Any Michigan man will tell you, there is nothing quite like beating Ohio State. Every Buckeye agrees, a win over that team from up North is priority No. 1.

Well, now Michigan and Ohio State could get two chances in a season to beat their fiercest rival.

What would Woody and Bo have thought of that? A rematch!

The Big Ten announced its divisional breakdown for football Wednesday night, and Ohio State and Michigan will be in different six-team divisions when the league expands to 12 members in 2011.

Neither division has been named, but they break down like this: Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota and Northwestern in one; Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Purdue and Indiana in the other.

Commissioner Jim Delany said creating football divisions with competitive balance was the top priority and No. 2 was maintaining a cross-division rivalry game for each team.

“We felt like we could do equal competition and tradition with this move,” Delany said.

Michigan and Ohio State will be a cross-divisional rivalry and continue to play each other each year in the Big Ten regular-season finale, as they have since 1943. That means they could wind up meeting again for the conference championship a week or two later. Not in the Big House or the Horseshoe but on a neutral field. Maybe even a domed stadium.

“Basically, we decided to go with the final season date because that was a way to maintain the tradition,” Delany said. “The conference has a wonderful history of not only rivalry games but also trophy games.”

— The Associated Press