Big Ten's historic period of transition in planning stages

With Nebraska's arrival less than 12 months away, the Big Ten finds itself planning to shed its past with a two-division alignment, a lucrative title game and a nine-game league schedule.

It's all history in the making.

But shortly after commissioner Jim Delany outlined many of these new horizons - and all but ended talk of Notre Dame as a future Big Ten member - the historical ramifications of the league's moves came into focus.

An atypically beaming Delany stood on the dais (with the soon-to-be-replaced Big Ten logo in the background) and posed for pictures with legendary Penn State coach Joe Paterno and equally legendary Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne.

A moment for the ages? Osborne joked it was more like a moment for the aged.

"I assume some people wanted people that were really old in the same picture," Osborne said.

Though Paterno will be 84 in December and Osborne turns 74 in February, the photo wasn't just for posterity's sake.

Delany, Osborne and Paterno are powerful voices as the Big Ten starts to sort out how to be a league of 12 equals - and whether to add more.

Osborne sat in with Delany and the Big Ten's 11 current athletic directors Monday as they tackled several urgent issues.

"There's a lot to do over the next 120 days," Delany said.

Initially, the Big Ten wants to figure out the best way to break its teams into divisions.

Delany wants them to be as competitively balanced as possible. He suggested using the league's results dating to Penn State's arrival in 1993 as one of the several changes that heralded "sort of the modern Big Ten."

"(It's) just like you would look at it in a basketball committee room," Delany said. "Where you're looking at national championships, you're looking at BCS games, conference championships, conference won-loss records, nonconference won-loss records - "

In other words, look for preseason favorite Ohio State and Michigan to be paired in one division with Nebraska and Penn State in the other.

Delany didn't come out and admit that. In fact, he suggested the athletic directors didn't get much done Monday.

But Osborne, who sat in the meetings as a not-voting but occasionally commenting contributor, thought otherwise.

"I thought there was enough collegiality in the room that they got a bit more done than I thought they would in a short time," Osborne said. "No final decisions were reached, as Jim probably told you, but I think there's a framework there that's pretty good."

Delany thinks division assignments can be settled within 30 days - as can determination of the site for the league's first conference title game in December 2011.

There won't be time for the league to vet all of the Midwest stadiums, including Soldier Field, that have expressed interest in hosting. He expects to receive the go-ahead to make a one-year agreement with an undetermined site, which buys time to make a more thorough assessment for future years.

Delany also believes he has the support of a majority of athletic directors to increase the number of conference games from eight to nine, though that might not take effect until 2014 or 2015.

"We may have 15 trophy games (and other) rivalry games that are in the same number," Delany said. "We'll need to do everything we can to preserve those - I'll tell you we'll go to great lengths to make sure the tradition and rivalries are respected."

With so much activity revolving around Nebraska's move, the Big Ten has suspended its expansion study until December. When the league resumes gauging the climate, don't look for the Big Ten to target Notre Dame.

"I think (athletic director) Jack Swarbrick has been consistent from the beginning," Delany said, "about their commitment to the Big East (for most sports) and their commitment to independence (for football)."

Here's where Paterno, who battled an illness during the off-season and looked visibly weaker than in years past, could make his voice heard.

"I am not trying to tell anybody (what to do)," Paterno said. "My feeling is, selfishly, I'd like to see a couple more teams in the east. Period."