The Athletic has an article this morning about the need for schedule changes for the upcoming year:
Big Ten will need to revise its 2021 schedule and here’s what needs to be done
Not much concrete info in the article about how NU would be affected next year, other than possibly adjusting which games are played at home. But the most intriguing thing is the possibility of scrapping the divisions at some point down the line.
Not sure how I feel about this. But we don't want a system where multiple teams have a claim to play in a championship game. The article goes into rivalry games that would be played every year. I think our rivalries with Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska are a lot of fun, mainly because this group has a lot of parity from year to year.
Big Ten will need to revise its 2021 schedule and here’s what needs to be done
A truncated and jagged 2020 Big Ten football season has left a handful of scheduling issues for the league office and its 14 members for the upcoming 2021 season.
No conversations have taken place quite yet with the league still working through Olympic sports’ scheduling. But expect the 2021 football schedule to gain significant dialogue in the coming weeks. It initially was approved in September 2017, but with six different location switches plus seven crossover games removed from the 2020 schedule, the 2021 blueprint needs major revisions.
Not much concrete info in the article about how NU would be affected next year, other than possibly adjusting which games are played at home. But the most intriguing thing is the possibility of scrapping the divisions at some point down the line.
The Big Ten currently has schedules set from 2022 through 2025. Yet with the NCAA removing divisional requirements for conference championship games, perhaps the league should re-evaluate its entire structure.
Recent complaints have stemmed from East Division coaches, primarily Penn State’s James Franklin, that the league is too one-sided competitively. Based on history, Ohio State would tip the balance of any divisional structure. Plus, the East Division has won all seven league championship games since the current alignment debuted in 2014.
Maybe now or 2022 is the right time to abolish the divisional structure. The best way to do this is for each team to designate three rivals for annual competition and then play five other opponents per year. Outside of the permanent rivals, each program would face the other 10 conference teams twice over a four-year period. That makes for an easy-to-create eight-game schedule, especially if the non-permanent rotation is two years on, two years off.
Not sure how I feel about this. But we don't want a system where multiple teams have a claim to play in a championship game. The article goes into rivalry games that would be played every year. I think our rivalries with Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska are a lot of fun, mainly because this group has a lot of parity from year to year.