scheduling

Yesterday's post came out in a rush, so I wanted to clarify a few things that I missed. Thank you to readers who pointed some of these out.

There are no more divisions. This was evident but I should have at least said the format is divisionless, with only the most important protected rivalries. There's a helpful graphic that shows the protected games and the two-plays for 2024-'25:

The Big Ten is probably not bringing them back either, because they stated they want every four-year player to get a chance to play in every Big Ten stadium during their careers. Or at least 15/16 Big Ten stadiums and Ford Field, since MSU is giving away its home games now.

The Championship Game will be one game between the top two schools. This is obviously very dumb and will lead to replays and controversies when there are multiple 1-loss teams deserving at the end of the season. In a press release last night the Big Ten clarified that they are still figuring out the tiebreaker rules for that. I cannot express the level of contempt I have for the direction they're going with this. Please somebody with any kind of sense, tell them to go to a Showcase model instead of a championship game. Three good games we haven't played yet and champions determined by best record >>>>>> replays and controversial champions.

Michigan has just six homes in 2025. They're probably talking to Oklahoma about flipping that series, that but my guess is they end up sticking with what they've got. Whatever they charged for the 2018 home schedule of Penn State, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Maryland, Indiana, WMU, and SMU they can charge for a 2025 home schedule of Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Northwestern, CMU, and New Mexico.

The 2024 dates might be pushed back. I have not seen it confirmed yet that the schedule will be pushed back a week to accommodate the 12-team playoff. As of last November it was under discussion according to Nicole Auerbach:

Commissioners have also sorted out the general calendar issues. Down the road, they may propose moving the entire college football season up a week to begin a full schedule the weekend before Labor Day, a stretch currently colloquially referred to as Week 0.

Moving the whole season back was not in the press release when they announced the 12-team playoff for 2024-'25. If that has been updated since please let me know and I'll note it here.

Warde fought to keep the MSU game and was absolutely correct to do so. Via Austin Meek at The Athletic (HT to reader Communist Football on the message board):

“Michigan is unique in having two games that even if, preference comes into mind, it’s really common sense that they need to be on their schedule every year,” Big Ten chief operation officer Kerry Kenny said. “Ohio State from a historical and competitive perspective, Michigan State from an in-state and historical perspective as well, and (athletic director) Warde (Manuel) was very forthright and vocal during the process that those two games needed to stay on their schedule every year.”

I hammered this point on WTKA yesterday and I'll hammer it again: Michigan is not canceling Michigan State over the tunnel incident. I agree that fan sentiment among the super-paying-attention shifted, but what hasn't shifted is that game makes big money at the gate and on television. It is an important game to most of the fanbase, an important game to the state, an important game to the players, and the only important game to Michigan State, who has just as much of a say in this as Michigan. One of Warde's major accomplishments as AD was to use the COVID season as an opportunity to get the home/road schedule with MSU moved back opposite OSU's so that there's a big rival home game to anchor the schedule every year.

I can put this into numbers because I know that they price the season tickets (seat licenses included) based on the maximum get-in price of the secondary ticket market, and I track that market. Nothing matches OSU--that was in the $450 range in 2021--but the only other game that tends to match MSU's $250 get-in maximum is Notre Dame. PSU/Wisconsin are more like $180. We'll see what Texas/Oklahoma/USC bring in the coming years, but if you can get Texas/Oklahoma/USC/Notre Dame kind of interest for a middle-of-the-pack Power 5 program every other year, a little bad behavior on their part is a small fee.

UCLA-USC is not Thanksgiving Weekend on ND@USC years. So technically UCLA could be available to play PSU or MSU that weekend.

That is all.

The two programs today put out press releases with several scheduling updates. Our future schedules page lives here.

Football announced a few non-conference items for 2024-2029.

• They flipped the Texas home-and-home. The 2024 game is now in Ann Arbor, and Michigan visits Austin in 2027.
• Western Michigan will be the opener again for 2026 and 2029.
• They added UTEP as a nonconference opponent in 2026.

Basketball got their Big Ten schedule for next year.

• Home-and-homes with MSU, Illinois, Purdue, Rutgers, Ohio State, Iowa, and Nebraska
• Home only vs Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota
• Road only vs Maryland, Northwestern, and Penn State

[We'll discuss after THE JUMP]

The Big Ten finally released its retooled schedule for next year. Here's the whole conference (click to big):

via Big Ten

And here's ours vs the old one:

Note that on the old-old schedule MSU was at home and IU on the road, as this was announced before they fixed the home-road deal in 2020. For months before Michigan took the old schedule down I was getting board posts from people who thought they were going back to MSU being at home the same years as OSU.

Discuss. Not much to. Michigan's game at Penn State got pushed back a week while Ohio State gets home games against MSU and Minnesota in the weeks before The Game. MSU got their bye week moved up to two weeks before Michigan, with Rutgers in the way. Michigan's bye got moved to late October, the week after MSU. Getting Rutgers at the top of the year and the late-November version of Maryland is nice.

The opening week Big Ten games are Nebraska at Minnesota (Thursday night), IU-OSU, and Rutgers-Northwestern.

[After the JUMP: weak? why?]