It's so NU can catch a breather ( including Rutgers) before crap hits the fan.Is there a reason we don't push one or two of our non-conf games out into October or November? It would give us a breather from the brutal part of our Big Ten schedule. The SEC teams do it nearly every year. Just think about how much more balanced the 2020 schedule would be if we swapped the South Dakota State and Penn State dates around.
Also, WTH is up with schedulng a bye week between Illinois and Rutgers? Do we have no control whatsoever over our scheduling? What a waste of a bye.