Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I hate when BTN has an old replay, but its basketball and not football.  I wish they'd include the sport in the description.  I need to watch old basketball like I need a hole in the head.

I'm good with it during basketball season. But from the second one shining moment plays through New Year's Day, why play anything but classic college football. Yesterday they were playing classic college field hockey for some reason. Is there some sort of mandate in their bylines that they have to do that? There can't be any way in hell anyone is watching that. I played soccer. I love soccer. I watch soccer when Michigan State is playing on BTN. When they play Michigan State advancing to the final four or winning a big 10 title in soccer as a classic, there is no chance in hell I'm watching that.

The If they have to have access to all of the archives, so why keep replying the same ? I cannot watch Michigan State beat Georgia in triple overtime in the outback Bowl. One more time. But hell, show me a random meaningless game from 1993 where Indiana beat Illinois on a late field goal. I likely didn't watch it at the time, probably knew it happened, and would definitely watch it now.  I don't need to see the overplayed "classics" again

from Sam McKewon = Omaha weird herald

The Big Ten's physicality
The Big Ten’s physicality will be a shock to both football programs, especially to the defensive front seven.

A fact to tuck away: Nebraska did not rank in the Big Ten’s top half in rushing yards allowed per game until its fifth season, 2015. Rutgers and Maryland still haven’t done it in eight seasons.

Remember when Scott Frost, in his first season, remarked that NU wasn't there from a strength-and-size standpoint to compete with Wisconsin and Iowa?

The Huskers have, after a decade, made the final and full transition.

Physicality isn't the issue. UCLA and USC face a long, punishing climb in that regard.

Scheduling
Sixteen teams makes for a perfect 3-6-6 scheduling model. Three opponents who play each year and six home-and-away opponents that switch out every two years.

The question is: Does the Big Ten choose to do so in four team pods — that is, four teams in one group playing round-robin within the quartet — or are just two teams tethered together?

USC and UCLA will play each other every year. Will their annual Big Ten foes be the same as well?

At one time it made sense for Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin to get their own table for chemistry class. Now?

Perhaps Nebraska draws Iowa annually, but has UCLA and, dare we say, a team from what soon could be the old Big Ten East? If the latter is true, Michigan State, please.

Winning teams
UCLA and USC routinely produce winning teams across many sports.

In the past 10 years of the Director’s Cup, the Bruins and Trojans have an average finish of 6.8 and 6.7.

UCLA’s last two finishes, 13th and 15th, were its two lowest in the decade and the only two outside the top 10.

I'm surprised jNW is such an important game for the Hawkeyes.

The SEC had schools submit their top 5 and will try to give them 3 from those 5.

many Hawk alums in Chitown

This is true. Typically, in my era about 20-25% of the entering freshman were from the Chicago area. And, there is geography: Northwestern is the 2nd closest Big Ten school to Iowa City, after Wisconsin.
However, the teams Iowa has played most frequently are:
Minnesota 115 games
Wisconsin    95 games
Purdue        92 games
Northwestern 83 games
There is an argument for Purdue being an Iowa rival. Northwestern is an easier drive. Nebraska trails by a longshot in overall games played against Iowa - just 52x, most of which were from 1891 through 1946. Scheduling the Iowa-Nebraska game during rivalry week on Black Friday with a potential national audience, helps propel it as a rivalry game.

PJ likes water sports

nice try

the mississippi schools along with Arkansas and Mizzou get screwed

If you begin by realizing someone's going to get screwed, then it's not such a crime.  
btw, I don't know how Missouri gets screwed, because I don't even know how to screw them.  Their top rival (KU) isn't in the SEC.  They've played in the East, but are actually in the west.  If you came up with 3 "good" opponents for them and 3 "screwed" ones, I'm not sure I could tell the difference.
As long as the MS schools get each other, I'm not sure the rest matters for them.
Arkansas should simply advocate for pod play, as they'd be with UTA, A&M, and OU.  But any of those would make them happy, especially Texas.
The difficulty as I see it is which programs facing Vandy or MSU every year see it as a nice W to have and which see it as a weak-schedule-I'd-rather-have-Team X.