Schedule Format

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I kind of hoped they’d go to a 10 game conference schedule

But they wont
 


Gophers_4life said:
With only 12 games, then either home/home & neutral games would have to give or 7 home games would have to give.
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Correct.
Some schools already don’t play 7 home games every year.
But 6 would become as likely as the 7th.

Clearly the extra 8 big ten games a TV deal would get aren’t worth the lost tv revenue of the likely 15-16 non conference tv games that would be at home + gate losses from the difference of the fewer home games from the conference.
 

Gophers_4life said:
What you say is all true.

At the same time, also true that the difference between Indiana/Michigan/Ohio away trips vs Maryland/NJ could be up to 2 more hours. Plus extrahour time difference from Central schools.

It’s not nothing.


Just saying, at the end of the day: despite the appearance of affording “more flexibility”, I challenge you or anyone to come up with a workable scenario for each of the 16 teams with 4 protected games each, two every year, two 3/4. It could easily be possible, not saying it’s not. Just want to see it
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The travel, while not "nothing" doesn't feel much of anything either. If they just avoid either USC/UCLA to having to go to both Maryland/Rutgers in the same season (and vice versa) I would say that's as far as they need to go.
 

Ope3 said:
I don't get the hang up on USC/UCLA going Eastern Time Zone. They are going to have to do it probably twice a year no matter what the format is, and for football that's no big deal. USC will probably have to do it at least three times (maybe 4) in years they play at South Bend.

If it's already a 3.5 to 4 hour flight to Big 10 West teams, I just don't see it being a big deal to have to go 5 - 5.5 hours to Big 10 East teams, on a weekend. When they don't play each other, it's going to be a long chartered flight, no matter who they are scheduled against.

That's just part of the deal in signing up for a conference with 8 teams in the Eastern Time Zone. They can mitigate somewhat by having at least one of the games early in the season/Labor Day weekend.
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I agree. I like the 3 protected teams (pod) scheme. And I would put USC, UCLA, Maryland and Rutgers in the Newcomer pod. That solves all the important trophy and rivalry games (that I can think of) except The Jug game, which is now fine by me.

My grouping;

Minnesota
Iowa
Nebraska
Wisconsin

Illinois
Indiana
Northwestern
Purdue

Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn Sate

Maryland
Rutgers
UCLA
USC
 


WAGopher said:
I agree. I like the 3 protected teams (pod) scheme. And I would put USC, UCLA, Maryland and Rutgers in the Newcomer pod. That solves all the important trophy and rivalry games (that I can think of) except The Jug game, which is now fine by me.

My grouping;

Minnesota
Iowa
Nebraska
Wisconsin

Illinois
Indiana
Northwestern
Purdue

Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn Sate

Maryland
Rutgers
UCLA
USC
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Keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be, and likely would not be, strict divisions.

For example, could have MN playing Iowa, Wisc, and UCLA, while UCLA plays USC, Nebraska, and Gophers. And so on
 

Also, the TV partners didn’t fork over a bunch of coin to purchase … UCLA vs Maryland and USC vs Rutgers.

They’re wanting to get their hands on matchups like USC and UCLA vs the major Big Ten programs (in terms of national TV viewership drawing ability).
 

Gophers_4life said:
Keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be, and likely would not be, strict divisions.

For example, could have MN playing Iowa, Wisc, and UCLA, while UCLA plays USC, Nebraska, and Gophers. And so on
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Usually, the closer the school, the stronger the rivalry, and I do understand they don’t have to be regional, I just think it makes more sense. Also, the three protected teams is the same as creating 4 pods.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Also, the TV partners didn’t fork over a bunch of coin to purchase … UCLA vs Maryland and USC vs Rutgers.

They’re wanting to get their hands on matchups like USC and UCLA vs the major Big Ten programs (in terms of national TV viewership drawing ability).
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Yes, money rules. But no matter how the conference is divided, there will always be at least two such games for every team, so not an issue. You could swap Penn State with Rutgers or Maryland, but that would bury both of them in very strong groupings.
 



Ope3 said:
The travel, while not "nothing" doesn't feel much of anything either. If they just avoid either USC/UCLA to having to go to both Maryland/Rutgers in the same season (and vice versa) I would say that's as far as they need to go.
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I think travel is a much bigger issue for non football sports at USC/UCLA than it is for football.

4-5 of those trip for football.
Last year they already had 2 900+ mile trips.
Now they’ll have 4 900+ mile trips per year. (They should ask for 5 road conference games the year they play at the other California teams so it’s never 5).

It’s two big travels a year extra. For basketball it’s like an extra 7-8 big travels and some of those mid week
 

Some guy said:
I think travel is a much bigger issue for non football sports at USC/UCLA than it is for football.

4-5 of those trip for football.
Last year they already had 2 900+ mile trips.
Now they’ll have 4 900+ mile trips per year. (They should ask for 5 road conference games the year they play at the other California teams so it’s never 5).

It’s two big travels a year extra. For basketball it’s like an extra 7-8 big travels and some of those mid week
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Yes, much bigger deal for the other sports. I would guess for basketball they will try to mitigate with 2 game road trips. Maybe even a 3 gamer.
 


This was inevitable once USC and UCLA joined the BIG.
From the beginning, I disliked the divisions and never saw their need as long as each team had two permanent rivals.
USC is recruiting very well and UCLA will not be a pushover so the conference games are overall going to be more interesting.
 



If there's 9 conference games every year, and 2 protected, it would seem that each of the other 13 teams would flow through on (almost) a biennial basis.

Will be interesting if it's:
  • Home-and-Home and then switch (so Minnesota would play a home-and-home with Indiana, then not play for 2 years)
  • Alternating years (so Minnesota would play Indiana at home, then skip a year, then go to IU)
  • Some kind of system based on the prior year's results for competitive balance
  • Just a total free-for-all each year, with teams missing each other and playing several in a row randomly
In the future it's likely the Gophers will have Iowa, Wisconsin, and 2 of Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, or USC each season. Buckle up.
 

From 247

“
The Big Ten’s annual nine-game conference plan will not change, however, the “Flex Protect” allows for teams to play up to three protected rivalry games annually while the rest of the slate will consist of rotating opponents. So, some programs may have three guaranteed matchups annually while others could have two — as long as schedules fit and are balanced.

The new format is designed to make it easier for the conference to tweak schedules on a competitive basis while trying to make every program happy in terms of balance.”

Will be interesting to see how often they tweak the schedule. Might be every year going forward. Going to 12 team playoff allows for more competitive balanced schedules in my opinion.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
From 247

“
The Big Ten’s annual nine-game conference plan will not change, however, the “Flex Protect” allows for teams to play up to three protected rivalry games annually while the rest of the slate will consist of rotating opponents. So, some programs may have three guaranteed matchups annually while others could have two — as long as schedules fit and are balanced.

The new format is designed to make it easier for the conference to tweak schedules on a competitive basis while trying to make every program happy in terms of balance.”

Will be interesting to see how often they tweak the schedule. Might be every year going forward. Going to 12 team playoff allows for more competitive balanced schedules in my opinion.
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Would guess they will give everyone their top choice of rival.
Lock them.

Some schools, for instance Michigan, are multiple teams top rival. They’ll get two locks.
Some teams, like Iowa, may get 2-3 locks (Iowa would love to lock Nebraska, wisconsin, and Minnesota).


Everyone will have 3 locked games for a 4 year cycle. Every 4 years they re-examine each teams 3 locked games. Many would never change.
But some teams literally won’t care and could change all 3 teams.
Rutgers might be open to changing their 3 locked games every 4 years as they don’t really have a rival in the conference (or maybe they want penn state)


3 locked games for each team, with 6 games against the other 12 is quite frankly the easiest schedule to build and a model that preserves all primary rivalries. There is no other logical way to do it. They have precedent locking non rivals as rivals for short periods (for instance Mn and MD)
 

MaxyJR1 said:
From 247

“
The Big Ten’s annual nine-game conference plan will not change, however, the “Flex Protect” allows for teams to play up to three protected rivalry games annually while the rest of the slate will consist of rotating opponents. So, some programs may have three guaranteed matchups annually while others could have two — as long as schedules fit and are balanced.

The new format is designed to make it easier for the conference to tweak schedules on a competitive basis while trying to make every program happy in terms of balance.”

Will be interesting to see how often they tweak the schedule. Might be every year going forward. Going to 12 team playoff allows for more competitive balanced schedules in my opinion.
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Article link: https://247sports.com/longformartic...ions-projecting-permanent--211304007/#2179584

I know the author is speculating, but why would Gophs only have two, and Michigan's third rival would be Indiana?
 

Some guy said:
Would guess they will give everyone their top choice of rival.
Lock them.

Some schools, for instance Michigan, are multiple teams top rival. They’ll get two locks.
Some teams, like Iowa, may get 2-3 locks (Iowa would love to lock Nebraska, wisconsin, and Minnesota).


Everyone will have 3 locked games for a 4 year cycle. Every 4 years they re-examine each teams 3 locked games. Many would never change.
But some teams literally won’t care and could change all 3 teams.
Rutgers might be open to changing their 3 locked games every 4 years as they don’t really have a rival in the conference (or maybe they want penn state)


3 locked games for each team, with 6 games against the other 12 is quite frankly the easiest schedule to build and a model that preserves all primary rivalries. There is no other logical way to do it. They have precedent locking non rivals as rivals for short periods (for instance Mn and MD)
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Where are you seeing this information?
 


Some guy said:
Everyone will have 3 locked games for a 4 year cycle. Every 4 years they re-examine each teams 3 locked games. Many would never change.
But some teams literally won’t care and could change all 3 teams.
Rutgers might be open to changing their 3 locked games every 4 years as they don’t really have a rival in the conference (or maybe they want penn state)
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IF that's how it works out, then that's exactly the same thing as 3 locked.

It's a silly semantics thing.


3 locked never meant that they had to be locked for all time. Silly for them to pretend like that's what it had to mean.

No, it meant that you had 3 annual rivals for the four year cycle.

Of course, those rivals could be switched out for the next four year cycle, as requested and possible to make it work out with who is available.
 


Some guy said:
I think travel is a much bigger issue for non football sports at USC/UCLA than it is for football.

4-5 of those trip for football.
Last year they already had 2 900+ mile trips.
Now they’ll have 4 900+ mile trips per year. (They should ask for 5 road conference games the year they play at the other California teams so it’s never 5).

It’s two big travels a year extra. For basketball it’s like an extra 7-8 big travels and some of those mid week
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I would think for basketball they would bundle close away games together for USC/UCLA to cut down on the travel miles, and having teams traveling to SoCal do the same. For football keep in mind those same teams will be traveling to SoCal as well.
 



Gophers_4life said:
It can change every four years.

I hope they don't start out giving the Gophers Michigan for the first four year cycle.

Playing them every other year is plenty.
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I don't think they will protect the Jug. We're already used to it not being an annual thing.

Minnesota (Iowa, Wis) and Michigan (MSU, OSU) are the only two schools that are the primary historical rivals of two schools. I don't think they squeeze these two into a 3rd protected game.

If Minnesota gets a "third rival" it would be Nebraska, I think. But I think it ends up being 2.
 

MNBadgerGuy said:

Full schedule drops at 3:30 but McMurphy leaked a few match ups.
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So it looks like Michigan and Iowa are going to draw USC, UCLA and Ohio State.
Interesting…
 
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I hope there's a protected Rutgers - UCLA rivalry and they play for a worn out copy of SkyMall
 


The 2024 and 2025 conference schedules were just announced on the BTN.
 

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