B1G Football Conference Schedules Thru 2025
https://bigten.org/news/2018/8/29/big-ten-announces-2022-25-conference-…
*MSU and OSU stay home/home or away/away through 2025 at least
August 29th, 2018 at 5:43 PM ^
Gene Smith, the OSU AD, set it up so that Michigan would play Wisconsin for 6 years straight and then Nebraska for 6 years straight. OSU got to play Nebraska for 6 years straight while we were playing Wisconsin. Now Nebraska gets Scott Frost and so that becomes tougher, while OSU gets Wisconsin. A classic example of Dave Brandon malfeasance/incompetence. We discussed it on this thread last season: https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/why-do-we-play-wisconsin-least-6-years-straight
August 29th, 2018 at 9:21 PM ^
Quit being scared of Nebraska and Scott frost. Give me a break
August 29th, 2018 at 9:29 PM ^
Who cares? Win the damn game. Michigan should fear no one.
August 29th, 2018 at 3:22 PM ^
Key takeaways from a 30 second scan:
- MSU/OSU still alternates H/H and A/A - EDIT This was in the original post
- Annual crossover game with Wisconsin is replaced by annual crossover game with Nebraska
August 29th, 2018 at 4:21 PM ^
God dammit! I didn't want Nebraska! If they manage to beat us I'll never hear the end of it at work! It took Mike Riley happening for them to forget about the fiasco that was the 2013 game!
August 29th, 2018 at 3:25 PM ^
Just looked to see who our crossover games from the B1G West would be during these years. Seems like a lot of Nebraska in 2022-2025...
August 29th, 2018 at 5:41 PM ^
OSU sees a lot of Wisconsin, so that's good.
MSU and PSU on the other hand, pretty much skate by with the likes of Illinois.
August 29th, 2018 at 3:28 PM ^
Still playing Maryland and Rutgers every damn year.
Thanks Delaney (comedian, masturbator).
August 29th, 2018 at 3:30 PM ^
Crap! Still 9 games! Uneven schedules and still not even with SEC and ACC. Delaney never ceases to amaze me.
August 29th, 2018 at 4:54 PM ^
I actually like the 9 game conference schedule. The onus should be pushing the ACC & SEC to get on board with the rest of the leagues...not conform to their silly logic.
August 29th, 2018 at 5:41 PM ^
Are you saying you don't like the Alabama/Citadel games in the 3rd week of November?
August 29th, 2018 at 3:31 PM ^
In 2023 and 2025 there's no Wisconsin and MSU and OSU are at home in those years. Also no Wisconsin in 2022 but that's a rivals-away year. Unfortunately, while '23 and '25 are looking good initially, we open on the road at UCLA and Oklahoma, respectively. So bluh, don't really catch much of a scheduling break ever.
August 29th, 2018 at 3:33 PM ^
No great Michigan AD would’ve ever allowed for this to happen and continue to happen.
We have not had a great AD since Bo.
August 29th, 2018 at 3:55 PM ^
This is driven by TV and cash money. This has nothing to do with “Bo”. It’s not 1974 anymore. It is odd I have to remind a college aged person of this but whatever. Plus, Jim Hackett would like a word.
August 29th, 2018 at 4:03 PM ^
What does having OSU and MSU both alternating home and away every year have to do with cash money?
Good point about Hackett, though.
August 29th, 2018 at 4:26 PM ^
Your grudge against Warde continues unabated. It's kinda bizarre, since 18 months ago it centered around the basketball program (which, uh, won two B1G tournaments and made the national final. Remember when everyone was hopping mad that Warde followed through on the team's wishes to go ahead and play Illinois in practice uniforms without moving the game in the first round? That tournament sure was a disaster) and the hockey program (made the Frozen Four in Mel's first year).
Now that the B1G issues more dumb schedules, it must be Warde's fault because... reasons.
I mean, I get the envy looking at other athletic departments: Who wouldn't want the AD of MSU, OSU, Maryland, Minnesota, or Rutgers right now? But Warde is who we have, and he's doing just fine.
August 29th, 2018 at 4:51 PM ^
I don't know why people complain so much about OSU/MSU being home/away in the same year.
Based on history and program infrastructure for sustained success there are three teams in the East which will be tough games almost every year. They are in order: OSU, PSU, MSU. With three teams, you are going to have to play two at home/away every year. I would much rather OSU and MSU be paired up than OSU and PSU. In general PSU will field tougher teams than MSU. Why would you want PSU and OSU on the road in the same year?
August 29th, 2018 at 5:47 PM ^
Yes, we are going to be very glad that we play MSU on the road (and not PSU on the road) the years that we play OSU on the road.
August 29th, 2018 at 7:14 PM ^
How about one at home, one away and one at a neutral site!
Or
we get nd back on the schedule to balance it out at 2 home 2 away...oh wait nevermind
August 29th, 2018 at 7:14 PM ^
How about one at home, one away and one at a neutral site!
Or
we get nd back on the schedule to balance it out at 2 home 2 away...oh wait nevermind
August 29th, 2018 at 7:24 PM ^
I agree and I think this was the logic when they made the schedule. The anticipation was that water would find its level eventually, with us and OSU on top, PSU a notch below, and MSU a notch or 2 below them.
August 29th, 2018 at 8:14 PM ^
I think all the people who complain about H/H and A/A are really not seeing this right. We have two tougher games at HOME every other year. It's tough to get to the playoff without winning virtually all games, so I'd rather than a shot every other year than a minimal shot every year. High Beta ftw.
August 29th, 2018 at 6:32 PM ^
Ha!! “We”
August 29th, 2018 at 3:33 PM ^
Interestingly in 2024 we play all 3 West opponents first and then 6 straight against the East.
August 29th, 2018 at 3:50 PM ^
And it's the exact same opponents and locations as the 2018 schedule.
Nebraska, Wisconsin, @Northwestern
August 29th, 2018 at 3:34 PM ^
Did they shake up the divisions? I thought we were in the same as Wisconsin?
August 29th, 2018 at 3:40 PM ^
Parity scheduling - hmmm. Something seems odd here.
PSU plays Illinois (of all Western Division teams???) every single year from 2022 to 2025. I figured that opponent would always be one of Iowa, Wisconsin or Nebraska.
For the rest of the "always play this cross-division foe, every year from 2022-2025": it's Michigan v Nebraska, OSU v Wisconsin and MSU v Minnesota.
August 29th, 2018 at 3:40 PM ^
Penn state draws Wisconsin and Nebraska one time each in that 4 year span. SMH. Only consolation is MSU and an osu draw Wisconsin frequently
August 29th, 2018 at 3:48 PM ^
Yeah, the "play every year for 6 years during the 2022-2027 era" match-ups are not what I expected.
The 2016-2021 cross-division match-ups are (besides the Bucket Game):
(1,2,3) U-M vs Wisconsin, OSU vs Nebraska, PSU vs Iowa
(4,5,6) MSU v Northwestern, Maryland v Minnesota, Rutgers v Illinois.
I expected for 2022-2027, they'd keep those 2 groups of 3, and rotate the western division foes (e.g, U-M vs. Nebraska, OSU v Iowa, PSU v Wisky, or U-M v Iowa, OSU v Wisky, PSU v Nebraska).
Instead, they seem to have 3 groups of 2, and then flip-flopped them. Those 3 groups of 2 being:
(1,2) U-M v Wisconsin, OSU v Nebraska
(3,4) PSU v Iowa, Rutgers v Illinois
(5,6) MSU v Northwestern, Maryland v Minnesota.
What the B1G did here for 2022-2027 is rather unexpected. IMO.
August 29th, 2018 at 4:45 PM ^
What the B1G did here for 2022-2027 is rather unexpected. IMO.
If by "unexpected" you mean "laughably stupid," we are in complete agreement. About this anyway.
August 29th, 2018 at 3:51 PM ^
Screwed again having to play Neb every year.
August 29th, 2018 at 5:49 PM ^
OSU has to play Wisconsin. One of these years, Wiscy is going to lay an Iowa-esque 52 point beating on OSU.
August 29th, 2018 at 3:53 PM ^
Just in time for Nebraska to be good again.
August 29th, 2018 at 3:56 PM ^
That 2024 scheduled is harsh!
August 29th, 2018 at 3:58 PM ^
Doesn’t seem that hard to make this way more straightforward and fair. You do home / away with half of the other division. After two years, you do home / away with the other half. Rinse and repeat. “protected rivalries” still work here. You play those cross division rivals 50% of the time. It’s not like the rivalries disappear. If anything it raises the stakes because you don’t get a shot at them every year.
August 29th, 2018 at 4:00 PM ^
Every player that stays 4 years will play every school at least twice. And In every stadium as well.
August 29th, 2018 at 3:58 PM ^
Appears we won't really have much of a chance for a "stars align" type schedule in the next decade. Brutal stuff for the likely marquees with at least two and in most years three major road tests:
2019: @Wisconsin, Iowa, @Penn St, Notre Dame, Michigan St, Ohio St
2020: @Washington, Wisconsin, Penn St, @Michigan St, @Ohio St
2021: Washington, @Wisconsin, Michigan St, @Nebraska, @Penn St, Ohio St
2022: UCLA, @Iowa, Penn St, Nebraska, @Michigan St, @Ohio St
2023: @UCLA, Michigan St, @Nebraska, @Penn St, Ohio St
2024: Texas, Wisconsin, Nebraska, @Michigan St, Penn St, @Ohio St
2025: @Oklahoma, @Nebraska, Michigan St, Iowa, @Penn St, Ohio St
I'd actually like next year's the most with PSU losing McSorley and the swing of rivals at home (even if Wisconsin is a really tough game). If Scott Frost doesn't take off (or has left) at Nebraska and UCLA isn't great then maybe 2023 will set up nicely as well. Simply put, Michigan will have to be great to win 10+ games. 2020, 2021, and 2025 look downright terrifying.
August 29th, 2018 at 4:08 PM ^
In 2020 & 2023 we have home games against Purdue and road games at Minnesota. These are the only two times we play those teams over the next 8 years. This means we do not see Minnesota at home or travel to Purdue during this time. Unless there is a scheduling quirk, common sense would be for Michigan to be away at Purdue and home against Minnesota in 2023. Maybe this is because of the Purdue locker rooms not being up to standards? Maybe Purdue needs more than 8 years to renovate? Or maybe after Harbaugh's complaints last year, Purdue has decided to always play Michigan on the road going forward? Just some food for thought.
August 29th, 2018 at 4:25 PM ^
So how can we screw Michigan the next 10 years?
-Jim Delaney
August 29th, 2018 at 4:42 PM ^
This is further proof for why 14 teams is too many to have in a conference.
Playing Minnesota for the little brown jug once over an 8 year span doesn't feel right, lopsided history be damned. And waiting three years to get revenge on a cross division opponent sucks too, which we currently have with Iowa. Long histories with teams becoming once in a while opponents, I just hate it.
A bigger price to pay for adding Maryland and Rutgers.
August 29th, 2018 at 4:54 PM ^
Schedules look rough, but then that's the price to be paid for the B1G becoming better. The truly sucky bit though is the H/H + A/A nonsense of MSU and OSU. Split that up. We need that marquee rivalry game at home every year - not this every other year BS.
August 29th, 2018 at 5:02 PM ^
Warde, you had one job when it came to this. Get off the OSU/MSU h/h a/a schedule. Can't believe this nightmare continues.
August 29th, 2018 at 5:20 PM ^
Maybe I'll get negative votes for this. People here say "Warde Manuel needs to fix this." But they don't answer the question of "how can he fix it?"
Flipping the location of MSU's games with U-M and Indiana is the obvious solution. That puts every other B1G East school on a rotation of "1 away and 1 home game with U-M/OSU per year."
But why would IU and MSU say "yes" to that? MSU isn't going to visit AA twice without a fight. And from what I've read on Indiana boards, they like having Purdue at home one year and OSU/U-M at home the other year. It helps with their ticket sales.
Until there's a solution that also garners other affected schools' support, it is what it is. U-M, for whatever reason, went along with the 2 visits to East Lansing. That's going to be very very hard to undo.
August 29th, 2018 at 5:56 PM ^
Wow man - do you really spend time on Indiana boards? I would not have guessed there was such a thing.
August 29th, 2018 at 8:27 PM ^
I like reading the other boards.
One thing I've noticed --- ALL 14 B1G fan bases think that "Jim Delany hates us!"
August 29th, 2018 at 5:57 PM ^
Your comments are valid but based on history, it should happen. Yeah MSU might be a little miffed for losing home game money but remember when this happened, Michigan went to East Lansing two years in a row and Michigan lost a home game as well.
And since the B1G Ten continue to function these cross over games with strong versus strong and weak versus weak teams, home field advantage does make a difference against these tough teams.
And so does scheduling accordingly. I guarantee you that Harbaugh would never say to the media he wants it back to old ways, but privately, he wished it would. And who could blame any coach for that?
And lets not forget Notre Dame. ND wouldn't get back in the series without having the home game first and UM relented.
So the unbalance is asinine. Our three biggest rivals all home or all away. It's stupid. Let alone extremely hard to go unscathed.
August 29th, 2018 at 5:15 PM ^
Fuck Rutgers and Maryland. Why are they in this fucking conference.
If we did a poll, would >5% if this fanbase vote to keep them in? Id bet my ass they wouldn't.
August 29th, 2018 at 5:15 PM ^
Fuck Rutgers and Maryland. Why are they in this fucking conference.
If we did a poll, would >5% if this fanbase vote to keep them in? Id bet my ass they wouldn't.