B1G Football Schedules with 18 teams

armenius

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Nov 4, 2011
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A 1-8-8 scheduling model would make sense where each team gets one protected rival they play every season and then over a 4 year period play every other team once at home and once away.

Ex:
Rutgers vs. Maryland every season

2024:
Home - Ohio St, UCLA, Illinois, Michigan St
Away - Oregon, Penn St, Minnesota, Nebraska

2025:
Home - Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, USC
Away - Michigan, Washington, Purdue, Northwestern

2026:
Home - Oregon, Penn St, Minnesota, Nebraska
Away - Ohio St, UCLA, Illinois, Michigan St

2027:
Home - Michigan, Washington, Purdue, Northwestern
Away - Iowa, Wisconsin, Purdue, Northwestern
 

BigEastPhil

Heisman
Nov 25, 2007
18,656
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A 1-8-8 scheduling model would make sense where each team gets one protected rival they play every season and then over a 4 year period play every other team once at home and once away.

Ex:
Rutgers vs. Maryland every season

2024:
Home - Ohio St, UCLA, Illinois, Michigan St
Away - Oregon, Penn St, Minnesota, Nebraska

2025:
Home - Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, USC
Away - Michigan, Washington, Purdue, Northwestern

2026:
Home - Oregon, Penn St, Minnesota, Nebraska
Away - Ohio St, UCLA, Illinois, Michigan St

2027:
Home - Michigan, Washington, Purdue, Northwestern
Away - Iowa, Wisconsin, Purdue, Northwestern
Conceptually makes a lot of sense.

Things to consider:

- All 4 PAC teams may play each other annually to reduce travel

- Michigan has 2 rival games annually that must be played : Ohio State and Michigan State. This goes for several schools

- You can go to a 5-2-2 model whereby 3 pods of 6 schools exist and you play the teams in your pod annually and the other schools once every 3 years.

- Go to 10 conference games annually.

- TV may insist on annual games occurring with marquis teams such as Ohio State vs USC / Michigan vs Oregon. Etc.

18 schools causes scheduling issues in football for sure as well as in basketball.
 

Scarlet16e2

All-Conference
Nov 22, 2005
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I expect they confuse with a new schedule based on the same flex protect model they just did.
 

armenius

All-Conference
Nov 4, 2011
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Conceptually makes a lot of sense.

Things to consider:

- All 4 PAC teams may play each other annually to reduce travel

- Michigan has 2 rival games annually that must be played : Ohio State and Michigan State. This goes for several schools

- You can go to a 5-2-2 model whereby 3 pods of 6 schools exist and you play the teams in your pod annually and the other schools once every 3 years.

- Go to 10 conference games annually.

- TV may insist on annual games occurring with marquis teams such as Ohio State vs USC / Michigan vs Oregon. Etc.

18 schools causes scheduling issues in football for sure as well as in basketball.
I think basketball will be fine because it would only take 17 games to play every school once which leaves plenty of room for some home and aways.

As far as football goes, if they expand to a 10 game conference schedule, they'll be able to protect more games, but I still feel that if they're dropping divisions, part of the goal should be to ensure that every school plays on every campus at least once every four years.

I can't see them going back to pods/divisions when they just announced they're eliminating them.
 
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Dec 17, 2008
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I think basketball will be fine because it would only take 17 games to play every school once which leaves plenty of room for some home and aways.

As far as football goes, if they expand to a 10 game conference schedule, they'll be able to protect more games, but I still feel that if they're dropping divisions, part of the goal should be to ensure that every school plays on every campus at least once every four years.

I can't see them going back to pods/divisions when they just announced they're eliminating them.
At 18 probably not but at 20 or 24 if that happens in the future, I think divisions are possible again and allows for a conference semifinal. I suppose they could do that with just the top 4 teams but using divisions would be cleaner.
 

armenius

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Nov 4, 2011
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At 18 probably not but at 20 or 24 if that happens in the future, I think divisions are possible again and allows for a conference semifinal. I suppose they could do that with just the top 4 teams but using divisions would be cleaner.
Agreed if they expand further, they'll have no choice.
 

RUBlackout

All-American
Mar 11, 2008
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Are they going to adjust our schedule for next year with the 2 new teams added?
 

armenius

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Nov 4, 2011
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Are they going to adjust our schedule for next year with the 2 new teams added?
There was a tweet earlier that said they will be tweaking the current schedule to include Oregon and Washington instead of a full overhaul
 

ScarletDave

Heisman
Oct 7, 2010
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The SEC does not do protected rivals or fair/balanced yearly scheduling. They just release the future schedules and you get whi you get. As someone mentioned above, it will be about creating the best TV matchups rather than playing everyone the same amount of times.