In 2014, Wisconsin's season-ending 34-24 win over Minnesota sent the Badgers to the title game rather than the Gophers.

Minnesota's best chances to reach Indianapolis for the Big Ten title game have been during the East-West era, and the Gophers have had some near-misses. And since the conference adopted a championship game starting in 2011, the Gophers have not advanced to that event under either the Leaders and Legends format (2011-13) or East-West alignment (2014-present). The Gophers, as their fanbase knows all too well, have not won a Big Ten championship since they shared the title with Indiana and Purdue in 1967. The subtraction of divisions, combined with the addition of two teams, will multiply the challenges Minnesota faces in its quest to win the Big Ten championship. What does that mean for the Gophers? That can be answered in a mathematical equation. No more East and West divisions - or their Leaders and Legends predecessors - starting in the fall of 2024. Key in the announcement, too, was the confirmation that after one last go-round in 2023, the Big Ten is scrapping its divisional format. The Big Ten last week gave football fans a glimpse of the future when it announced each team's conference opponents for the 2024 and '25 seasons, the first two years of a 16-team league including USC and UCLA.