That might not be a bad thing. Possibly waiting until ND joins the B1G and have PSU and ND as a protected game?
Football Big Ten releases 2024 and 2025 schedules
- Thread starter Dylan Callaghan-Croley
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It has nothing to do with any future expansion. If and when the conference adds more schools, the entire scheduling model will completely change. There’s no need to “hold a spot”.
I think it is just as simple as the conference decided to go with as few protected games as possible. PSU probably wanted tOSU but the Buckeyes weren’t willing to have both UM and PSU every year which would be a tough schedule. RU and UMD probably wanted PSU but PSU did not want to be locked in to playing them. Hence we got no one.
OSU had PSU and UM every year. I cannot imagine they would want to soften their schedule. I would be cool with having OSU, UM, and USC every year. It is a more exciting season.
Well at least one school between PSU or tOSU didn’t want to schedule the other one every year. I’d guess it was tOSU since we’d probably have wanted to play them every year to get a good home game every other season. tOSU is already playing UM every year.
You got it. The four-year view is different...methinks.
OSU, Maryland, Rutgers, and MSU should be 4 of our 6. I'd love USC and UCLA to be our other two.
They’ve been doing it for 30 years. Why would they suddenly have an issue with it.
That has a lot to do with us and our fan base. We want to be "the" rival of Ohio State or Michigan which will never happen. We didn't buy into Michigan State so here we are. We should have pushed for Nebraska when they joined but dropped the ball.
Because Michigan and Penn State won't have to play each other which puts them in a spot of always having a difficult schedule. It's a simple concept.
It's about competitive balance. The more rotation you have the more theoretical chance of balance.
Rotate the top programs more and there's more chance of a balanced schedule.
Make them your protected rival and you're likely to get a year with a killer schedule when your 'non-protected' teams are also on an upswing.
It's the same reason that Maryland and Rutgers will LOVE the new schedule. Not having UM, OSU, PSU, and MSU on every schedule means more of the Purdues, Northwesterns, Minnesotas of the world.
But even that would have flopped because Nebraska has barely been a .500 team since joining the Big Ten. Rivals are made when teams deny each other great seasons.
It's one of the reasons MSU and PSU never took off either. While they were never our equal historically, even when they had a great season, we went through our dark years (then sanction years) and weren't able to deny them. And vice versa. I can only think of a few MSU/PSU games that really had a buzz about them in 30 years.
As to the original point, I'm happy to "officially" be unrivaled. And I like a schedule with more variety.
It wouldn't if PSU and UM also played every year but that's not the case. OSU would be at a big disadvantage
Agree.2025 home schedule-
Villanova
Nevada
Illinois
Minnesota
Rutgers
UCLA
That last OOC game better be a good one and not Temple or Delaware.
Very seriously, this should pretty much be Kraft’s top priority right now. The 2025 schedule is going to be a huge problem selling tickets, especially if they add another cupcake game.
With the tremendous talent on offense returning and a likely top five preseason ranking…. or higher…….there will be no trouble selling every ticket they can print.
You're creating more to a rivalry than what exists. There's countless low level programs that have rivalry games important to their program and one-sided rivalries that exist. Let's not pretend we're far superior over the past 20 years than a program like Michigan State. We should be but we've yet to make a playoff. They have. Maybe if we start beating Ohio State regularly they'll be open to seeing us a rival but we're not currently on their level...or Michigan's. Hopefully Allar changes that but thinking only Michigan and Ohio State are "worthy" of being our rival proves my point.
2025 might feature a first-year starter at QB (if Allar is the meteor some think he will be...I'm not so sure).
But how do you find an "elite" team who wants to come in for an away game? And we couldn't return the game to them until 2029 since we have a full slate in 2026 and Syracuse home-and-away in 27-28...
Notre Dame and Pitt might have openings...
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But I still gave them a lot of respect. And yes, they even slipped in the playoffs once. It just happened to be that their best years we were pretty lousy. And vice versa. We both had top 5 and top 10 finishes...but they often were in years where the other was .500. That's not a recipe for a bitter and growing rivalry.
Don't hold your breath.2025 home schedule-
Villanova
Nevada
Illinois
Minnesota
Rutgers
UCLA
That last OOC game better be a good one and not Temple or Delaware.
Cancel the Temple series. Either Washington or Notre Dame have availability to play away in 2025 and we would visit them in 2026 with Temple off the schedule.
The reality is that duhO$U, scUM, PSU and USC are the big 4 going into the New B1G. If you look at these 4 teams schedules, each play 2 of the group - none play all 3. PSU plays USC & scUM in the 24 & 25 schedules released... duhO$U plays scUM and USC... scUM plays duhO$U and PSU.... USC plays duhO$U and PSU. That can't all be "coincidence" and it happened randomly. They couldn't maintain PSU and duhO$U as annual rivals without making scUM also play USC (i.e., they all play 3 games against each other). This isn't fair to those 4 teams relative to the rest of the Conference. If PSU and duhO$U play, but not scUM and USC, now it's grossly unfair to just PSU and duhO$U.....
I really think it's no more complicated than that, so even though they haven't been declared protected rivals, I would be very surprised if USC and PSU don't play each other every year until further expansion occurs.
I really think it's no more complicated than that, so even though they haven't been declared protected rivals, I would be very surprised if USC and PSU don't play each other every year until further expansion occurs.
So which road opponent will we open conference play with each year?
I agree with everything but your conclusion.
I think OSU will be in our next "two-play"...along with Maryland, and UCLA. We play UM or USC in 2026 or 2027. There's your "2 of the 3" powers we'd play each year.
And I think UM gets USC as their "two-play"...so they get a schedule just as tough as OSU.
Don't think that would work if we played both duhO$U and scUM as that would mean USC misses all three (i.e., PSU, duhO$U and scUM will have already played 2 of 3 in all playing each other).... OR if USC plays duhO$U and scUM, USC and PSU have a slight advantage only playing 2 of 3 and duhO$U and scUM both play 3 of 3. Just don't see this league doing that to duhO$U and scUM.
Well, we could go back to ending the year with Pitt. That’s close to playing a high school team.
We drew bigger crowds than Pitt when I played at Southern.Well, we could go back to ending the year with Pitt. That’s close to playing a high school team.
No, I did not look at that closely. Maybe some wishful thinking involved, thinking that the USC-Notre Dame game was done for a while, but it isn't. They play on Nov. 30. Then we probably will get them in September or early October.
Probably Delaware state2025 home schedule-
Villanova
Nevada
Illinois
Minnesota
Rutgers
UCLA
That last OOC game better be a good one and not Temple or Delaware.
Why go out of state when we have Lehigh and Bloomsburg instate.
You serious? I’d argue rivalry games (and the overall traditions of college football) are what make the game special.
No, it's not--in fact conference realignment has proven otherwise. People just want to hang onto it because it meant something to them. Pitt-Penn State dying didn't have any negative impact on Penn State. Even living in Pittsburgh I couldn't care less that they don't play. I haven't once missed it. Same with West Virginia, Syracuse, etc. I just wish they didn't schedule horrible OOC games.
Forget Pitt/Penn State because that game has been irrelevant since the 80s- there’s still very real, very meaningful rivalry games today such as Ohio State/Michigan, Alabama/Auburn, etc.
Obviously the game will go on whether we revert to regional rivalries or whether the nationwide ‘super league’ becomes a reality. But, you can’t tell me that the game has the same charm without those traditions.
I like the USC games both in ‘24 & ‘25. It would be nice for that to continue….could turn into a nice “rivalry” game.
If Bama left the SEC for the Big Ten and never played Auburn again the only people who would truly care are Auburn fans. When Nebraska (or Colorado for example) left the Big 8 life went on. The only issue for both was the quality of play dropped.
I'm sure some people are happy Penn State is playing West Virginia this year but I'd drop that "rivalry" game for countless other games. The loss of tradition honestly doesn't hurt the overall perception.
I have nothing against Pitt but I don't want to play them because those game matter 40 years ago. Just being honest.
I just want the super league to happen...its about 30 years overdue
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