Man I will give you credit. You definitely go for the jugular on your word usage lol
In the position Illinois football is in, ESPECIALLY in the seasons in question, that would be total insanity. Treasonous, is the word that springs to mind.And it's not unreasonable to play Mizzou the same year as Kansas or Duke.
This:
http://www.fbschedules.com/2016/10/big-ten-count-fresno-state-power-five-opponent/
Apparently Illinois has no "Power Five" opponent scheduled for 2017, 2018, 2019, or 2020. Wondering if there's any chance of the Illini trying to make a change to any of those schedules to comply with the Big Ten's "strength of schedule commitment".
UConn is specifically exempted and our schedules for the next two years with South Florida were set before this came down.
Now, this Minnesota thing shows that these Big Ten regulations are absolutely toothless. Minny clearly complained about having to schedule a Power Five opponent in a year in which they travel to Fresno State and the conference allowed an exception without having to admit they're allowing an exception for one of their weakest programs, but there we are.
Setting up our weak future non-conference schedules well out into the future was one of the best things MT did as AD. It's a tremendous advantage for the rebuilding of this program.
I am still a little surprised the Illini haven't at least tried to replace South Florida (assuming they haven't.)
Why would we pay money to break contracts in order to schedule games we would surely lose, when the Big Ten specifically grandfathered in those games?
Appears as though Mizzou's football fortunes have turned. I know scheduling Mizzou again has been discussed and is not feasible until well into the future, but man would I like to have them on our schedule in 2-3 years.
MU Season Hits Low Spot in Homecoming Loss to Middle Tennessee
Sure they are not what they were back in the days of the arch rivalry game, but for now I would still have to chalk them up as a L on the schedule. However, since we have to schedule a P5, why not re-establish the rivalry game.
Curious if most people would prefer it to be a home and home or back in STL?
The incentive is $$$$. Instead of playing Florida A&M, the school plays better competition, which means more gate, concession, and apparel revenue in the stadium, plus greater incentive for ESPN to put the game on their main channel or during a better time slot. You also don't have to pay another school $900,000+ to visit.
Curious if most people would prefer it to be a home and home or back in STL?
The Big Ten has some sort of gate revenue sharing plan for conference games, where a portion of the gate receipts, capped at $1 million per game (at one time), goes to the conference and is distributed equally. Schools like Illinois and Indiana usually end up getting more than what they put in.Do confernce schools, Big Ten specifically, pay any amount to other conference schools? Or is it just assumed it is made up ($$) with home and home?
USF is going to be a tough game for us in 2017 and 2018. Anyone interested in seeing them play, they are on ESPN2 vs navy right now