(07-09-2021 09:32 AM)Eggszecutor Wrote:  

(07-09-2021 08:31 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(07-09-2021 07:30 AM)schmolik Wrote:  

(07-09-2021 07:09 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(07-07-2021 08:01 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  Nobody in the West wants to play Rutgers.

So, well, there were these straws, most of them were long, but one of them was short, and Iowa drew the short straw.

{Edit: To be clear, after OSU and Michigan swapped Nebraska and Whiskey, or Nebraska and Whiskey swapped OSU and Michigan ... and NW was excused for having drawn the short straw the first time.}

Purdue-Indiana makes sense. The rest seem more or less random.

So are many of the SEC cross division "rivalries" and a few of the ACC ones as well. To give a few of the schools a rivalry you have to give everyone one.

You don't HAVE to have a permanent rival. It's a 6 year schedule. There's 7 pairs of teams (14 teams). Have Purdue-Indiana play every year, and have the other 6 rotate.


Or you could have 4 of them with permanent rivals, and the other 3 pairs rotate to play each other twice. Or you could have 5 of them with permanent rivals, and the other 2 pairs rotate to play each other 3 times.

You are absolutely right that they didn't have to do the schedules this way. The 6-year schedule was done to appease the networks paying out the big money for the TV rights. The networks wanted the big names playing each other more often. You can see that in the second round of the 6-year schedules too (UW-OSU, UNL-UM). By the time the contract with FOX is up, they won't care about future B1G schedules unless they won the next contract.

Ohio State vs. Wisconsin, sure!
Michigan vs. Nebraska, okay, I guess?
Penn State vs. Illinois? Iowa vs. Rutgers? Come on, man!!!