Barring any further shifting by schools, the Pac 10 and Big 10 will each have 12 teams once the recently announced changes (Colorado and Utah to the Pac 10; Nebraska to the Big 10) go into effect in the next couple of years. It is widely expected that each of these conferences will divide things up into two six-team divisions. In addition to setting the stage for a conference championship game in football, a divisional system will clarify scheduling matters.
In football, a school potentially would play all of its intra-divisional rivals each season, but each of its extra-divisional rivals two out of every four years (once at each school's home). Variations on this theme exist, such at the permanent extra-divisional "designated-rival" concept used by the Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference. In basketball (men's and women's), a commonly used system is to have a team play each of its intra-divisional rivals twice per year, with each team hosting one of the games ("home and home"), with one game per year against each extra-divisional opponent.
Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel, after some thoughtful consideration (for football) of competitive balance and the need to preserve annual match-ups of traditional rivals, offers his proposals for divisional line-ups in the Pac 10 and Big 10.
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