B1G has a murders row schedule this week

That’s awful. I can’t believe that doesn’t violate their TV contract somehow.

Not a single decent game. Rooting for the Spartans is about the only thing there

With the expanded CFP, it’s smart scheduling. No need to play tough out of conference games anymore

Must see TV for sure…..

At least VT & Maryland is interesting.

The rest? Yuck.

Absolutely pathetic conference.

Geez. There’s only 2 conference games.

Pussy arse Sankey folded and agreed to a 9 game schedule for these shitheads!

And their media deal is much better than the SECs

Atta boy Sankey

quote:

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It's not about cupcakes, everyone does it. The question is why the Big Ten scheduled zero compelling games for week 3. Their premiere time slot features Kent State.

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The Big Ten's OOC scheduling is really uneven this year - it's good or really good in spots (OSU, Oregon, Michigan, Wisconsin, Michigan State) and really awful in spots (Indiana, Penn State, USC, Washington, Nebraska, Illinois).

The problem is A) they don't begin the conference in earnest until next week and B) that almost every program scheduled a trash opponent this week. The SEC's are more spread out the rest of the year (with a cluster still in that weekend before Thanksgiving) than the Big Ten's are.

I am fully aware that it's tough to know how good your opponents are going to be ahead of time, and I know this goes both ways (especially for Indiana), but the SEC only has one game this year against a truly top tier non-SEC team (this past weekend) of the 4 - 5 legitimate national title contenders outside the conference.

The move to the nine conference game schedule is going to make this worse and worse, as you won't know how good your team truly is without the 12 - 15 extra P4 inter-conference data points that there were even a couple of years ago. This past weekend's Mississippi State game was a great example: 3+ years ago, you would have like 4 or more mid-tier power conference on power conference games just like that that proved to be illustrative in late November.

Part of the problem is that there's still this mindset among the mid-tier teams that getting to a winning record and being bowl eligible is important. It no longer really is - your best players won't play, and the resources and energy are better spent towards figuring out next year's roster rather than on bowl practice. A program like Illinois or similar would be better off taking on a genuine giant, try to knock them off early in the season, go 7 - 2 in conference, and try to backdoor their way into the playoffs rather than be a nothing 10 - 2 in conference with OOC wins against Eastern Michigan, Furman, and UMass. They've underestimated the upside.