(11-04-2018 03:22 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote: There’s no outright Big Ten rule against late season OOC games. (See Notre Dame at Northwestern yesterday.) That’s just not how Big Ten schools generally choose to do schedule and the league largely doesn’t have conference bye weeks during the last 3 weeks of the year.
That might be more true for some than others. To hear it from Penn State fans, Penn State-Pitt came off its place on the late November schedule because Big Ten schools felt they shouldn't have to (accommodate the scheduling), thus, wouldn't give PSU the concession.
I heard the same for Nebraska coming in with regard to Colorado. That it was known October and November were the Big Ten's weekends, not something out of the conference. Clearly, the PAC offers more wiggle room.
And while Northwestern got a late season game with Notre Dame, Michigan State came off the annual slate because of numerous challenges, including calendar placement. Michigan State had some rigid demands, and so did Notre Dame. The "best" Notre Dame could do was offer the game as part of the Shamrock Series, which got no play.
I know I've been saying for years that this "tradition" of the Big Ten conference schedule has got to go, and that the conference and its member institutions have to be fine with letting it go. It's been compromised ever since Penn State joined the conference, interrupting series every year now for over 25 years; it got worse as the conference expanded. But, instead of embracing it, you see the Big Ten doing things like creating new rivalries for its new members that carry no value or meaning to them. It's disingenuous.