I didn’t realize this until recently, but it turns out instead of rotating through opponents annually, they are doing it biannually, just like they used to. The problem with this is that there are more teams to fit into the schedule, and more teams that are considered “mandatory” opponents, either because they are part of their division (5 opponents) or because they are the preserved rival (1 opponent) which means there are 6 our 8 opponents decided, with the 2 other games rotating between 5 teams. Again, that is a biannual rotation, which means that there is one team that you won’t see for 4 years. There will be college students in the Big Ten that won’t see a conference foe at all in their college career.
For your review, here are the teams that won’t see each other until 2015 with a pithy comment.
Purdue – Northwestern – These two, before reorganization were a preserved rivalry, meaning that they played each other no matter what every season.
Nebraska – Indiana – Too bad for Nebraska. Also, the Cornhuskers won’t visit the state of Indiana until 2013 when they play Purdue.
Minnesota – Ohio State – Hey, with the forfeited wins from last year, it’s a 5 year streak without losing to the Buckeyes! Way to go, Gophers!
Michigan – Wisconsin – Look at that. Michigan and Wisconsin won’t play each other in Big Ten football for 4 consecutive seasons. Mind boggling.
Michigan State – Penn State – These two actually played a trophy game. Put it in storage for a while.
Iowa-Illinois – Iowa will actually drive past Champaign on the way to West Lafayette to face their new “rival” the Purdue Boilermakers.
Nice work, Big Ten. Your schedule ended up about as bad as possible.
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