The Big Ten will keep its current East and West divisional format for the 2023 season, multiple sources confirmed to The Athletic on Monday. The 2023 Big Ten schedule was announced Wednesday.

With USC and UCLA joining the conference in 2024, The Athletic reported the Big Ten strongly considered becoming a single-conference entity. Ultimately, the conference decided there were too many issues to resolve in time for the 2023 season. The problems included releasing one new system when USC and UCLA join the conference, the number of protected games, and TV concerns.

The ACC and Pac-12 abolished divisions following the NCAA’s ruling that FBS conferences do not need to have divisional championship games. Now, the two teams in the conference with the highest winning percentage will play in the championship game.

The Big Ten has a new, seven-year media rights deal with Fox, CBS, and NBC that will start on July 1, 2023. In the 2023-24 season, CBS will seven Big Ten contests that year because the network will also fulfill its contractual obligation with the SEC. When SEC football is no longer affiliated with CBS in 2024, the station will show 15 Big Ten games.

Two weeks ago, Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren told The Athletic he wanted to make decisions for the 2023 campaign in plenty of time for programs to plan games. The publication noted school officials were anxious about schedules.

The current Big Ten divisional format, which has been place since the conference expanded to 14 members in 2014, sends the champions of each division to the Big Ten Championship Game. The East team has won nine out the 13 conference championship games.

Illinois leading West Division

With five weeks left in the regular season, the No. 17 Fighting Illini lead the Big Ten West with a 3-1 conference record. Purdue trails them at 3-2. Illinois’ next opponent, Nebraska, stands at 2-2.

While Illinois was off last week, Purdue fell to Wisconsin to give Illinois an edge in the West Division race.

Illinois head coach Bret Bielema said Monday despite the Fighting Illini’s first place standing, they’re focused on the next game up.

“I think the outside world always pays attention,” Bielema said. “Not to say, as a head coach, you don’t look at things as they lay. We literally started Sunday’s meeting just as we would any other week, just looking at the world of college football around you. It’s fun to be in that position. A year ago, I didn’t really do that. We started doing that this year, even before we became someone who got talked about because I wanted them to understand what was coming.”

Before the 2022 season, the Fighting Illini last appeared in the AP Poll in 2011 — the program’s last winning season. Illinois last made a bowl appearance in 2019 but hasn’t won one since defeating UCLA in the 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.

In 2022, Illinois has knocked off Wyoming, Virginia, Chattanooga, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, falling to Indiana. After facing Nebraska, the Fighting Illini will match up against Michigan State, Purdue, Michigan, and Northwestern.

Illinois’ total defense ranks first in the nation with 221.1 yards allowed per game. The next closest program to Illinois defensively is Ohio State, which has surrendered 239.9 yards per contest.

Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon was announced Monday as one of 12 semifinalists for the Jim Thorpe Award, handed to the nation’s best defensive back. The report came with Witherspoon leading the Big Ten with 11 passes defended. The Pensacola, Florida, product has one interception and 20 tackles in 2022.

“To have that small of a list right now is a pretty big accomplishment for a guy who probably didn’t have a lot of preseason hype,” Bielema said. “But based off the production and the way we’re playing is another great indicator of a lot of good things going on in our building.”

Fighting Illini running back Chase Brown leads the nation with 1,059 rushing yards.

Illinois’ contest at Nebraska kicks off at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday on ABC.