This weekend Wisconsin renews its young rivalry with Iowa as the Badgers and Hawkeyes clash in the sixth edition of the battle for the Heartland Trophy, a game fans should be excited for.
One of the best parts of college football is annual rivalries, whether or not hardware is at stake. Unfortunately Wisconsin only has two truly annual match-ups on its schedule; the other one being its fixture with Minnesota.
Big Ten scheduling is based on a rotation. Every two years. another rotation begins in which a given team in the conference does not play two of its fellow Big Ten members. In this current setup, the Badgers do not play Illinois and Penn State. The previous two years Wisconsin was not matched up against Northwestern and Purdue, and the rotation before that left Ohio State and Michigan State out of Wisconsin's schedule.
Besides messing with the continuity of annual Big Ten match-ups, this schedule also creates an imbalance in the league.
In 2006, Wisconsin finished the season 12-1 and the No. 5 team in the nation, but there was a catch. The Badgers didn't have to face the Buckeyes, who ended up playing for the National Championship that season.
Michigan, meanwhile, was 11-0 before the Wolverines had to make a trip to Columbus, where they dropped their first and only game of the regular season. If the Wolverines played, say, Purdue, instead of the then-No. 1 Buckeyes, what are the chances Michigan finishes with an undefeated season and an opportunity to play for the BCS National Championship?
The current Big Ten scheduling format is problematic on these two levels; that it alters the idea of annual conference match-ups, and that it generates an uneven playing field for the Big Ten teams.
The Big Ten is the only BCS conference in which each team does not either play every other team in its conference, or in its subdivision. The Big East and the Pac-10 members all play each and every one one of their conference mates every season. And the SEC, Big 12 and the ACC have each divided their respective conference into two divisions to maintain annual scheduling continuity.
What holds the Big Ten from improving its scheduling policies is its number of schools.
With 11 teams, the Big Ten is stuck between a rock and a hard place; the number of teams is too large to use an all-inclusive schedule, yet too small to divide the conference into two divisions.
A solution is to add another team.
The Big Ten should look into the Big East. It has the worst football reputation within the BCS conferences, thus any school hoping to improve its football program should leap at the chance to join the Big Ten.
One choice is Pittsburgh. The Panthers have a respectable football program more than qualified for the Big Ten. Pitt joining the Big Ten makes plenty of sense geographically, and would also renew its long-lost rivalry with Penn State. The only qualm the school may have with joining the Big Ten is it would be a major step down for its basketball program, for a school where basketball may come first.
A failsafe option would be to look to the MAC, which is geographically right in the heart of the Big Ten. Sure, the MAC doesn't have the football reputation as a major conference such as the Big East, but it's still home to some solid programs. Central Michigan hasn't had a losing season since 2004, and Northern Illinois is a possible squad on the rise, having already knocked off a Big Ten team this season.
The Big Ten considers itself a football conference, but its scheduling format holds it back. It's time to add another team, a conference championship game, and a real college football schedule.
