I blame Big Ten Expansion.
Football wise, Maryland was in the ACC & Rutgers in the Patriot League were they belonged, maybe PSU & Iowa could wrestle almost every season.
EDIT - El-Jefe. Thanks a ton for the list of interesting matches. Bravo.
It's a numbers game. And yes, expansion is part of it. Even without Rutgers and Maryland, Iowa would still roll off the schedule with the current model, just less often.
More teams in the conference (13 possible opponents), competition date limits (16), and the philosophy to fairly rotate all teams in the conference on and off other's schedules in a 9-match season has lead to what we have. I am personally OK with our "rivalry" team being tOSU, btw, as they appear to be the #1 competition in the near future.
I won't blame anyone. In a big picture sense, it's a fair scheduling model. And I say that as a fan that would love to see Iowa v PSU every year. I just don't get too lathered up about it. Just me, I guess.
There are conference efforts/plans/considerations, if I understand everything that's been said to me, to review the scheduling model. Part of that consideration is have the Iowa's and PSU's wrestle each other each year. In a vacuum, sounds great...more top teams wrestling each other means more fan interest, and surely more revenue. From a totally selfish perspective, it's awesome...right?? Long term, not sure where that leaves the bottom tier of teams in the conference.