Kevin Warren’s departure won’t delay Big Ten’s plans to change football scheduling, Iowa AD Gary Barta says

Kevin Warren’s departure won’t delay Big Ten’s plans to change football scheduling, Iowa AD Gary Barta says
By Scott Dochterman
Feb 3, 2023

Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren’s departure won’t delay the conference’s plans to change its football scheduling alignment for the 2024 season, Iowa athletic director Gary Barta said Thursday.

For multiple years, conference and school officials have discussed altering or ending the East-West alignment in part to have a more equitable championship matchup. There was momentum to enact changes for the 2023 season to coincide with a new media rights agreement until USC and UCLA accepted Big Ten invitations beginning Aug. 2, 2024. Conference officials decided in October to delay any structural football changes until USC and UCLA participate in league play.

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Warren, who was hired earlier this month as the Chicago Bears’ team president and chief executive officer, still participates in conference meetings, but school officials have no interest in waiting for a new Big Ten commissioner before finalizing the structure.

“We’ve had enough conversation,” Barta said. “I think we’re far enough along in the concept. And, really, we can’t wait much longer. It’s really important to lay out ’24 and beyond. We’ve talked about different versions of it. We’ve also talked about a range from ’24 to some other number out aways so we can all plan. Maybe it’s a four- or five-, six-year window that we lock in, so that we can put together our non-conference schedules.”

Big Ten officials have their winter meetings scheduled for Feb. 20-21 in Rosemont, Ill.

“It might get finalized this month,” Barta said. “We’ll certainly talk about it. It’s on the agenda.”

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What makes the most sense when USC, UCLA join the Big Ten?

How it might look

The conference will continue to play nine conference games, especially after signing new television and streaming agreements with CBS and NBC plus extending its deal with Fox through 2029. A competitive imbalance between the East and West divisions — especially in the conference title game — has drawn criticism. East Division teams have won all nine conference championships between the geographic divisions and own a 90-77 lead in cross-divisional games since the structure was enacted in 2014.

Multiple times the conference’s second-best team resided in the East Division, especially the past two seasons. But the hangup is how to secure important rivalry games while maintaining consistent scheduling. Some schools would prefer to protect three rivals annually while others have no preference.

The established priorities are to maximize College Football Playoff participation and ensure every player competes at every road venue at least once during a four-year period.

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“We’ve talked about divisions/no divisions,” Barta said. “We’ve talked about protected rivals, and either everybody has the same or the concept of some schools having more, some schools having less.”

The easiest scheduling model includes every team protecting three opponents annually and cycling through the others twice in a four-year period. The protected opponents could rotate after a four-year block or remain permanent. The Big Ten has that now with IndianaPurdue as a protected rivalry while the other East-West games change every six years.

“That will all get decided here soon, maybe as soon as this next meeting,” Barta said. “Those are the kinds of creative conversations we’ve had.”

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(Photo: Scott Dochterman / The Athletic)

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Scott Dochterman

Scott Dochterman is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Iowa Hawkeyes. He previously covered Iowa athletics for the Cedar Rapids Gazette and Land of 10. Scott also worked as an adjunct professor teaching sports journalism at the University of Iowa.