If the conference keeps the goal of every team playing every other team at least twice in four years, the maximum number of yearly protected rivalries drops from three to one with the change from a 16 team to 18 team conference. Here’s a first stab at what that could look like:
UCLA - USC
Oregon - Washington
Illinois - Northwestern
Indiana - Purdue
Minnesota - Wisconsin
Michigan - Ohio State
Maryland - Rutgers
Iowa - Nebraska ???
Penn State - Michigan State (this has been a matchup on the final week of the season for several years) ???
There’s another option to create groups of three-team semi-protected rivalries where you play the other two teams three times in four years. So you could have six protected rivalries (12 teams) plus two other groups of three-team rivalries. My guess is PSU would want that because they don’t have any protected rivalry in the current scheme and presumably didn’t want one. I could see those two pods comprising these six teams (pick whatever three-team combination you like):
Iowa
Nebraska
Michigan State
Penn State
Maryland
Rutgers
Confusing enough?
UCLA - USC
Oregon - Washington
Illinois - Northwestern
Indiana - Purdue
Minnesota - Wisconsin
Michigan - Ohio State
Maryland - Rutgers
Iowa - Nebraska ???
Penn State - Michigan State (this has been a matchup on the final week of the season for several years) ???
There’s another option to create groups of three-team semi-protected rivalries where you play the other two teams three times in four years. So you could have six protected rivalries (12 teams) plus two other groups of three-team rivalries. My guess is PSU would want that because they don’t have any protected rivalry in the current scheme and presumably didn’t want one. I could see those two pods comprising these six teams (pick whatever three-team combination you like):
Iowa
Nebraska
Michigan State
Penn State
Maryland
Rutgers
Confusing enough?
