Will USC & UCLA ever actually be forced to play an outdoor "cold weather" Big Ten football game in mid/late Nov?
Read an interesting comment today that USC and UCLA might be able to arrange their schedules such that they either play each other, home non-con, or other games such they will never need to worry about playing outdoor mid/late Nov games in the "cold weather" locales. It makes sense, but also seems an underhanded way to avoid some tough road games.
Would the Big Ten schedulers allow it? Probably.
October 12th, 2023 at 11:55 AM ^
Which comes first - non-con or conference scheduling? If USC (as an example) comes out with their non-cons scheduled at the end of the season for the next few years... does the Big Ten just accept it?
Not saying any of this *will* happen, just curious if it *could*.
October 12th, 2023 at 3:59 PM ^
The problem with any non-conference scheduling is you need to have teams on the other end to accommodate you, and I'm not sure how many good teams are going to be willing to move their games around to play USC in November while they're in the middle of the conference season. Furthermore, usually those non-con games exist as glorified preseason contests and to get guys reps early; it makes a ton less sense to play them later because the benefit of them is gone and it's all downside (guys getting hurt). And finally, you'd need other conference teams to be willing to play early in the season conference games against USC and UCLA. That, again, seems unlikely because teams like UM, OSU, PSU, etc. want to play those non-con games they've scheduled for the reasons above.
Again, I have my doubts USC and UCLA would even ask for this change but I'm fairly certain the other teams in the league and across CFB aren't going to want to, let alone be able to, make it happen.
October 12th, 2023 at 4:15 PM ^
Who said anything about it needing to be "good" teams? My point is that it wouldn't take much for either of these two teams to say "our mid/late Nov is already booked" - many in the SEC already do this by having their rivalry game the last week and a cupcake at home before that, so clearly it is not "all downside" to do so.
I agree that USC & UCLA probably won't overtly ask for it, but only because they could surreptitiously make it happen (if they want, which is yet TBD).
October 12th, 2023 at 12:06 PM ^
Of course they will. Next question.
October 12th, 2023 at 1:18 PM ^
If they don’t then the Big Ten is worse than i even imagined. Certainly not annually but if they play 3/4 conference games a year in the big ten so average of 1.5/2 a year, they should be playing a few cold games each year. The interesting thing will be how often they get Rutgers, Nebraska, Illinois, northwestern as road Nov games, as opposed to Mich, OSU, PSU, Wisco, even Minny and MSU could be tricky for them in freezing temps
October 12th, 2023 at 3:05 PM ^
Depends on the weather.
October 12th, 2023 at 5:50 PM ^
How could they do that? 2 away games in November = 1 against their rival but they dont always play UW or UO each year. At some point they have to go east of the Rockies in November.