Look what you’ve done Big Ten basketball. Tonight brings us the first edition of this…..with another edition ten days later and a possible third, just six days after. Think about what you’ve done Big Ten basketball schedule makers.
Rutgers (6-21, 0-14 in Big Ten play) versus Minnesota basketball (7-19, 1-13) is about as horrid as the game that began with a peach basket can get. It’s a contest of teams that have combined to go 13-40 overall, 1-25 in Big Ten play.
If Real Madrid versus Barcelona is “El Classico,” then this is El Assico. (trademark @hammerandrails, the SB Nation Purdue community) Also, trademark @edsbs, Spencer Hall, SB Nation Editor for labeling Iowa-Iowa State the football El Assico.
Meanwhile, Purdue versus Indiana is Big Ten basketball El Classico, and they just reminded you of this fact Saturday night. That’s the only Hoosiers-Boilermakers meeting you’ll get this year. There isn’t a second one on the schedule; sorry!
But we’re about just complaining and criticizing (at least not in this post), we’re about solutions. Our good friends at Hammer and Rails, SB Nation’s Purdue community has offered up the perfect plan to fix the broken Big Ten basketball schedule. Travis Miller has
“a better solution,” and in it, you can fix the currently broken Big Ten basketball schedule thanks to overexpansion.
First, you protect the following rivalries so these teams play twice every season, home and home:
Purdue-Indiana – Duh. It’s the best basketball rivalry in the conference.
Michigan-Ohio State – Football, basketball, poker, chess, tiddlywinks. These two would make a great rivalry game in anything, so getting them twice in basketball is only natural.
Wisconsin-Minnesota – They aren’t quite at the level of hatred between Ohio State-Michigan and Purdue-Indiana, but there is no love lost here.Northwestern-Illinois – It’s a natural in-state rivalry and Northwestern could use two game every year against a team that, in most seasons, is an NCAA Tournament threat. I mean, did you see their non-conference schedule this year? Northwestern needs help.
Iowa-Nebraska – This has grown quite naturally across several sports since the Cornhuskers joined the Big Ten, so it definitely makes sense.
Michigan State-Maryland – Our first major stretch, but is it? Michigan State has been the premier team in the Big Ten for nearly two decades now. Maryland has been a national power in that time too. The Spartans don’t back down from non-conference scheduling and Maryland is always looking for big basketball games, so this one just feels organic even without it being a natural rivalry. They have already played three pretty good games and I don’t think anyone would really be disappointed with two Maryland-Michigan State games because we’re not idiots and we like good basketball.
Penn State-Rutgers – Yeah, they are the two leftover teams, but being bordering states, east coast programs, and both wanting to recruiting the NYC-Philly area it can grow. It at least makes sense from that perspective. Also, it is Rutgers and Penn State. We’re not exactly creating a gross mismatch here. If they want to gripe about it they should build a program and make us care.
So, with your 18 game Big Ten schedule you now have two games taken care of every season. That leaves 16 other games to schedule against the remaining 12 teams. That makes it very, very easy to make an even schedule where fans of every program get to see every Big Ten team at least once every two seasons and everyone gets a home and home against everyone else once every three seasons.
Read the plan in its entirety here.
Well done sir! Rejoice Big Ten basketball fans. Notice how he hit most of the rivalry games that Northwestern Coach Chris Collins said should be protected following the Illini-NU game?
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Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram