In the eight seasons since the demise of Legends and Leaders, the difference between the East and West football divisions of The Big Ten Conference boils down to two games every season:
1.) The annual Big Ten title game, which the East champion has won eight consecutive times, by margins from 3 to 59 points.
2.) The overall win-loss record of each division. Each season, the East typically wins one more game than the West in their intra-divisional rivalry games.
Overall, the East holds a 77-70 edge over in head-to-head games over the past eight seasons (.524 winning percentage) – an average of about one more win per season since the conference switched from the Legend-Leaders format to East-West in 2014.
In the regular season it’s been the smallest of margins. In fact, since 2018 the East holds a slim 40-37 advantage.
Three times the East-West series has ended in a 7-7 tie.
Three times the East has had an 11-10 edge.
Once the West had an 11-10 edge.
And in 2017, the East had a 13-8 edge.
It’s a big deal right now, as the Big Ten ponders what to do with its future schedules, in light of a potential expansion of the four-team College Football Playoff and the advent of The Alliance, a verbal agreement among the 41 teams of the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Atlantic Coast Conference to start scheduling non-conferences games against each other.
In 2014, the Big Ten went to the East-West format after three largely unsatisfying seasons of the Legends and Leaders divisions. In 2016, the Big Ten went to its current format of dictating nine conference games – six in-division and three out-of-division.
For Penn State in that time, thank goodness for Rutgers, Maryland and Indiana:
Since 2014 – head coach James Franklin’s first season at Penn State — half of the Nittany Lions’ 42 regular-season Big Ten Conference victories have come against Rutgers, Maryland and Indiana. Penn State is 21-3 against that hapless trio over the past eight regular seasons. Penn State is 21-25 against everyone else in the Big Ten. A breakdown since 2014:
21-3 — vs. Maryland, Rutgers, Indiana
7-17 — vs. Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State
14-8 — vs. Iowa (4-2), Illinois (3-2), Wisconsin (2-0), Purdue (2-0), Minnesota (1-1), Nebraska (1-1), Northwestern (1-2)
Here are the overall Big Ten regular season standings since 2014:
| Big Ten | vs. East | vs. West | |
| 1. Ohio State | 61-5 (.924) | 43-3 (.934) | 18-2 (.900) |
| 2. Wisconsin | 50-17 (.746) | 13-8 (.619) | 37-9 (.804) |
| 3. Michigan | 45-22 (.672) | 29-17 (.630) | 16-5 (.762) |
| 4. Iowa | 46-23 (.667) | 14-7 (.667) | 32-16 (.667) |
| 5. PENN STATE | 42-28 (.600) | 28-20 (.583) | 14-8 (.636) |
| 6. Michigan State | 40-28 (.588) | 30-17 (.638) | 10-11 (.476) |
| 7. Northwestern | 37-31 (.544) | 10-11 (.476) | 27-10 (.574) |
| 8. Minnesota | 33-35 (.485) | 9-12 (.429) | 24-23 (.511) |
| 9. Nebraska | 27-42 (.391) | 17-30 (.362) | 10-12 (.454) |
| 10. Purdue | 23-44 (.343) | 6-14 (.300) | 17-30 (.361) |
| 11. Indiana | 22-46 (.319) | 14-34 (.292) | 8-12 (.400) |
| 12. Maryland | 19-47 (.288) | 12-33 (.267) | 7-14 (.333) |
| 13. Illinois | 19-50 (.275) | 8-13 (.381) | 11-37 (.229) |
| 14. Rutgers | 12-58 (.171) | 8-40 (.167) | 4-18 (.182) |
Only three East division schools have had a winning record vs. the West since 2014: Ohio State (18-2), Michigan (16-5) and Penn State (14-8). Michigan State is close, at 10-11. Ohio State’s winning percentage is lower vs. foes from the West (.900) than the East (43-3, .934). Nonetheless, of the East’s 77 regular-season victories over the West, nearly a quarter (23.4%) have come at the hands of the Buckeyes.
In turn, only two West teams have a winning record vs. the East: Iowa (14-7) and Wisconsin (13-8). Northwestern (10-11), Nebraska (10-12) and Minnesota (9-12) are close. Overall, Nebraska performs better against the East (.454) than the West (.362).
Ohio State has had a winning record for its conference schedule each of the past eight seasons. Other programs with Big Ten regular season records over .500 in that time: Wisconsin (7 seasons), Michigan (6), Iowa (6), Michigan State (5), Northwestern (5), Minnesota (5), Penn State (4), Nebraska (2), Purdue (2) and Indiana (2).
Iowa, under coach Kirk Ferentz — currently college football’s longest-tenured head coach in one place — is as steady as it gets when it comes to division play: The Hawkeyes have won two out of every three games vs. opponents in both the West and the East. Iowa is also 0-2 in Big Ten title games. Speaking of which:
BIG TEN TITLE GAMES (2014-2021)
The East is 8-0 in conference championship games since 2014, which is the biggest argument for noting a discrepancy between the two divisions.
| 2014 | Ohio State 59, Wisconsin 0 |
| 2015 | Michigan State 16, Iowa 13 |
| 2016 | PENN STATE 38, Wisconsin 31 |
| 2017 | Ohio State 27, Wisconsin 21 |
| 2018 | Ohio State 45, Northwestern 24 |
| 2019 | Ohio State 34, Wisconsin 21 |
| 2020 | Ohio State 22, Northwestern 10 |
| 2021 | Michigan 42, Iowa 3 |
Title game results in prior years: 2011 — Wisconsin 42, Michigan State 39; 2012 — Wisconsin 70, Nebraska 31; 2013 — Michigan State 34, Ohio State 24. The last time the Big Ten championship game was decided by a score or less was in 2017.
Only three Big Ten teams have made it to the College Football Playoff — all from the East. They are Ohio State (2014, 2016, 2019, 2020), Michigan State (2015) and Michigan (2021). The Buckeyes were national champions in 2014. Penn State won the Big Ten title game over Wisconsin in 2016 and defeated Ohio State in the regular season, but the Buckeyes went to the CFP by virtue of their 10-1 record, while Penn State was 11-2.
HOW HAS PENN STATE FARED?
Since 2014, Penn State has the fifth-best record in Big Ten regular season action. The Nittany Lions have the sixth-best winning percentage vs. East teams (.583) and the fourth-best winning percentage (.636) vs. West teams.
Of course, it is not an apples-to-apples comparison. Penn State must play the Big Three of Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State every season. That’s a rarity for West teams.
As noted earlier, over the past eight seasons in conference play, Penn State has feasted on lower-tier East division rivals Maryland Indiana and Rutgers. Penn State is 21-3 (.875) against those three schools since 2014. The Nittany Lions are 21-25 against everyone else in Big Ten regular season play (.456).
In that time, Penn State is 7-17 (.292) against Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State, and 14-8 (.636) against Big Ten West opponents.
The past three seasons (2019-2021) have been tough on Penn State in Big Ten play, with a 15-12 record. The Nittany Lions are 4-5 against Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State, and an identical 4-5 vs. West foes. They are 7-2 against the trio of Rutgers, Maryland and Indiana in that time.
