Proposal for B1G football schedule with 18 schools

I think adding UW and Oregon could get us back toward a more fun schedule with equity.

Aspects I would value in conference schedule:

- round robin in divisions

- one protected rival game for each school

- flexible divisions from year to year so we're not stuck in a division with Maryland and Rutgers and never get to play Minny, Wisco, etc again.

- parity in divisions - I don't think we should have upper and lower tiered divisions because the upper tier would be a murder's row. You need some cupcakes for player development and resting some stars to avoid injury before the playoffs.

- I really like Seth's idea of a showcase game at the end of the season. Essentially a conference championship at the top, then lots of interesting games below it.

 

So, I suggest a system where teams are ranked by the prior season conference schedule. The conference would be split into divisions by taking alternating schools, with minor variations to accommodate the protected rivals.  At the end of the year, showcase games with the top remaining unplayed matchups.

Protected Rivals

OSU-UM

Iowa-Neb

MSU-PSU

OU-UW

Minn-Wisco

Purd-Ind

UCLA-USC

Ill-NW

Mary-Rutg

 

To see what this would have looked like in 2022, I used standings from 2021 (caveat that Pac12 teams weren't playing B1G teams and even within B1G, it was not a round robin, but this is just for an example).

 

Division Victors

2021 Wins Losses

UM 8 1

OSU 8 1

OU 7 2

Minn 6 3

Wisco 6 3

Ill 4 5

UW 3 6

Rutg 2 7

NW 1 8

 

Division Valiant

MSU 7 2

Iowa 7 2

Purd 6 3

UCLA 6 3

PSU 4 5

Mary 3 6

USC 3 6

 

Neb 1 8

Ind 0 9

 

The only protected rival not in the same division in this scenario would be Maryland and Rutgers, but they could face each other in the showcase game at the end of the season.

 

So, there would be a round robin in each division, and the winner of each division would face off in the conference championship, and the best remaining matchups beyond would occur the same weekend.  Using conference records from 2022 (caveat being those results weren't actually from a round robin), those matchups would have looked like:

UM - USC (conf championship)

OSU - PSU

OU - Purd

UW - UCLA

Ill - Iow

Minn - MSU (swapped with Rutgers for protected rivalry)

Mary - Rutgers (swapped with MSU)

Wisco - Neb

Ind - NW

 

So, compared to our actual 2022 schedule, this is what we would have had (replacing schools with similar records):

OSU -> OSU

PSU -> OU

Iowa -> Minn

Mary -> Wisco

Ill -> Ill

Purd -> UW

Rutg -> Rutg

Ind -> NW

MSU -> USC

Neb -> nonconf

 

This seems totally reasonable to me. And gives us the expectation of playing some of our traditional B10 teams like Wisco, Minn, Iowa, MSU on average every other year.