Gophers 2024 and 2025 Big Ten opponents announced.

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Wait you mean we dodge Michigan and OSU next year? Weren’t we never going to have that in our lifetime after our blown opportunity last year?
 




fmlizard said:
So does this mean The Chair is a protected game?

Please say yes! Nebraska has become my favorite football rival.
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Iowa and Wisconsin are our protected rivals, Nebraska is our two-play opponent for 2024 and 2025 under the flex schedule format.
 

btowngopher said:
Wait you mean we dodge Michigan and OSU next year? Weren’t we never going to have that in our lifetime after our blown opportunity last year?
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We travel to Ann Arbor and have OSU at home next year. We dodge both in 2025.
 


Bummed they couldn't release the actual schedule, but this is good to know.

I will miss playing Nebraska every year...it's developed into a decent rivalry and is an awesome road trip for the fan base.

But overall, I'd say kudos to the Big Ten. This is an interesting and creative scheduling format.
 



so Iowa is the only team in the league that gets 3 "protected" opponents, while Penn State has no protected opponents?

I'd love to hear the reasoning behind that.
 


mnsportsgeek said:
I’m conflicted. I want to go to the rose bowl, but not half full at 12pm.
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In a fashion similar to NHL players not touching the Stanley Cup unless/until they win it, I’m not going to go to the Rose Bowl stadium unless/until the Gophers play in the Rose Bowl game.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
so Iowa is the only team in the league that gets 3 "protected" opponents, while Penn State has no protected opponents?

I'd love to hear the reasoning behind that.
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Iowa is Nebraska’s only protected rival. Nebraska’s most sensible protected rival is probably either Iowa or Minnesota, and Minnesota and Iowa presumably wanted protected games against each other and Wisconsin, but I guess they decided to keep the border rivalry of Nebraska/Iowa and not annualize Nebraska/Minnesota and Nebraska/Wisconsin.

Penn State doesn’t have any traditional rivals in the conference. Apparently they’ve played Ohio State every year since joining the Big Ten. Penn State fans seem to care about playing Ohio State more than the other way around, and Maryland is probably the same way with Penn State. Also making Ohio State play both Michigan and Penn State every year could have been viewed as competitively unbalanced. No team has more than one protected game against Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State or USC. Although with the end of divisions, everybody might end up playing two of them every year on average. Minnesota plays Ohio State and Michigan in 2024 and swaps them out for Penn State and USC in 2025.
 



btowngopher said:
Wait you mean we dodge Michigan and OSU next year? Weren’t we never going to have that in our lifetime after our blown opportunity last year?
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2025 they miss Michigan & the Ohio St not next year. The "blown opportunity" part is there won't be a Big 10 West to compete for in 2025 as there was in 2022. That was always my take.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
so Iowa is the only team in the league that gets 3 "protected" opponents, while Penn State has no protected opponents?

I'd love to hear the reasoning behind that.
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I wouldn't be shocked if PSU was one of the main schools pushing for this. I don't really think they have a rival they want to protect each year, at least not one that feels the same way back. Instead of getting lumped with some meaningless rivalries, they just get to rotate everyone
 

short ornery norwegian said:
so Iowa is the only team in the league that gets 3 "protected" opponents, while Penn State has no protected opponents?

I'd love to hear the reasoning behind that.
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I'm not even sure Iowa fiercely wanted Nebraska as a 3rd rival. Nebraska, I am sure wanted it, the Hawkeyes are just playing along.

With regards to Penn St. If you don't have a genuine rival, then as I have said multiple times ad nauseam to gin it up and require teams to play annually (or even 4 years consecutively) is not necessary.

I really like this format.
 
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short ornery norwegian said:
so Iowa is the only team in the league that gets 3 "protected" opponents, while Penn State has no protected opponents?

I'd love to hear the reasoning behind that.
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Penn State doesn't have any traditional rivals in the conference.
Their slogan is "Unrivaled"
The Michigan State thing was always forced. I suppose Ohio State has some competitive tradition.

I think Minnesota could have just as easily been the 3 protected team and been with Nebraska, or for the conference to keep the whole Quadrangle protected. Iowa's officially recognized trophy game probably won out, plus the ability to schedule it the final week when the Axe game will be. But Minnesota has played Nebraska more than any other conference team has, many times more than the Gophers have played Ohio State over the past 120 years.
 

I'm surprised Purdue and Illinois is protected? I never knew of that as much of a rivalry.

Purdue and Illinois are the easy-schedule winners in this setup, as they get protected games with each other, plus Northwestern and Indiana.
 

It's amazing how much tougher the schedules look when divisions are gone.
 

my thing is more from a consistency standpoint.

I understand the arguments for preserving rivalries. I just find it very odd that the number of protected opponents within the conference varies to the point where one school has 3 protected opponents while another school has none.

did a check - Penn State has two potential trophy games. the Land Grant Trophy with Michigan State and yes, that crown jewel of trophies, the Governor's Victory Bell with Minnesota.

PSU will play MSU in '24 & '25 as a "two-play" game, and will play the Gophers in '25.

so why not just make PSU-MSU a protected opponent? I dunno.
 


and just for fun - a list of Big Ten Rivalry games from Wikipedia:

Big Ten conference rivalry games[edit]​

GameTrophyTeamTeamFirst YearLatest YearMeetings
Illini -NwestLand of Lincoln TrophyIllinoisNorthwestern18922022116
Illinois–OSUIllibuckIllinoisOhio State19022017103
Illinois–PurdPurdue CannonIllinoisPurdue1890202298
Indiana–MSUOld Brass SpittoonIndianaMSU1922202269
Indiana–PurdOld Oaken BucketIndianaPurdue18912022124
Iowa–MinnFloyd of RosedaleIowaMinnesota18912022116
Iowa–NebrHeroes TrophyIowaNebraska1891202253
Iowa–WiscHeartland TrophyIowaWisconsin1894202296
Mary–PSUMarylandPenn State1917202246
MSU–PSULand Grant TrophyMichigan StatePenn State1914202237
Mich-NwestGeorge Jewett TrophyMichiganNorthwestern1892202176
Mich–MSUPaul Bunyan TrophyMichiganMSU18982022115
Mich–MNLittle Brown JugMichiganMinnesota18922020104
Mich–OSUMichiganOhio State18972022118
MN–Nebr$5 Bits of Broken Chair TrophyMinnesotaNebraska1900202263
MN–PSUGovernor's Victory BellMinnesotaPenn State1993201915
MN–WiscPaul Bunyan's AxeMinnesotaWisconsin18902022133
Neb–WiscFreedom TrophyNebraskaWisconsin1901202216
OSU-PSUOhio StatePenn State1912202238
UCLA–USCVictory BellUCLAUSC1929202292
 

short ornery norwegian said:
my thing is more from a consistency standpoint.

I understand the arguments for preserving rivalries. I just find it very odd that the number of protected opponents within the conference varies to the point where one school has 3 protected opponents while another school has none.

did a check - Penn State has two potential trophy games. the Land Grant Trophy with Michigan State and yes, that crown jewel of trophies, the Governor's Victory Bell with Minnesota.

PSU will play MSU in '24 & '25 as a "two-play" game, and will play the Gophers in '25.

so why not just make PSU-MSU a protected opponent? I dunno.
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As it has been mentioned many times, a team could choose not to have any protected rivals, two or three.
There was no nefarious double-dealing going on.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
my thing is more from a consistency standpoint.

I understand the arguments for preserving rivalries. I just find it very odd that the number of protected opponents within the conference varies to the point where one school has 3 protected opponents while another school has none.

did a check - Penn State has two potential trophy games. the Land Grant Trophy with Michigan State and yes, that crown jewel of trophies, the Governor's Victory Bell with Minnesota.

PSU will play MSU in '24 & '25 as a "two-play" game, and will play the Gophers in '25.

so why not just make PSU-MSU a protected opponent? I dunno.
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The easy answer is because either one or both Penn St or Mich St do not want to. Good enough for me.
 

fmlizard said:
I'm surprised Purdue and Illinois is protected? I never knew of that as much of a rivalry.

Purdue and Illinois are the easy-schedule winners in this setup, as they get protected games with each other, plus Northwestern and Indiana.
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Purdue and Illinois play a trophy game, for the Purdue Cannon.

Here‘s a somewhat humorous article from a couple of years ago that goes into a little depth:

www.offtackleempire.com

Better Know a Rivalry Trophy - The Purdue Cannon

Everything you didn’t know about the Purdue Cannon
www.offtackleempire.com www.offtackleempire.com
 

short ornery norwegian said:
so Iowa is the only team in the league that gets 3 "protected" opponents, while Penn State has no protected opponents?

I'd love to hear the reasoning behind that.
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It’s a math problem. As a long time sports scheduler, it is a very complicated process to schedule 16 teams in a single table to play 9 games. Especially to make sure everyone gets alternate 5 game home schedules. Some one has to do three, someone has to do 0. I think this works well.
 

I see the PSU having no protected rivals as a move from their AD to try to have a year where they don't play OSU or Michigan in the regular season. Their fans want them to play OSU regularly, but especially in the new format I could see them having one or both of those games as a protected game being viewed as a detriment to them getting into the expanded playoff.

Like, there is a world where PSU misses OSU and Michigan and goes undefeated in the regular season, and then plays the winner of the OSU vs Michigan game in the B1G championship. In that case, unless they get blown out, they likely will be within the top 12 when the playoffs happen.
 

In 2025 WI plays tOSU, USC, and Alabama.
The best way to entice recruits is to show them if you come here you will be playing in big games on a big stage.
 


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