Big Ten to schedule nine league games, no FCS teams starting in 2016

CHICAGO — In the most stringent scheduling criteria among all Power Five conferences, Big Ten teams have committed to play nine league games, one mandated nonconference game against a fellow power league and no longer schedule Football Championship Subdivision opponents beginning in 2016, Commissioner Jim Delany said Friday.

The scheduling guidelines set the Big Ten apart from its Power Five peers. The Big 12 Conference and Pac-12 also play nine league games; among the three, the Big Ten and Pac-12 each hold a conference championship game. No other league, however, will mandate at least one Power Five opponent and the elimination of FCS foes from its schedules.

“Everybody agreed,” Delany said. “We have the nine conference games. We have a commitment to schedule an intersectional game. We have a conference championship (game). And we have the commitment to play only (Football Bowl Subdivision) opponents.

“It’s really a commitment to FBS. I imagine if someone had a contractual issue we’d take a look at that. But this is the template that everybody thinks is best going forward from a variety of perspectives.”

Teams and coaches in the Southeastern Conference, for example, have long bucked against the idea of playing nine games in conference play. The league also has hesitated to embrace eliminating FCS games from its schedules; in 2015, many SEC programs will play an FCS opponent as late as November.

The Atlantic Coast Conference has likewise steered away from a nine-game schedule, though Notre Dame’s recent affiliation with the league means five ACC teams face the Fighting Irish on an annual basis.

Notre Dame and Brigham Young — both classified as FBS independents despite Notre Dame’s relationship with the ACC — will count as Power Five teams for the Big Ten’s scheduling purposes, Delany said. BYU already is scheduled to face Nebraska and Michigan this fall, Michigan State in 2016 and 2018, and Wisconsin in 2019 and 2010.

Dropping FCS opponents — what Delany termed an “athletic directors agreement” among member institutions — might be a gradual process: Eight programs face FCS teams in 2016, for example, while others have future dates set up with members of the FCS. Iowa has a matchup scheduled with in-state FCS member Northern Iowa in 2018.

Removing FCS teams also raises the league’s overall level of competition, Delany said, which in turn increases the value of the game-day experience. Even as Big Ten home games drew more than 6 million fans in 2014, dwindling attendance has been a topic of crucial concern among FBS commissioners and administrators.

“As we were looking at our future, there are challenges around the game-day experience,” he said. “So I think better competition draws the fans more. I think if you asked players, they don’t like practice very often but they love games. They love big games. So I think it’s partly (for the) player and fan and television.

“Everybody knows a major intersectional opponent on the road is more difficult, but it can swing both ways. We would have loved to win the game at Oregon and we would have loved to have beaten LSU, but playing those games is important. Whether you win it or you lose, it’s a great gauge, it’s a great measurement. And I think it’s what this is about: playing big games on big stages gets the juices going and flowing.”

But the Big Ten’s new criteria is influenced most heavily by the impact of the College Football Playoff, and specifically in how the 13-member selection committee culls through relevant data and metrics to select its four participants.

In 2014, the Playoff’s first season of existence, the committee valued a team’s overall résumé — the strength of schedule, conference championships, quality of victories — over a mere won-loss record.

Baylor, for example, which was left out of the final four teams despite sharing the Big 12 title, was dented by its weak nonconference schedule; the Big 12 as a whole was slighted for its lack of a conference title game, and Ohio State leaped into the top four thanks in large part to its convincing victory against Wisconsin to claim the Big Ten championship.

“With the new Playoff and with the direction of the (selection) committee, they’re not focused just on won-loss records,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott told USA TODAY Sports. “I mean, you can’t ignore won-loss records. But we know, at the end of the day there’s going to be teams with comparable records.

“And the signal’s been sent from commissioners to the committee, and (committee chairman) Jeff Long’s made this painfully clear: we’re going to be looking at who did you play and who did you beat.”

Said Delany, “I’m not sure people have paid as much attention to the guidelines for the selection of teams. There are about eight paragraphs that deal with the issue of when resumes look similar. Similar record, similar rèsumès. Conference champions are going to get the first tiebreaker consideration and strength of schedule is going to get the second.”

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