Several of you have asked about the tiebreakers for the Big Ten's new divisions. Ask and you shall receive.

Although the information originally was released in September, it got lost in the shuffle with the actual division alignment and the start of the 2010 season. I'll admit I glossed over it a bit, so I recently reached out to the league office for clarification.

According to the Big Ten, here are the basic tiebreakers for determining division winners:

1. Conference record

2. Head-to-head record

3. Record within the division

4. BCS ranking

Big Ten coaches and administrators will determine more details for the division tiebreakers at their spring meeting in May in Chicago. The more detailed tiebreakers will include scenarios such as three teams finishing in a first-place tie in their division and each has a 1-1 record against the other two.

Example: Let's say 2010 Big Ten co-champs Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan State all were in the same division (they're not), all finished 7-1 in league play and all went 1-1 against the other two. In the previous Big Ten tiebreaker, the team with the highest BCS ranking (Wisconsin in 2010) earned the league's automatic BCS bowl berth.

It'll be interesting to see how the BCS standings factor into the more detailed division tiebreakers. It'll be especially interesting to see if there's disagreement among the coaches and athletic directors. Michigan State's contingent couldn't have been too thrilled with the BCS formula last fall.

One factor missing from all of this: Overall record. I like this because some teams schedule a lot harder than others and shouldn't pay the price for challenging themselves.

So these are the basics, and we'll know the full tiebreaker procedures in about three months.