CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: Hawkinole on August 16, 2025, 06:12:01 PM
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I was musing today about Iowa’s misfortune of having to play at Ohio State again in 2024—marking the second consecutive matchup in Columbus. Curious whether this reflected a broader scheduling imbalance, I turned to MCubed to examine whether the Big Ten has historically operated as a home-and-home conference. The answer, it turns out, is no.
Iowa has faced Michigan 61 times, with 35 games played in Ann Arbor and only 26 in Iowa City.
Against Ohio State, the disparity is even greater: 67 total matchups, with 41 in Columbus and just 26 In Iowa City.
Iowa's only other Big Ten opponent with a home-away gap exceeding four games is Northwestern. Iowa has hosted Northwestern 46 times, while traveling to Evanston or Chicago 40 times.
When the College Football Data Warehouse website was up, I recall Iowa played Chicago about 4x more in Chicago than in Iowa City.
I am curious if Michigan and Ohio State have similar home and away scheduling advantages with other Big Ten schools, too.
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For Ohio State I used Stassen from 1913-2023.
I started with 1913 because that was Ohio State's first year in the league and stopped with 2023 because they haven't updated to include 2024.
- 100 games against Michigan: 49 H, 51 A
- 92 Illinois: 46 H, 44 A, 2 N
- 87 Indiana: 57 H, 30 A
- 78 Wisconsin: 38 H, 37 A, 3 N
- 75 Northwestern: 37 H, 35 A, 3 N
- 65 Iowa: 39 H, 26 A
- 56 Purdue: 32 H, 23 A, 1 N
- 53 Minnesota: 27 H, 26 A
- 51 Michigan State: 26 H, 24 A, 1 N
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Northwestern played a few OSU home games in the Browns stadium, back when they were just beyond dreadful. So that explains the numbers there.
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Northwestern played a few OSU home games in the Browns stadium, back when they were just beyond dreadful. So that explains the numbers there.
When who was dreadful, the Browns, or Northwestern?
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Microsoft Copilot says that in the 1950s and 1960s Big Ten teams shared 50% of their gate receipts directly with visiting conference teams. At some point this evolved, and during the 2000s Big Ten teams share 35% of gate receipts into a pool for the entire conference. I am not sure this information is accurate, but it would explain why conference schools' with few gate receipts would be okay playing more road games at Ohio State and Michigan, than home games.
The stated rationale is, "This system helps maintain competitive balance and reflects the Big Ten’s long-standing philosophy of conference-first economics. It’s one of the few leagues that still does this—most others let schools keep all gate revenue."
Frankly, from a fan's standpoint, I prefer home-and-home.
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this shouldn't surprise anyone
the conference has been taking care of the big 2 forever and it doesn't appear it's gonna change anytime soon
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When who was dreadful, the Browns, or Northwestern?
Both
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Both
I only gave two choices, and you chose both. I presumed it wasn't the Buckeyes.
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Wouldn't the "conference" be interested in having other teams being competitive on a near annual basis? Wouldn't interest be greater if on occasion Minnesota won, or PSU, or Nebraska, or Purdue (spitballin'). Since say 1970, how often has another team won the Big Ten (Rose Bowl appearances would be OK)? Is that good or bad?
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history has spoken
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From 1968 through 1980, only OSU or M went to the Rose Bowl.
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I opine more parity would be fiscally better.
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Headquarters is not in agreement.
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I think the "SEC model" is better, entering the season there are 6-7 fan bases with realistic hopes of winning the conference, or at least making the CG. And programs that aren't in that group could be in the future, have been in the past.
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fOregon won the B1G last year.
Does anyone care?
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Oregon fans likely cared. Fans are more enthused when they can aspire to winning the conference, IMHO.
It maybe isn't as bad in the B1G as history could suggest, as fan bases at Oregon and PSU can realistically aspire to winning the conference, along with OSU/UM. USC at least has some historical cred along with Nebraska, and one could see teams like Iowa/Minn/Ill/Ind creeping into the mix these days.
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Winning the B1G now, more than ever, is all about schedule.
Compare and contrast:
(https://i.imgur.com/EHESlJq.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/uREbqeA.png)
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fOregon won the B1G last year.
Does anyone care?
I honestly didn't remember who won the B1G last year. I knew it wasn't tOSU or Michigan but I thought it was Indiana or Illinois or some surprise team like that.
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Oregon beat PSU in the B1G CCG last year. Not that anyone cares.
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I only gave two choices, and you chose both. I presumed it wasn't the Buckeyes.
The Buckeyes weren't great at the time but they were far from dreadful. There is a bit of a misstatement in here because @Brutus Buckeye (https://www.cfb51.com/index.php?action=profile;u=31) said that Northwestern played "a few" OSU home games in the Browns stadium" but it was actually only one. The other two neutral site games between tOSU and Northwestern were the 2018 and 2020 B1G Championship Games in Indianapolis.
The one tOSU/NU neutral site regular season game was on October 19, 1991 in Cleveland. That was during their dreadful phase and right before they finally improved. Northwestern had back-to-back winning seasons in 1970 and 1971 but unfortunately for them that was before the league allowed non-champions to play in bowls. Also, those good seasons were the exception for them, not the rule. Prior to going 6-4 in 1970 they had six consecutive losing seasons from 1964-1969. After the winning seasons in 1970 and 1971 they went 23 seasons (1972-1994) without a winning record. During that time they were winless in:
- 1978 0-10-1
- 1980 0-11
- 1981 0-11
- 1989 0-11
In the six seasons from 1976-1981 they won three games, 3-62-1.
For their part, the Buckeyes were good but not great at that time. 1991 was the fifth consecutive season of four or more losses for the Buckeyes. For most programs that wouldn't be all that unusual but for Ohio State I'm nearly certain that the five seasons from 1987-1991 is the only such streak in program history or at least since WWI.
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Oregon beat PSU in the B1G CCG last year. Not that anyone cares.
I truly had no idea. The only CCG I watched was the one with my team in it. Pretty much the same for the playoffs. I'm really losing interest, I'm sad to say. Or maybe, not even that sad to say.
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Winning the B1G now, more than ever, is all about schedule.
I've been banging this drum since the expansion to 18. @Mdot21 (https://www.cfb51.com/index.php?action=profile;u=1595) LOVES to point out that Ohio State finished 4th in the B1G last year and that is fair, I'd do the same thing if the roles were reversed but it is also incredibly misleading. Ohio State played the other three top-4 teams with two of those games being on the road and ended up with:
- A road loss by a single point
- A solid road win
- A blowout home win
The other three, the ONLY top-4 game for each of them was when they had to play Ohio State.
Wisconsin's schedule is brutal this year. I don't know if Fickell is the right guy in Madison but it would be unfair to him to not take SoS into account when evaluating his performance at the end of this year.
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I often forget who won the SEC last year.