(07-17-2021 03:39 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(07-16-2021 01:19 PM)goofus Wrote:  

(07-13-2021 08:49 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  I can’t believe the big 10 allowed Rutgers and Maryland. They don’t belong. They aren’t even worthy of the CUSA let alone the AAC. Yuck!!

Obviously you are joking, but I will say having to play Rutgers as a cross-division opponent really is a can't win situation for any decent team in the West. You aren't natural rivals, you get no credit if you beat Rutgers, and its considered embarrassing or sometimes its just bad luck if you lose to them.

Now hopefully in the long run Greg Schiano will turn them into a consistently decent team, but even then I am still not sure why you would want to play them every year.

The only reason to want to go there would be the recruiting grounds ... after all, the Big Ten is the worst set up P5 conference for local football recruiting grounds ... but as far as their visit to your home stadium, I see no upside at all.

Northwestern just drew the short straw the first time. Iowa drew it the next time.

Not that it changes anything, but technically ILL drew the "short straw" the first time having to play Rutgers 6 years in a row because ILL and Rut were considered the worst 2 teams in their division. NW got matched with MSU because even 6 years ago, NW was considered a better team than ILL and Minn.

All the Big Ten did for this rotation was swap the 6 year rivals. OSU-Neb and Mich-Wisc got swapped. PSU-Iowa and Rut-ILL got swapped. MSU-NW and MD-Minn got swapped.

Now if all you were going to do was swap opponents, I am not sure why PSU-Iowa and MSU-NW weren't swapped instead. But maybe it was considered unfair to flop Rut-ILL with MD-Minn.