Illinois will be in the West with Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin.
The East will consist of Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers.
The geographical divisions are a change from the Leaders and Legends Divisions that were introduced in 2011. Now, each team in the east plays in the Eastern Time Zone while the west all play, minus Purdue, in the Central Time Zone.
League commissioner Jim Delany told ESPN that geography was a main factor in determining the new alignment.
Also announced was the conference was going to nine-game schedules inside the league. Hoping to be in place by 2016, teams will have just three non-conference games, compared to four in the past. Of the three games, teams must play at least one school from a major conference and no Division I FCS teams can be scheduled."We thought the geography was a good way to bind the conference together," Delany said. "We also wanted to preserve as much tradition as we could, and we do that through the protection of the rivalries. Everybody will play everybody at least once in a four-year cycle, even though it's a bigger conference."It's good for the fans, it's good for the players. It strengthens our schedule from the perspective of the postseason and binds the conference together in a powerful way."
