Opinion was split among Ann Arbor-area college football fans after the announcement of the Big Ten Conference divisions Wednesday night, much like it has been since the league expanded earlier this year.

The divisions, which are part of the 2011 schedule, have Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern and Iowa in one division and Ohio State, Illinois, Indiana, Illinois, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin in the other.

Each team will play the other five schools in its division and three teams from the other division. Each team has a protected cross-over game, with Michigan facing Ohio State on the last week of the regular season.

“With the (divisions) it’s a whole new change,” said Brian Kelley, a football fan wearing a Northwestern University shirt at Fraser’s Pub Tuesday night. “With Nebraska coming in, that’s what’s going to happen. You can either embrace it or not embrace it, but that’s what’s going to happen.”

Kelley and Mike Figgins, wearing a University of Michigan football shirt, said they were pleased the Michigan-Ohio State University rivalry was preserved. Figgins said he was happy to see the conference making the annual matchup a protected rivalry.

“It’s going to be a big change,” he said. “Michigan could play Ohio State twice, some of the new cross-over games … It’s going to be a lot of new territory that we’re going to watch unfold.”

Kelley and Figgins pointed to the arrival of Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez and athletic director Dave Brandon as more signs of change in the air. Figgins said he thought the conference managed to keep a certain amount of tradition during this time of transition.

“There’s a change of landscape, a change of style,” Figgins said. “With Nebraska coming in, I was hoping they could keep it as traditional as possible.”

Other fans didn’t have such rosy outlooks.

Don Wright and his son Donny have made road trips to several Big Ten stadiums and Don Wright said he was unhappy with some of the distances between schools in Michigan’s division.

“I’m surprised with the way they divided it up, Nebraska and Michigan together doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” he said. “I’m just disappointed most teams are west of here, other than Michigan State. I think we needed to get Wisconsin. Having Nebraska is cool, I just don’t understand the logic and how they divided it up.”

The divisions as they were announced Tuesday are meant for football only at this point, according to Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany. If the divisions are used for other sports, Donny Wright said he was worried about how much travel would cost for non-revenue sports.

“I thought part of it was they wanted it to be reasonable for non-profit sports and keep it regionally, and I guess they didn’t,” he said.

One point of agreement for fans was having Michigan and Michigan State in the same division. Kelley said the intrastate rivalry game was simply too important to split the teams up.

“You’ve gotta support the state of Michigan and have that game," he said.

Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 Education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com