The Weekly Word is GoldandBlack.com's weekly, obviously, column covering Purdue football, basketball and recruiting, as well as college sports issues, the true meaning of life, or whatever other topics might come to mind in a given week.
BIG TEN FOOTBALL SCHEDULING
If you haven't read our Tom Dienhart's reporting this week on the future of Big Ten scheduling, do so.
It raises the question of what will become long-term of the Big Ten's current divisional layout, a structure Purdue should want preserved in perpetuity, because competitively, it makes this a better job than it would be otherwise.
The standard-bearers in the West are Wisconsin and Iowa. Neither are to be taken lightly, but when compared to the East's Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State, that's the clear path of least resistance. A protected rivalry against Indiana is gold. Again, better than the alternative.
The West is much more manageable than the East, though manageable is relative in a league like the Big Ten, but it does make the conference title game a realistic possibility for the Boilermakers when one of those special, or strangely lucky, seasons comes around, and if it's just 60 minutes of football for a shot at the CFP, then anything can happen.
It would be unfortunate for Purdue, theoretically, for the divisional structure to be torn down. There's no doubt about that.
