[NU Sports] Future Big Ten Schedule

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> Re: the Illini not being the last game of the season
> every year,  playing 
> them then is a fairly recent development, I think. 

It's gone back and forth. We played them at the end a
lot in the 80s (from '83 to '90 we played UI to end
the year all but '84 - when we played them in the
opener!) ... then in the 90s, we mixed it up with
Wisconsin, Iowa, Purdue, Penn State and Ill-noise all
ending our seasons. Before the 80s, we ended our
season with a mix as well - including MSU, Ohio State,
Wisky, Illini, etc.

In recent years, the league has tried to schedule the
"rival" for the final weekend -- the problem comes in
the "tri-rivals" of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisky.
Recently, they've had those two games the last two
weeks of the year with a team getting the final week
as a bye -- Iowa had it, now Wisconsin does. But
PU-IU, MSU-PSU, OSU-UM and NU-UI were always the final
weekend. Dunno why that switched. But I'm fine with
ending the year with the hated Illini and hated
Badgers!

> West Lafayette?  (BTW, UM is off the schedule fairly
> frequently - didn't 
> play 'em in 94, either.)

Yup - that happened a lot when the Big Ten "weighted"
its schedule - giving the average "bottom feeders"
over a 5-year span or whatever -- such as NU and
Wisconsin in the old days -- a break from the typical
powers over that same span, i.e. OSU and UM. NU's
series of games against the Buckeyes and Wolverines is
far fewer than against other Big Ten schools.

But that changed around 2000 as well. Now you will
rotate missing everybody equally, save for your two
designated "natural rivals," grouped below:

NU - Illinois, Purdue
PU - NU and Indiana
UI - NU and Indiana
IU - Purdue and Illinois
---
OSU - PSU and Michigan
PSU - MSU and OSU
UM - OSU and MSU
MSU - OSU and PSU
---
UW - Iowa and Minny
UM - Iowa and Wisky
Iowa - UW and UM

GO CATS!!!
Go Big Ten!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!

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