What Could Indiana's Big Ten Basketball Schedule Look Like After Expansion?
In case you're like Patrick Star living under a rock all day, I'll break the news to you — the Big Ten is adding Oregon and Washington and becoming an 18-team conference.
Already having pilfered USC and UCLA from the Pac-12, the Big Ten decided it wasn't satisfied just yet, and used Colorado bolting to the Big 12 as a door to finishing off the Pac-12 once and for all.
There's a million different implications stemming from this round of conference realignment, almost all of which have to do with college football and television money driving all of this.
But what about basketball?
It's the second biggest money-maker at the college level, and especially important to those who follow the Hoosiers. Adding four teams in 2024, it's going to be hard to create a 20-game conference schedule for the basketball season.
Thankfully, friend of mine and current IU senior Patrick Felts proposed a wonderful idea.
If the way forward for Big Ten basketball is one game against all 17 schools to go with three permanent rivals you get an annual home-and-home against, which three teams would Indiana face twice yearly? And more broadly speaking, how would it shake out for the entire conference?
Here's what I came up with for protected Big Ten basketball rivalries (team in question is on the left, three teams to the right of them are the three protected, twice-a-season rivals):
Indiana — Purdue, Illinois, Michigan
Purdue — Indiana, Ohio State, Northwestern
Ohio State — Michigan, Purdue, Michigan State
Michigan — Ohio State, Michigan State, Indiana
Michigan State — Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State
Penn State — Michigan State, Maryland, Rutgers
Illinois — Northwestern, Indiana, Maryland
Northwestern — Illinois, Rutgers, Purdue
Maryland — Rutgers, Penn State, Illinois
Rutgers — Maryland, Northwestern, Penn State
Wisconsin — Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska
Minnesota — Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa
Iowa — Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa
Nebraska — Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin
USC — UCLA, Oregon, Washington
UCLA — USC, Washington, Oregon
Oregon — Washington, USC, UCLA
Washington — Oregon, UCLA, USC
So in theory, with this setup, here's what an Indiana basketball conference schedule in 2024 could look like:
Home games
- Purdue
- Illinois
- Michigan
- Michigan State
- Penn State
- Maryland
- Wisconsin
- Iowa
- UCLA
- Washington
Road games
- Purdue
- Illinois
- Michigan
- Ohio State
- Rutgers
- Northwestern
- Minnesota
- Nebraska
- USC
- Oregon
Why did the protected rivalries shake out like this?
Geography, mostly. Even though the move to add four teams on the Western side of the country showed that the Big Ten doesn't care at all about the conference's geography, schools should still play the other schools closest to them as much as possible.
It's not too dissimilar than the "PODS" idea floated by the Shutdown Fullcast's Jason Kirk:
The two most Western quartets are pretty easy to keep together.
USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington form a closed loop as the Big Ten's Pacific additions, and will play a home-and-home basketball series against each other every single season. Easy, done.
Same goes Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa. Two groups of arch rivals that have been in the West division of the Big Ten for the past decade and are clearly distinct from the three remaining West division teams in Northwestern, Illinois and Purdue. Keep that four together, have them play each other twice every year, easy fix.
Now is when it starts to get complicated.
Since the Big Ten's total team count is currently stuck at the awkward number of 18, rather than a tidy 16 or 20, we can't do four or five groups of four for all the basketball protected rivalries.
Based on location and historic rivalries, we essentially have one quartet and two trios amongst the 10 remaining teams:
Group 1 — Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern
Group 2— Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State
Group 3 — Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers
Group 1 fits the Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska model of four schools made up of two arch rivals, all of which are very close to each other.
Group 2 is filled with Michigan's very famous rivalries, and thus the two schools that bond over both hating Michigan, but also don't like each other too much when they play.
Group 3 are the East Coast teams — and in less kind words — where the Big Ten puts Maryland and Rutgers because they don't care too much about them. Penn State fans I know you hate getting dismissed like this and want to sit at the big kids' table with Ohio State, Michigan and MSU, but someone has to keep Rutgers and Maryland company. You're sitting closest to them, and from a pure basketball perspective, the Penn State program doesn't have enough clout to call shots on anything.
I almost considered keeping Purdue, Illinois and Northwestern as Indiana's three permanent home-and-home basketball games. Purdue is the most obvious one and a rivalry that will remain no matter what. From playing at an "Assembly Hall" for years, to Tom Crean's famous 52-49 win over No. 21 Illinois in 2011, have the Illini and the Hoosiers formed a great on-court rivalry that needs to be kept?
However, as a Northwestern alum myself, I feel comfortable saying this — Indiana basketball might be above having a permanent rivalry with Northwestern.
Games between IU and NU in the last two years have certainly been heated, but historically speaking we're talking about the Big Ten's flagship basketball program in Indiana. Similar to how an Ohio State fan would feel if forced to play Maryland as a protected game on the football field moving forward, Indiana basketball deserves a more high-profile matchup than playing what — historically speaking — is the worst men's basketball program in power conference history.
Here's the explanation for each of the more odd pairings in my new conference schedule design, sparking from the decision that Indiana and Northwestern will not be intertwined:
Indiana vs. Michigan — Depending on how you feel about Michigan State basketball, these are the No. 1 and No. 2 most successful men's basketball programs in the history of the traditional Big Ten. Each boast eight Final Four appearances, and between the two there are 37 total Big Ten regular season championships. Plenty of memorable games, decently close proximity to each other, ample amount of bad blood to go around. Have IU and UM play each other twice a year.
Ohio State vs. Purdue — These are two historically great basketball programs that have 20 and 25 Big Ten regular season championships each, respectively. Both are often good, though rarely have come through on their potential in the NCAA Tournament, and are thus often thought to be a tier below IU, UM and MSU on the historical basketball scale. Indiana fans feel free to call this the tier below rivalry.
Penn State vs. Michigan State — In football, these two always play each other at the end of the season because the 12 other teams all have set end-of-season rivalries to uphold. Thus, Penn State and Michigan State in some ways have gradually manifested a football rivalry with each other for the Land Grant Trophy, and I'm trusting that can seep onto the basketball court.
Northwestern vs. Rutgers — The historic ugly stepchild of the Big Ten and the 21st century ugly stepchild of the Big Ten. They'll be forced to make this a home-and-home simply because the better teams want better games than this. Get ready to see a 56-54 rock fight twice a year.
Maryland vs Illinois — Aside from Kevin Willard saying he needed 10 beers after beating Illinois last season, there's no reason for these teams to have a rivalry. But they're also the two I had left, and neither school holds enough moneymaking power within the conference to change decisions that aren't favorable to them. A Maryland-Illinois rivalry is less than ideal, but if anything was being run by what's "ideal," then the Big Ten wouldn't have expanded in the first place.
Oh well.
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