The Big Ten released its 2020 and 2021 conference football schedules last week, and a significant pattern emerged that takes the edge off for Iowa.
A quick check of Iowa’s opponents reveals that the 2019-20-21 crossovers are the exact home/away flip side of the 2016-17-18 crossovers. Despite the Big Ten claiming in the 2016-17 and 2018-19 schedules that the only protected division crossover game is Indiana-Purdue, Penn State is on Iowa’s schedule every year. A Wisconsin fan on Reddit noticed the non-protected “parity” crossovers a while ago, before the most recent release.
This means the Hawkeyes play the rest of the teams in the Big Ten East once every three years — and never play Michigan and Ohio State in the same season. This is a big change from when both were on the schedule every year 2003 to 2006 and then 2009-10-13. As it is, the 2013 season will be the last time Michigan and Ohio State are on Iowa’s schedule in the same year until at least 2022.
Iowa’s last win in Columbus was 1991 (an emotional game after the Gang Lu shooting); its next game there is in 2020. That will be Iowa’s eighth appearance in the Horseshoe in the 30 years following the end of the Soviet Union. In the same time frame, Indiana will have played in Columbus 13 times.
There is one upside to Chairman Jim’s Greater Rutgers Co-Prosperity Sphere: Nebraska’s “parity crossover” is Ohio State. This is what you wanted, Husker fans. This is what you wanted.