[NU Sports] Purdue "Rivalry" (was "Classic, thy name is Northwestern...")

[JHCCLARK at aol.com]

Yes, I remember this.

A while after Penn State joined, the conference realized that the random choices of 2-year conference schedules was unfair, especially (I believe) when teams missed both Michigan and Ohio State for 2 years straight, or (as happened to NU) missed both OSU & PSU in 1999 & 2000.

They explored a 9-game conference schedule (which, with an 11-team conference, was mathematically impossible) and a 10-game round robin schedule (which left only one non-conference game at the time).  

Then some math whiz found that if you divided the conference into 3 groups, you could regulate the missed teams on a permanent schedule.  The groups were:

GROUP A:  Iowa - Minnesota - Wisconsin
GROUP B:  Illinois - Indiana - Northwestern - Purdue
GROUP C:  Michigan - Michigan State - Ohio State - Penn State

Each team would have two "rivals" from their group, which they would always play.  For example, Iowa had Minny & Wisky, and Michigan was given Michigan State & Ohio State.  For us, it was Illinos and either Purdue or Indiana, and as Illinois-Indiana seemed like a better rivalry than Northwestern-Indiana, we got Purdue.

The schedules were then easier to make, as every two-year HOME/away cycle occurred, a team missed two teams that were not "rivals", each missed team coming from a different group, so that no team missed both Michigan and Ohio State in the same two-year cycle.

For (B)Northwestern, it plays out like this (teams missed, letters indicating groups):

(A)Iowa/(C)Michigan State
(A)Minnesota/(C)Penn State
(A)Wisconsin/(C)Michigan
(B)Indiana/(C)Ohio State
   but always playing (B)Illinois & (B)Purdue

For (A)Wisconsin, it could be:

(B)Illinois/(C)Michigan
(B)Indiana/(C)Michigan State
(B)Northwestern/(C)Ohio State
(B)Purdue/(C)Penn State
   but always playing (A)Iowa & (A)Minnesota.

For (C)Michigan, it could be:

(A)Iowa/(B)Illinois
(A)Minnesota/(B)Indiana (UMush misses Minny 2 years out of 8)
(A)Wisconsin/(B)Northwestern
(C)Penn State/(B)Purdue
   but always playing (C)Ohio State & (C)Michigan State.

Note:  Ohio State always plays Michigan and Penn State each year, as those are considered its "rivals".  Michigan does not always play Penn State, but rather gets Michigan State.

In a message dated 10/6/2007 2:23:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time, CHerron604 at aol.com writes:

>Does anybody remember the rationale for making Purdue our 'other' protected conference foe ?  Illinois was obvious - Did Wisconsin already have 2  natural rivals (Minnesota, obviously).  
> 
>PS - Doesn't Minnesota have natural rivalries with Iowa (Floyd), Wisconsin (Paul's axe) and Michigan (the jug) ?  Does one of those disappear from  time to time ?
> 
>Chuck Herron   Tech '85