Big Ten drops Legends, Leaders
4/29/2013PARK RIDGE, Ill. — No more "Legends." And no more "Leaders."
The Big Ten is giving them the boot and following a more conventional route for its football division names.
The conference is going with "East" and "West" instead and switching to a nine-game scheduling format after presidents and chancellors approved the moves on Sunday.
The new division alignments will begin in 2014 when Rutgers and Maryland join the conference, meaning "Legends" and "Leaders" will be a thing of the past. Those division names have been criticized ever since the league unveiled them in 2010.
Besides the new division alignment, teams will go from playing eight conference games to nine in 2016.
Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers will be in the East division. The West will consist of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin.
Schools will play six division games plus two against teams from the other division in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, they'll play three cross-division games.