B1G Exploring Early Season Conference Games

[Mavric]

One quirk of the recent Big Ten expansion is that Penn State and Rutgers already had scheduled a pair of September nonconference games. Thus, their meeting in Week 3 this season functions as a league contest.

Outside of that exception, however, the Big Ten schedule is following a well-worn path: Teams take on out-of-league competition throughout September, and then conference action begins in October.

That will soon change. Thanks to both the arrival of the nine-game conference schedule in 2016 and a desire by the league to get its most-desired games front and center, the Big Ten is planning to stage more conference games early in the season, including opening week.

The league has already released its schedules through the 2019 season, which include two opening-week conference games: Ohio State-Indiana in 2017 and Purdue-Northwestern in 2018. At last month's Big Ten joint meetings, athletic directors were presented with models for September conference games well into the 2020s, including the possibilities for two or more Big Ten games in Week 1.

 

ESPN

[teachercd]

I like it, I think it will be more fun.

[ColoradoHusk]

The SEC uses early season conference games to pump up the overall "success" of the conference. If a Top 10 SEC team loses early in the season to a conference foe, they aren't punished very much because "it's losing to another SEC team". Meanwhile, the SEC team that can pull off a supposed "early-season upset" can shoot up the rankings.

 

The perfect example of this is So. Carolina vs. Texas A&M last year in the season opener for both. A&M shot up the rankings after beating So. Carolina last year, and the Gamecocks weren't penalized very much. It turns out they were both frauds in 2014. But SEC teams were helped by beating highly ranked A&M and South Carolina teams later in September and October.

[Creed]

The SEC uses early season conference games to pump up the overall "success" of the conference. If a Top 10 SEC team loses early in the season to a conference foe, they aren't punished very much because "it's losing to another SEC team". Meanwhile, the SEC team that can pull off a supposed "early-season upset" can shoot up the rankings.

 

The perfect example of this is So. Carolina vs. Texas A&M last year in the season opener for both. A&M shot up the rankings after beating So. Carolina last year, and the Gamecocks weren't penalized very much. It turns out they were both frauds in 2014. But SEC teams were helped by beating highly ranked A&M and South Carolina teams later in September and October.

Yeah, the SEC teams just kept flip flopping in the polls when playing each other.

 

I do like the early season conference games. There are very few interesting games early in the year and would be nice to have a few decent conference match ups then. With the SEC there seemed to be such a buzz that first weekend of CFB especially opening night with A&M vs SCar as the only game on TV, played in front of a packed house. Then in the later Thursday game the B1G trotted out Minny vs East BuFu U played to a near empty house. Poor marketing by the conference IMO.

[StPaulHusker]

I think this is a must to stay "competitive". I think anything that the "stronger" conferences do within the rules should be mimicked.

[Landlord]

 

The perfect example of this is So. Carolina vs. Texas A&M last year in the season opener for both. A&M shot up the rankings after beating So. Carolina last year, and the Gamecocks weren't penalized very much. It turns out they were both frauds in 2014. But SEC teams were helped by beating highly ranked A&M and South Carolina teams later in September and October.

 

 

But in the end, everyone knew they were both frauds. So who cares what people think two-three weeks in?

[shyndy]

True but the other teams got early quality wins against these teams and it bolstered their spot in the rankings

[papersun87]

can't wait for the winner of Rutgers/Purdue to skyrocket into the top ten.

[Creed]

Bored at work so went thru Wikipedia OSU fball schedules by year and noticed OSU had conference games in weeks 1 and 2 back in early 80s & 70s so it's been done before -

[Redux]

I have been hoping for this for a couple years now. I would love to play Iowa or Minnesota in week 1 or 2 on a regular basis. Make the opening games mean something PLUS leave a spot open for a patsy later in the year when you need a break before rivalry week. Aka SEC.