Whoever set the Big Ten schedule this year was very shortsighted. With Wisconsin defeating Iowa and Ohio St defeating Penn St the division races seem to already have clear winners and it's still very early in the season.

I think they should take the following scheduling approach:

In the East Ohio St, Penn St, Mich, St and Michigan are the dominant 4
Aside from this year's Husker team Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska are the best of the West with no clear favorite for 4th. So:

Stagger the 4 best East vs West cross division games in weeks 4-7 (minimizes the risk of the title being a replay of a late season game)

Weeks 8-11 should include:

Ohio St vs Penn St
Ohio St vs Mich St
Penn St vs Mich
Mich vs Mich St
Wisconsin vs Nebraska
Iowa vs Wisconsin

2 of those 5 weeks would contain 2 of those marquee matchups.

Week 12:

Penn St vs Mich St (its a trophy game that is bound to play an impact in the East title race but not a game steeped in tradition, let them have the limelight for the weekend while the other top Big Ten teams play Maryland, Purdue, Rutgers etc while prepping for Rivalry Weekend)

Week 13: Keep things traditional

Iowa vs Nebraska (Friday)
Wisconsin vs Minnesota
Ohio St vs Michigan

Ohio St vs Penn St in September was so anticlimactic. Just no art of storytelling.

The Big 4 should’ve played a 3-game round robin the final 3 weeks.

This was too early, but don't really want everything completely backloaded either. I like Penn State being in late October or so about mid-way through the schedule for a few reasons:

1. Michigan game should always be noon, but Penn State game has become the one usually a night game. Should not regularly plan a night game in late November (conference just started allowing November night games at all).
2. Breaks up big games somewhat. Michigan is at end of November, Penn State is October, big out of conference in mid September, and hopefully other big one or two for year spread in middle.
3. Late enough teams are what they are (early struggles hopefully gone), but still room for things to change after a loss (losing this game bad but not always enough to kick you out of competition).

Fox, as a TV partner, doesn't want too many "big" Big Ten games in early/mid October because Fox also has baseball playoffs. During the World Series is ok because Fox can (they hope) max out their audience by showing a big CFB game at 3:30 et followed by a World Series game.

(10-01-2018 06:55 PM)ohio1317 Wrote:  This was too early, but don't really want everything completely backloaded either. I like Penn State being in late October or so about mid-way through the schedule for a few reasons:

1. Michigan game should always be noon, but Penn State game has become the one usually a night game. Should not regularly plan a night game in late November (conference just started allowing November night games at all).
2. Breaks up big games somewhat. Michigan is at end of November, Penn State is October, big out of conference in mid September, and hopefully other big one or two for year spread in middle.
3. Late enough teams are what they are (early struggles hopefully gone), but still room for things to change after a loss (losing this game bad but not always enough to kick you out of competition).

The caveat for breaking the No November Night Games Rule should be is this a game that will garner a large national tv rating? Purdue vs Maryland is not worth it to force fans to bear the Midwestern cold but I think Penn St vs Ohio St in the first week or two of November is worth the while.

As far as choosing when to schedule 2 big games in the same weekend I'd say weeks 8 and 9. It's late October so not too cold for a big night game but baseball is also wrapped up.

(10-01-2018 06:55 PM)ohio1317 Wrote:  This was too early, but don't really want everything completely backloaded either. I like Penn State being in late October or so about mid-way through the schedule for a few reasons:

1. Michigan game should always be noon, but Penn State game has become the one usually a night game. Should not regularly plan a night game in late November (conference just started allowing November night games at all).
2. Breaks up big games somewhat. Michigan is at end of November, Penn State is October, big out of conference in mid September, and hopefully other big one or two for year spread in middle.
3. Late enough teams are what they are (early struggles hopefully gone), but still room for things to change after a loss (losing this game bad but not always enough to kick you out of competition).

Also, its kind of like Miami-FSU being early in the season. They want each to have time to recover.

(10-01-2018 07:54 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(10-01-2018 06:55 PM)ohio1317 Wrote:  This was too early, but don't really want everything completely backloaded either. I like Penn State being in late October or so about mid-way through the schedule for a few reasons:

1. Michigan game should always be noon, but Penn State game has become the one usually a night game. Should not regularly plan a night game in late November (conference just started allowing November night games at all).
2. Breaks up big games somewhat. Michigan is at end of November, Penn State is October, big out of conference in mid September, and hopefully other big one or two for year spread in middle.
3. Late enough teams are what they are (early struggles hopefully gone), but still room for things to change after a loss (losing this game bad but not always enough to kick you out of competition).

Also, its kind of like Miami-FSU being early in the season. They want each to have time to recover.

Good point about recovering, but... Miami and FSU are in opposite divisions, while Ohio State and Penn State are in the same division. In general it's best to have the cross-division games early and save the de facto division championship game(s) for later in the season. That makes for maximum fan interest over the longest time.

In 2025, the B1G schedule looks like this:

November 15: PSU @ OSU
November 22: U-M @ PSU, MSU @ OSU
November 29: OSU @ U-M, PSU @ MSU

2024 is basically the same, except (1) flip the sites of the games, and (2) move PSU's games with OSU and Michigan up a week.

We'll see what it feels like when 2024/2025 come around .... but those schedules certainly feel TOO back-loaded.

(10-01-2018 06:32 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Whoever set the Big Ten schedule this year was very shortsighted. With Wisconsin defeating Iowa and Ohio St defeating Penn St the division races seem to already have clear winners and it's still very early in the season.

I think they should take the following scheduling approach:

In the East Ohio St, Penn St, Mich, St and Michigan are the dominant 4
Aside from this year's Husker team Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska are the best of the West with no clear favorite for 4th. So:

Stagger the 4 best East vs West cross division games in weeks 4-7 (minimizes the risk of the title being a replay of a late season game)

Weeks 8-11 should include:

Ohio St vs Penn St
Ohio St vs Mich St
Penn St vs Mich
Mich vs Mich St
Wisconsin vs Nebraska
Iowa vs Wisconsin

2 of those 5 weeks would contain 2 of those marquee matchups.

Week 12:

Penn St vs Mich St (its a trophy game that is bound to play an impact in the East title race but not a game steeped in tradition, let them have the limelight for the weekend while the other top Big Ten teams play Maryland, Purdue, Rutgers etc while prepping for Rivalry Weekend)

Week 13: Keep things traditional

Iowa vs Nebraska (Friday)
Wisconsin vs Minnesota
Ohio St vs Michigan

I can see both sides.

Yes, you don't want to basically have the divisions decided in September...

BUT

You also don't want to backload the schedules so teams are playing all their important games at the end of the year. You have to have SOME quality matchups early on. The networks didn't fork over the $$$ they did to have Illinois v Purdue as the marquee matchup for Saturday night.

In the East, I'd set it up so the last week would be tOSU v Michigan and PSU v MSU. That leaves the other matchups to be spread out in the previous 6 weeks or so.

In the West, the last week would be Iowa v Nebraska and Wisconsin v Minnesota. The rest would be similar to the East, spread out over the previous 6 weeks.

All this "might" be a moot point depending on how realignment goes in the next 3-4 years.

I think the Big Ten could do a better job of spreading out the conference schedule over the year as opposed to almost exclusively having the first three weeks being non-conference games. In addition, I think they could better schedule each matchup to provide the best package weekly. For example, make a list of each conference game and order them in terms of draw power. Remove the matchups that have a locked week (last week of the season for rivals for example) and spread the rest evenly over the season for the best TV package.

As for Penn State, I would like to open the season Week 1 with Rutgers or Maryland (whichever it is would be locked, not rotating). It would help spotlight a matchup that doesn't get much attention between two schools that could develop into a rivalry or at the very least have history prior to the conference. I think it would be best to finish the season against Michigan State as it used to be. I would also like a fixed week for Ohio State such as the first Saturday in October, or the last, or whatever but I think it would be great to set a week and stick to it.

Can I gripe about Illness and Buttgers playing each other? Each deserves to go 0-9 in conference.

(10-02-2018 08:36 PM)GE and MTS Wrote:  I think the Big Ten could do a better job of spreading out the conference schedule over the year as opposed to almost exclusively having the first three weeks being non-conference games. In addition, I think they could better schedule each matchup to provide the best package weekly. For example, make a list of each conference game and order them in terms of draw power. Remove the matchups that have a locked week (last week of the season for rivals for example) and spread the rest evenly over the season for the best TV package.

As for Penn State, I would like to open the season Week 1 with Rutgers or Maryland (whichever it is would be locked, not rotating). It would help spotlight a matchup that doesn't get much attention between two schools that could develop into a rivalry or at the very least have history prior to the conference. I think it would be best to finish the season against Michigan State as it used to be. I would also like a fixed week for Ohio State such as the first Saturday in October, or the last, or whatever but I think it would be great to set a week and stick to it.

So are you saying that no Big Ten matchups should have a locked week except those involving Penn State?

I persoanlly hate having any conference games before non conference games are over. If we must have them, I say only 1 before all nonconference games done and ideally not big matchups and more week 2 and 3 than 1.

I hate these because the conference races are the big races and you can very easily knock yourself out of the race with 2 early losses even if your team gets much better after the 1st month. I remember Georgia doing that several years ago and thinking it was crazy for the SEC to schedule like that. I like conference play feeling like a new beginning.

To me fair, I do think thr conference does try to divide up the big games. They don't always know what those will be though (the Nebraska games all would have been counted as big this year) and unlike other conferences, they want schedules out years in advance. I cannot fault any of that as I like it.

(10-04-2018 11:22 AM)ohio1317 Wrote:  I persoanlly hate having any conference games before non conference games are over. If we must have them, I say only 1 before all nonconference games done and ideally not big matchups and more week 2 and 3 than 1.

I hate these because the conference races are the big races and you can very easily knock yourself out of the race with 2 early losses even if your team gets much better after the 1st month. I remember Georgia doing that several years ago and thinking it was crazy for the SEC to schedule like that. I like conference play feeling like a new beginning.

It's not crazy for the SEC to do that, in fact it's how they manipulate the polls. If Alabama plays an overrated Miss State team that is ranked in mid-September, and beats them, Bama gets credit in the polls and in the sports media for beating a ranked team. If Alabama played the same team in November when Miss State was 3-5, the Tide wouldn't get the same credit. Should other conferences do the same thing with September scheduling? They probably should. Don't play the rivalry games in mid-September, but maybe one conference game for each team including good games for the top teams, games like Ohio State-Iowa or Oklahoma-TCU.

(10-04-2018 07:30 AM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(10-02-2018 08:36 PM)GE and MTS Wrote:  I think the Big Ten could do a better job of spreading out the conference schedule over the year as opposed to almost exclusively having the first three weeks being non-conference games. In addition, I think they could better schedule each matchup to provide the best package weekly. For example, make a list of each conference game and order them in terms of draw power. Remove the matchups that have a locked week (last week of the season for rivals for example) and spread the rest evenly over the season for the best TV package.

As for Penn State, I would like to open the season Week 1 with Rutgers or Maryland (whichever it is would be locked, not rotating). It would help spotlight a matchup that doesn't get much attention between two schools that could develop into a rivalry or at the very least have history prior to the conference. I think it would be best to finish the season against Michigan State as it used to be. I would also like a fixed week for Ohio State such as the first Saturday in October, or the last, or whatever but I think it would be great to set a week and stick to it.

So are you saying that no Big Ten matchups should have a locked week except those involving Penn State?

No, I'm sorry for giving that impression. I was merely talking about the locked games I would like for Penn State. As a relative newbie to the Big Ten, PSU has more history with the newest schools than the existing.