The Big Ten\u2019s lackluster schedule this week exemplifies a problem facing the conference: Not enough teams are testing themselves outside of league play.<\/p>\n
The Big Ten prides itself on having a nine-game conference schedule, which traditionally had set it apart from the Southeastern Conference. Yet the SEC will move to a nine-game league schedule<\/a> starting in 2026 while continuing to require its league members to play at least one nonconference game against a Power Four school or Notre Dame, something the Big Ten doesn’t mandate.<\/p>\n That could put more pressure on the Big Ten to step up its nonconference scheduling. This week’s slate includes six games in which a Big Ten team faces a Championship Subdivision program.<\/p>\n Six of the league’s 18 members ( No. 2<\/a> Penn State, No. 22 Indiana, Maryland, Northwestern, Rutgers and Washington) aren’t playing any nonconference games against Power Four schools or Notre Dame. Only four Big Ten programs (Michigan, Southern California, UCLA and Wisconsin) don’t have a FCS program on their schedules.<\/p>\n No. 7 Texas, which lost at No. 1 Ohio State<\/a> in arguably the nation’s best matchup so far this season, is the only SEC school that isn\u2019t playing an FCS team this year. But the SEC at least can point to all its nonconference games against Power Four programs.<\/p>\n Penn State coach James Franklin says he wants more consistency in how each conference arranges its schedule.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is we don\u2019t have a commissioner of college football, so that\u2019s where the commissioners of the Power Four conferences, specifically the Big Ten and the SEC, need to get together and come up with what\u2019s in the best interest of college football and the best interest of student-athletes and the fans,” Franklin said. \u201cAnd then you won\u2019t have to worry about all these different things when it comes to scheduling, because everybody is going to kind of have the same parameters.\u201d<\/p>\n What are the options?<\/p>\n The problem is determining the specifics.<\/p>\n \u201cOur schools are constantly evaluating the impact of nonconference scheduling across many variables \u2014 postseason access, home attendance, geographic rivalries, etc.,\u201d a Big Ten spokesman said. \u201cThe conference will continue to engage with all 18 to determine the best strategies to balance these factors, using the most current information available about an evolving landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n The Big Ten could strengthen nonconference schedules by prohibiting FCS opponents, something the league did from 2015-16. Nebraska coach Matt Rhule noted that such a decision would hurt FCS programs that benefit financially from those games.<\/p>\n Grambling State lost 70-0<\/a> at Ohio State last week but received $1 million for making the trip. This week, Indiana State is earning $475,000 for playing at Indiana and Houston Christian is getting $500,00 for visiting Nebraska. Montana State returned from its season-opening trip to Oregon with a 59-13 loss<\/a> and a $680,000 paycheck.<\/p>\n \u201cI was in the FCS, and if you don\u2019t have an FBS team, it\u2019s hard to fund your football team, it\u2019s hard to fund the rest of it,\u201d said Rhule, a former Western Carolina assistant. \u201cThe SEC has been really smart. The years they play their FCS team it\u2019s late in the year, so as they\u2019re getting ready to go on their playoff run, they play them before the last game, which I think is a really smart way to schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n Another possibility would be to copy the SEC strategy of requiring each school to include at least one Power Four opponent in its nonconference schedule. <\/p>\n Does it matter for the postseason?<\/p>\n Those non-conference games are taking on increasing importance: The College Football Playoff last month said its selection committee will place more emphasis on strength of schedule this year when determining which teams make the 12-team field.<\/a><\/p>\n Last year, Indiana reached the playoff<\/a> with a nonconference schedule that included lopsided wins over Florida International<\/a>, Western Illinois<\/a> and Charlotte.<\/a> If No. 2 Penn State makes it this year it will be with a non-conference schedule of Nevada, FIU and Villanova, but this season ended a string of eight straight years in which Penn State played at least one nonconference game against a power-conference school (except for the pandemic-shortened 2020 season). Penn State’s 34-0<\/a> win over FIU was a game arranged after a matchup with Virginia Tech was canceled.<\/p>\n Northwestern isn\u2019t playing any Power Four nonconference games, but it did play at Tulane, an American Conference school that went a combined 32-10 from 2022-24. Northwestern lost that game 23-3.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI think that as we\u2019ve learned in college football, everybody by nature does what\u2019s best for them and their program, and that\u2019s the way you\u2019ve got to look at it,\u201d Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell said. \u201cWhether you want to complain about the way somebody else schedules or the way you schedule, let\u2019s be honest, we\u2019ve all got to do what\u2019s best for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Michigan State athletic director J Batt offered a similar assessment.<\/p>\n \u201cAt Michigan State we\u2019re building a football program to challenge for championships,\u201d Batt said. \u201cToward that end goal, we\u2019re going to look to play compelling, meaningful games which create opportunities for our team to prove themselves, while also providing great content for fans and television partners. Given the overall strength of the Big Ten Conference in addition to any marquee non-conference matchups, it\u2019s also important to create balance in the schedule, in whatever form that may take.\u201d<\/p>\n There’s a general agreement on the need for consistency among the conferences to make things easier for the selection committee. The trick is reaching a consensus on the best approach.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re in Power Four football, everybody should be playing a similar schedule so that the committee can get together at the end of the season and compare apples to apples as much as we possibly can,\u201d Franklin said.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP College Football Writer Eric Olson, AP Sports Writers Larry Lage and Michael Marot and AP freelance writer Travis Johnson contributed to this report.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a> and here<\/a> (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Big Ten\u2019s lackluster schedule this week exemplifies a problem facing the conference: Not enough teams are testing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,63389,2744,6105,3034,49,48,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-354979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-houston-christian","10":"tag-james-franklin","11":"tag-luke-fickell","12":"tag-matt-rhule","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-football","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115176010380770891","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}