Ohio St should be the Illini's other protected rival; notes on Big Ten football scheduling

With Big Ten play starting tomorrow, let's take a quick look at how conference scheduling works. The college football regular season is 14-15 weeks long, starting on either the last weekend of August or the first weekend of September, extending through to the first weekend of December. Teams can play up to 12 regular season games (not including conference championships), the exception being if they play at Hawaii (off the mainland) then they are allowed up to 13 contests.

Big Ten conference play is a block of 9 weeks, beginning at the end of September or the start of October. Each team plays 8 games (4 home, 4 away), with a bye week. By now we all should know that the Illini play Western Michigan in Detroit (!!!) November 8 during their Big Ten bye.

The Big Ten preferred completion date to conference play is the weekend before Thanksgiving (insert joke about Big Ten teams in bowls on 50-day layoffs), although from time to time due to calendar issues it gets pushed to Thanksgiving weekend.

Protected rivalries

In 1997 the Big Ten began the "protected rivalries" scheduling scheme, which mandates that you're stuck with two teams every season in football no matter if you're their rival or not.

The Illini's protected rivals are Northwestern (makes sense) and Indiana (makes no sense). Keeping the in-state series intact is a no-brainer, the Illini have played the Wildcats 101 times—more than any other opponent. On the other hand Illinois and Indiana have played on only 64 occasions, which ranks 7th on the Illini's list of game played against.

The Illini's 2nd protected rival should be Ohio St. The Illini and Buckeyes have played 94 times—second only to Northwestern—and until recently had an impressive consecutive streak going: 89-straight contests from 1914 to 2002.

Unfortunately when this scheme was cooked up in the mid-1990s Illinois was bottoming out under Lou Tepper and Penn St was a national power. Thus, a make-believe rivalry was born between Ohio St and Penn St.

Big Ten protected rivalries

Team	Protected rivals
Illinois	Indiana, Northwestern
Indiana	Illinois, Purdue
Iowa	Minnesota, Wisconsin
Michigan	Michigan St, Ohio St
Michigan St	Michigan, Penn St
Minnesota	Iowa, Wisconsin
Northwestern	Illinois, Purdue
Ohio St	Michigan, Penn St
Penn St	Michigan St, Ohio St
Purdue	Indiana, Northwestern
Wisconsin	Iowa, Minnesota

With the 8-game schedule in an 11-team league, the Big Ten has a 2-year rotation of 2 teams that are not on a league member's conference schedule. Ohio St is next off the schedule in 2011-2012 (booo!).

Big Ten teams off Illinois' schedule

Seasons	Teams not on schedule
1997-1998	Michigan, Minnesota
1999-2000	Purdue, Wisconsin
2001-2002	Iowa, Michigan St
2003-2004	Ohio St, Penn St
2005-2006	Michigan, Minnesota
2007-2008	Michigan St, Purdue
2009-2010	Iowa, Wisconsin
2011-2012	Minnesota, Ohio St

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Filed under: Illini Football, Ohio State Buckeyes