Michigan and Ohio State have been forced by the Big Ten to part ways, but their football teams will continue to meet for an annual fling on the final weekend of the conference season.

The two historical powers were placed in opposite divisions, which were announced Wednesday and will take effect for the 2011 season. But the league avoided an uproar by preserving their traditional showdown.

Illinois landed in a division with Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue and Indiana. The other still unnamed division includes Nebraska, Michigan, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern and Minnesota.

Because of the addition of Nebraska, which joins the Big Ten next year, the league needed to create divisions in order to hold a conference championship game. The inaugural game will take place in December 2011 in Indianapolis.

The major factors in the division of schools were competitive equality based on data going back to 1993, rivalries and geography, in that order.

"My goal was to identify principles, put them in sequence and get different models in front of people,'' Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney said. "My preference was to walk out of that room with unanimity, and that's what we got.''

Next season, each school will play five games within its division, one protected crossover game and two rotating games outside its division. Illinois and Northwestern were given protected rival status. The Illini also will play Michigan and Minnesota from the opposite division in 2011 and '12. Other protected rivalries include Ohio State-Michigan, Penn State-Nebraska, Wisconsin-Minnesota, Purdue-Iowa and Indiana-Michigan State.

"The Big Ten is a great conference, and adding a great football team is going to make it that much better,'' Illinois coach Ron Zook said. "Regardless of how the divisions are worked out, it doesn't make a lot of difference. Over time, everyone will play each other anyway.''

The league created three groups of schools and then set about splitting them into divisions. The upper echelon included Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Nebraska. Iowa and Wisconsin were in the next group and the remaining schools in the final group.

The divisions will not apply to basketball, but Delaney did not discount the possibility of splitting the teams if coaches and athletics directors express interest.

"I personally, at this juncture, don't see a compelling reason for divisions'' in basketball, he said.