With the addition of Rutgers and Maryland and coupled with the B1G moving to a 9 game conference season there are lots of schedule changes and with that comes strange match ups and reactions.
The B1G just put out their press release and it is full of all kinds of interesting nuggets and here are some of the notable tidbits…
The Big Ten announced the conference schedules for the 2016 and 2017 football seasons today, featuring nine-game slates for every Big Ten program for the first time since 1984. The 2016 season gets underway on Oct. 1 in advance of the Big Ten Football Championship Game, slated for Dec. 3. The 2017 season will open on Sept. 2 and conclude with the Big Ten Football Championship Game on Dec. 2. The complete 2016 and 2017 conference schedules can be found on the PDFs at the top of the page.
Of real notice there was not only will the B1G go to a 9 game season but they will also start playing conference games as early as the first week of the season. A real change from the normal start Conf. games after all Non-conf games are over usually first week of Oct.
As a result of the nine-game conference schedule and the Big Ten’s schedule rotation, every student-athlete will have the opportunity to play against every other team in the conference at least once during a four-year period.
Personally I think it is great that they made sure every player who stays for at least 4 years will have a chance to play each of the 13 other schools. Though that will make for some weird scheduling situations like this…
Quirk of schedules: Michigan will play at Michigan State in three out of four years: '13, '14 and '16.
— Rittenberg/Bennett (@ESPN_BigTen) July 11, 2013
Here are some other notable info from the @ESPN_BigTen twitter account…
Michigan fares well in ’16, with no Nebraska and Northwestern from the West, UW at home. OSU plays Nebraska, UW and Northwestern that year.
Purdue avoids Michigan, Michigan State & Ohio State in ’16. Miss OSU, MSU and PSU in ’17. Somewhere, Darrell Hazell smiles.
Earlier Big Ten games include IU-Ohio State opener in ’17, two Week 3 games that year (Neb-Rutgers, Mich-Purdue).
That last tweet shows you that Ohio State and Indiana will have the first game of the 2017 season on opening weekend.
In 2016 OSU has home games against Rutgers, Indiana, Northwestern, Nebraska, and TTUN. Away games at Wisconsin, Penn St., Maryland, and Michigan St.
In 2017 OSU has home games against Maryland, Penn St., Michigan St., and Illinois. Away games at Indiana, Rutgers, Nebraska, Iowa, and TTUN.
I don’t see a lot to complain about with these schedules… OSU is always given a much harder schedule than anyone else and that won’t change really any time soon.