The Big Ten Conference announced Sunday that new football division alignments would take effect in 2014, as well the advent of a nine-game conference schedule, which will not be implemented until 2016. The division alignments will be geographically oriented, and the “Legends” and “Leaders” names will be ditched in favor of “East” and “West.” Athletic directors across the conference showed support for the changes, backed by the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors.

“Big Ten directors of athletics concluded four months of study and deliberation with unanimous approval of a future football structure that preserved rivalries and created divisions based on their primary principle of East/West geography,” Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said in a press release. “The directors of athletics also relied on the results of a fan survey commissioned by (the Big Ten Network) last December to arrive at their recommendation, which is consistent with the public sentiment expressed in the poll.”

For the new alignments, Illinois will be placed into the West Division, which includes Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State will join newcomers Maryland and Rutgers in the East Division. Schools in each division were placed with respect to time zones — East schools all in the eastern time zone and West schools in central time zone — with the exception of Purdue.

Each school will play the other six schools in its division, along with two teams from the other division in 2014 and 2015 as a transitional period from an eight-team to a nine-team conference schedule. The 2016 season will mark the beginning of the nine-game conference schedules, which will feature divisional matchups of all six teams as well as three cross-divisional matchups.

J.J. can be reached at [email protected] and @wilsonable07.