The Big Ten rearranged its 2022 football schedule to accommodate six location switches and in the process balanced and dispersed its marquee matchups throughout the season. The conference announced the changes Wednesday.
Most schedules changed considerably, especially for Penn State and Ohio State. The Nittany Lions’ game against Michigan was bumped back a week to Oct. 15, and their matchup with Ohio State shifted four weeks to Oct. 29. Penn State-Michigan State will return to the regular-season finale; the original schedule featured the Spartans finishing at Maryland and the Nittany Lions traveling to Rutgers.
The Buckeyes’ crossover game with Wisconsin (Sept. 24) moves up seven weeks, while the Ohio State-Iowa (Oct. 22) matchup shifted back a week. The Buckeyes and Hawkeyes haven’t played in Columbus since 2013 and have met just twice since the Big Ten’s 2011 expansion. Two potentially important West Division games also shifted. Iowa at Minnesota moved from Sept. 24 to Nov. 19, while Wisconsin at Iowa was bumped up by one week to Nov. 12 from Nov. 19.
There are also two crossover opponent changes: Penn State-Northwestern and Illinois-Indiana. The switches were made to avoid Illinois-Penn State matchups in three consecutive seasons, and the Fighting Illini haven’t played at Bloomington since 2013. Indiana and Illinois were previously protected rivals from 1995 to 2010.
The original Big Ten schedule front-loaded seven of its nine rematches that generated at least four million viewers in 2021 into September and October. The only two games producing those ratings originally slated for November were rivalries Michigan-Ohio State and Wisconsin-Minnesota, both of which are final-weekend staples anyway.
The league loses seven crossover games that garnered at least 4.3 million viewers while adding three others with high-profile potential in Ohio State-Wisconsin, Ohio State-Iowa and Wisconsin-Michigan State, plus the Michigan-Iowa Big Ten title game rematch. Of those four crossovers, only Ohio State-Wisconsin originally was scheduled for later than Oct. 15. In addition, the Big Ten avoided a situation similar to Oct. 30, 2021, when three impactful rivalry games — Ohio State-Penn State, Michigan-Michigan State and Iowa-Wisconsin — all aired on the same day.
The Big Ten was forced to revamp its schedule after West Division round-robins Wisconsin-Nebraska-Purdue and East Division round-robins Michigan-Michigan State-Indiana all played at the same location in 2019 and 2020. The Big Ten reset the 2021 schedule to ensure those divisional series weren’t kicked off at the same location three years in a row.
There were two primary reasons why the league shifted those locations in 2020. One dealt with financial concerns because of COVID-19. The other factor balanced rivalry matchups. Michigan and Michigan State, for instance, were scheduled to play Ohio State and one another at the same spot in the same year. Nebraska faced the same issue with games against Wisconsin and Iowa. The 2020 flip allowed Michigan and Michigan State to play either one another or Ohio State at home every year. Likewise, Nebraska now plays Iowa at home one year and Wisconsin the next.
The 2022 Big Ten season will begin with Nebraska meeting Northwestern on Aug. 27 in Ireland.
(Photo: Joe Robbins / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
