B1G Scheduling Rulings

There are 3 Independents in FBS:  Army, Brigham Young and (sort of) Notre Dame.  Navy is a member of the AAC and Air Force is in the Mountain West Conference.

This is just a badly-worded story (intentionally, I suspect).  What the Big Ten actually ruled is that independents count as members of Power 5 conferences.  Which, whatever.

Because Navy and AF are weak sauce.

I agree. Notre Dame and BYU, I agree. Service academies are not power 5 caliber teams. AAC members are LITERALLY not Power 5 schools. This isn't a rule; it's a suggestion when you give it this little teeth.

The rule change doesn't benefit ND directly and is not being made FOR them.  It is for the strength of schedule component for ranking comparisons of other teams.

I hate ND too, but this isn't a reason to hate them.

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they appear to have a power 5 (plus nd and byu) scheduled every year through 2021. They have a home-away with boise state 2022-2023, so that would have to fall under the exception ruling, if they are not a part of a P5 at the time.

Don't we have Army scheduled again for 2019?

Their 2016 schedule has no P5 opponent until Cincinnati was added.  The programs this helps out in the out years are Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, and Purdue.  Minnesota and Maryland have some rescheduling to do, especially Maryland.  The Turtles don't have any OCC teams on their 2016 schedule that even hints at P5. 

Has some serious scheduling work to do.  Not only do they not have a single P5 scheduled they also need to replace Howard University.  We'll see how strict the B1G is when it comes to that schedule and to Minnesota's 2018 schedule.

Year in and out would be a respectable mid-level P5 team.  They've certainly enjoyed greater success over the last seven years than has Michigan.

North Dakota State is a FCS team and the Big Ten is looking to prohibit any B1G team from playing teams in that division (such as Iowa's annual game with Northern Iowa or Illinois playing one of the directional FCS teams in their state, etc.)

But yes, Army and Troy are "legit" in the eyes of the Big Ten and the USMA counts as a P5 equivalent.  

I suspect one of the reasons this rule has been put in place is due to the television contract negotiations that are about to take place between the conference and the networks.  Having an inventory of games that doesn't include any FCS programs is probably considered a value added proposition by the B1G (and hopefully, by the networks).  The same goes with going to a nine-game conference schedule--it lowers the opportunity of putting tomato cans on the non-conference schedule.

The question that the UM Athletic Department may be dealing with is how many P5 teams (or equivalents) do they want to put on the non-conference schedule?  Michigan has two in 2020/1 in VIrginia Tech and Washington.  There are open scheduling slots in 2018/9 and Michigan already has a home-and-home with Arkansas those two seasons.  

The same discussion goes with the year extending out to 2027 when Michigan has home-and-homes with UCLA, Oklahoma and Texas.  Does U-M opt to play a second P5 team in the non-conference schedule in those seasons or not?  If yes, what sort of opponent do you pair up with the Bruins, Sooners and Longhorns during the next decade?  Do you go for some of the P5's lesser lights such as Vanderbilt, Wake Forest or Duke?  Do you go for a middle of the road program like California or North Carolina or Texas Tech?

I doubt U-M would go for a second blue chip team on those schedules, so the idea of Notre Dame being on any of them until 2028 doesn't seem very likely (unless one of the home-and-home series I mentioned above is moved or postponed). 

Maybe, though they already have Ohio State scheduled for 2017 and Michigan for 2019.