to be a challenge. Not that there weren’t challenges every week, but the physicality, all the different things that you’re going to have throughout a 12-game (schedule), especially once you get past maybe your first two out-of-league games, that are just maybe a bit different.”

Background

The Big Ten West wasn’t always the risk-averse dinosaur it morphed into its final three seasons. There’s a clear dividing line of when the Big Ten West narrative switched from unfair to accurate, and it happened right after the 2020 COVID-altered season.

In 2014, the first year of geographic play, six Big Ten teams (three from each division) averaged more than 400 yards of total offense. The league’s bottom two offenses statistically were Penn State and Michigan, and they combined for a 5-11 Big Ten record. The West Division champion was favored twice in the first three Big Ten championship games, and the West held a 25-24 advantage over the first three years in regular-season play.

The East needed a pair of fourth-quarter rallies to dethrone the West champion in 2015 and 2016. Ohio State won four straight titles from 2017-20 and left a pool of teams in both divisions jockeying for positions 2-6. In 2020, Iowa ranked second in Big Ten scoring offense (31.8 points per game) and neither Michigan nor Penn State had winning records. Northwestern led Ohio State at halftime of the Big Ten championship. The Buckeyes rallied and advanced to the College Football Playoff title game.

In the aftermath of the 2020 championship, the divide became a canyon. From 2021-23, Michigan won three straight Big Ten titles by nearly a 29-point average. The East posted a 37-26 record against the West in regular-season play with Ohio State and Michigan combining for an 18-0 mark. That Indiana, Maryland and Rutgers combined for a 7-20 record against the West was of no consequence. The East-West typecast was established.

There were two reasons for the West’s collapse. The first was Iowa’s offense. The Hawkeyes won the 2021 and 2023 titles but were historically bad after strong-to-solid offensive campaigns from 2018-20. Iowa ranked 13th in Big Ten play at 303.7 yards per game in 2021. Last year, Iowa plummeted to 234.6 yards per game — the worst in Big Ten play since Northwestern in 1984. The defense led the nation in yards per play allowed last season but the offense ranked last nationally.

The other issue was Wisconsin’s surprising drop-off. From 2014 through 2019, the Badgers won four of the six West Division titles. From 2010 through 2019, Wisconsin won 102 games (behind only Ohio State), six division titles and three Big Ten championships. From 2020-23, the Badgers won 27 games, tying Minnesota for fifth. Wisconsin was closer to Indiana and Nebraska (tied for last with 15 wins) than Ohio State (42).

Both universities saw the need to change. The Badgers fired coach Paul Chryst midway through the 2022 season and hired Fickell to begin the 2023 campaign. Wisconsin installed an Air Raid attack that performed inconsistently at best. Iowa President Barbara Wilson and athletics director Beth Goetz announced midway through the 2023 season they would not renew offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz’s contract, above the head coach’s objections.

This offseason, Iowa hired former Western Michigan coach Tim Lester to direct the offense. Lester has full control but unlike Wisconsin, the Hawkeyes will maintain a two-tight end look and employ zone-blocking techniques. Ferentz, however, would have no qualms about switching to another scheme if he felt it was the best way to win.

“There’s a reason Bob (Stoops) hired Mike Leach to go to Oklahoma (in 1999),” Ferentz said. “Bob felt like it was going to be best for his program at Oklahoma. And that’s a good offensive system. It certainly worked well at Texas Tech for coach Leach, who I think is one of the best coaches the last 20-some years.

“I guess my point there is, it depends on where you’re at, what can work for you and what you have access to. It’s more about the execution and having players who can do what you hope to do.”

Moving forward

Former West Division coaches bristle at the thought of a stereotypical West Division style of play. Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck immediately pointed to Purdue, which “chucked it all over the place,” and at Michigan, which “ran it a lot.”

But for former West Division schools, which combined for one five-star and 34 four-star recruits in the 2024 247Sports Compositing rankings, geography and access to players regularly dictate scheme and system. Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan — which combined for four five-stars and 47 four-stars — face fewer limitations.

“I think one of the great things about college football, probably one of the reasons it’s so popular, is it’s such a diverse game, and has been for quite some time,” Ferentz said. “Now, if you’re at some schools, some schools can recruit anybody, so they get to choose what they want. But I think it’s more about strategically trying to figure out what you can do and do well and do consistently.”

“You have to be able to pass and throw the football and run the football in all types of weather in football, not just in the Big Ten or in Minnesota,” Fleck said. “But I will say on game day, there are certain things depending on what the weather is like that does adapt your game plan. And we get some unique weather that rolls in.”

Perhaps the best predictor of how teams will adjust is what they did before divisional play. In 2009, Ohio State edged Iowa by an overtime field goal to win the Big Ten title outright. In 2010, Wisconsin led the Big Ten at 41.5 points per game and shared the final 11-team crown with the Buckeyes and Michigan State. After Nebraska joined the league in 2011, the Badgers won the first two Big Ten championship games.

“I think you’ll see an evolution over the coming years as we start to play different schools and experience different styles, what works, what doesn’t and where different schools may have an opportunity to really develop a particular identity,” Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman said. “It’ll be really exciting for all of us to be a part of it.”

(Top photo: Jeff Hanisch / USA Today)

Scott Dochterman is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Iowa Hawkeyes. He previously covered Iowa athletics for the Cedar Rapids Gazette and Land of 10. Scott also worked as an adjunct professor teaching sports journalism at the University of Iowa.