Three different threads on the Oregon Football message board, the Our Beloved Ducks forum over the recent months have addressed B1G football scheduling. Some of the many ideas on that topic have been incorporated in a draft letter to B1G Commissioner Tony Petitti. Our own Mr. FishDuck took some time from exploring OddsPlays.com and commented several times in those threads how he agrees that these suggestions could really help Big-10 scheduling.
Here is the letter we have developed:
Draft letter to B1G Commissioner Tony Petitti
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Greetings Commissioner Petitti:
Over the past two months an exclusive Oregon Duck message board, and the article site, FishDuck.com., has included three threads on the message board on the topic of B1G scheduling fairness. Those threads have produced some unique ideas.
FACTS: The schedule for 2026 is imbalanced, with some teams that have been very successful over the past two years playing against as many as six teams with similar records, while others have a much less rigorous schedule.
Ranking the top B1G teams based only upon Conference performance in 2024, and 2025, yields this result:
1. Indiana
2. Oregon
3. Ohio State
4. Iowa
5. Michigan
6. Illinois
7. USC
8. Penn State
Pursuant to the 2026 schedule, which was produced by the conference in 2023:
Ohio State plays six of the top eight teams
Michigan plays five of the top eight teams, including 1-4.
Oregon plays five of the top eight with a season finish of eight consecutive games.
Penn State plays only two of the top eight.
DISCUSSION: It is likely that three of the top eight teams in the conference, Ohio State, Oregon and Michigan, will suffer as many as three losses against top competition in the B1G. Penn State can lose both of its games against the top eight and finish the season with only two conference losses. When the season finishes with Penn State on top, Ohio State fans, Oregon fans and Michigan fans will all justifiably be angry at the unfairness of the 2026 schedule.
ISSUE: Is there a better way to schedule the B1G conference than the five-year method used in 2023?
We can still keep our rivalries in the divisions. (Screenshot from CBS Sports Video)
Yes, there is a better way that can be achieved through “flexible symmetry” scheduling.
With 18 teams in the conference, balancing schedules is difficult unless the Conference is divided. Two nine-team Divisions will allow an eight-game, round-robin schedule. To reach a nine-game Conference schedule the final regular season game will be a cross-division game, we call it a ”flex-schedule” game with East first place vs. West first place, through East ninth place vs. West ninth place.
Every two years the Divisions can be reorganized based on Conference records with an effort to maintain rivalry games, and some geographic balance, where possible. The round-robin provides symmetry, and the flex-game and Division reorganization provide flexibility. The concept provides a fairness that cannot otherwise be achieved.
With television contracts coming up in 2030 there is a possibility of conference expansion, hopefully to 20 teams, two ten-team Divisions, and a nine-game round-robin. The years from now until then provide the B1G an opportunity to try this balanced scheduling concept with an 18-team Conference.
CONCLUSION: The B1G should drop its five-year schedule, and the accompanying certainty of unfairness for a symmetrical, flexible scheduling concept that is fair to all.
Possible Initial Divisions:
Please consider this proposal.
Sincerely,
The participants in the FishDuck.com Our Beloved Ducks forum
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If those reading this have some other ideas, it’s not too late to include them in our message to Commissioner Petitti. Feel free to chime in. Let me know in the Our Beloved Ducks forum where we discuss everything Oregon.
Mike Whitty
Eugene, Oregon
Top Screenshot from Big-10 Conference Video
The senior Mike Whitty, age 86, is not the commissioner for Lane County football and basketball officials, as that is his son, Mike Whitty. A retired attorney, Mike Whitty, Sr., grew up in Coos Bay, and played football four years for Pete Susick at Marshfield High, during the time of the then Big “A” school’s three successive state championships, 1954-56.
A serious golfer, Mike has been the medalist in three divisions of the Oregon Coast Invitational at Astoria G & CC. He qualified and played in the USGA Sr. Amateur at Prairie Dunes, KS in 1995. His education: two years at USAF Academy, 1961-63. Oregon degrees, BS ’65, JD ’68.