Nice post and commentary Joe. One slight correction:
“The cancellation by the Wolverines forced UCLA to end its streak of not playing an ‘FCS’ school ever as Alabama State and North Carolina Central each agreed to visit the Rose Bowl.”
"The 2025 looks a little easier, though the road games against Michigan State and Penn State look to be tough ones. Of course, it might not actually be any easier considering that UCLA’s 2025 non-conference schedule begins with a game against the Georgia Bulldogs at the Rose Bowl."
A snippet from the "codger cadre" that UCLA played home and home [and home and home and..] with Penn State. (My girlfriend, later wife, and now ex-wife was a transfer to UCLA from PSU, so we religiously attended all the games.) The skein lasted from 1963 through 1968 and, though they were not in the Big 10, PSU was somewhat formidable. During the six games, UCLA caught them on Coach Rip Engle's pre-retirement decent into mediocrity (1963-1965) and Joe Paterno's rebuilding program (1966-1968) and got four wins in the middle of that string.
1963 @PSU L 14-7
1964 @PSU W 21-14 (Buh-bye Billy Barnes!)
1965 @PSU L 24-22 (Hello Tommy Prothro!)
1966 @PSU L 49-11 (Paterno was undoubtedly in rebuild mode here!)
1967 @PSU L 17-15
1968 @PSU L 21-6 (..and it wasn't that close!)
No need to thank me for posting this trivial, useless information. It's all part of my duty to save you a few mouse clicks over to Wikipedia! But I *am* grateful to Joe for sorting this hot mess out. I fully expect at least ONE of these cluster of teams to get on an airplane to the wrong city over the next few years. The precious CPU cycles I save on the BONE-G (prostituted USAF reference) scheduling can be applied to my next year's income tax prep!
Flex Protect Plus sounds like the name of a health care plan name that your insurance company uses to try to keep you from realizing they are only f'ing you over for your money, so in a way it's an appropriate term for our new environs. But looking past that, it is certainly a tricky calculus (as shown by carrying 16 teams and calling your conference Ten) trying to keep relatively competitively balanced schedules without forming smaller divisions. Welcome to the new B1G Ten order.
Just comparing us and *$c, it seems like we have a more favorable two-play matchup for the first couple years while the conference looks into further expansion vs forming divisions, but who knows how things will play out over the next 3 years? The only constant will be change.
I do think all the talk of how the Bruins will do in B1G Ten weather in late fall is overblown. We've played in god awful conditions in Corvallis and Pullman (wait, isn't that redundant?) late in the Pac12 seasons before, so cold/wet/snow/misery isn't brand new. I'd argue there might even be an advantage in getting in full practices all week in sunny So Cal before traveling to the Michigans and Minnesotas and Wisconsins and other miserable places people choose to live and study. Both teams will play in the same weather on Saturdays. It may be an issue, but I don't think it'll be a huge one like some suggest. Also, welcome, B1G Tenners, to the east side of the Rose Bowl in September...
I am a fan of tradition, but I also recognize the necessity of survival, and those two issues sadly didn't align well anymore. Thus, I look forward to watching and cheering (and hopefully sometimes traveling, Hello Chicago!!) for our Bruins in our new conference, and still rooting against *$c and tOSU every week. It's even more efficient now. Go Bruins!!
Interesting to see how the 9 conference games will affect the number of B10 teams that make the CFP. SEC sticking to 8 games to improve chance of getting one less loss.
Nice post and commentary Joe. One slight correction:
“The cancellation by the Wolverines forced UCLA to end its streak of not playing an ‘FCS’ school ever as Alabama State and North Carolina Central each agreed to visit the Rose Bowl.”
"The 2025 looks a little easier, though the road games against Michigan State and Penn State look to be tough ones. Of course, it might not actually be any easier considering that UCLA’s 2025 non-conference schedule begins with a game against the Georgia Bulldogs at the Rose Bowl."
A snippet from the "codger cadre" that UCLA played home and home [and home and home and..] with Penn State. (My girlfriend, later wife, and now ex-wife was a transfer to UCLA from PSU, so we religiously attended all the games.) The skein lasted from 1963 through 1968 and, though they were not in the Big 10, PSU was somewhat formidable. During the six games, UCLA caught them on Coach Rip Engle's pre-retirement decent into mediocrity (1963-1965) and Joe Paterno's rebuilding program (1966-1968) and got four wins in the middle of that string.
1963 @PSU L 14-7
1964 @PSU W 21-14 (Buh-bye Billy Barnes!)
1965 @PSU L 24-22 (Hello Tommy Prothro!)
1966 @PSU L 49-11 (Paterno was undoubtedly in rebuild mode here!)
1967 @PSU L 17-15
1968 @PSU L 21-6 (..and it wasn't that close!)
No need to thank me for posting this trivial, useless information. It's all part of my duty to save you a few mouse clicks over to Wikipedia! But I *am* grateful to Joe for sorting this hot mess out. I fully expect at least ONE of these cluster of teams to get on an airplane to the wrong city over the next few years. The precious CPU cycles I save on the BONE-G (prostituted USAF reference) scheduling can be applied to my next year's income tax prep!
Flex Protect Plus sounds like the name of a health care plan name that your insurance company uses to try to keep you from realizing they are only f'ing you over for your money, so in a way it's an appropriate term for our new environs. But looking past that, it is certainly a tricky calculus (as shown by carrying 16 teams and calling your conference Ten) trying to keep relatively competitively balanced schedules without forming smaller divisions. Welcome to the new B1G Ten order.
Just comparing us and *$c, it seems like we have a more favorable two-play matchup for the first couple years while the conference looks into further expansion vs forming divisions, but who knows how things will play out over the next 3 years? The only constant will be change.
I do think all the talk of how the Bruins will do in B1G Ten weather in late fall is overblown. We've played in god awful conditions in Corvallis and Pullman (wait, isn't that redundant?) late in the Pac12 seasons before, so cold/wet/snow/misery isn't brand new. I'd argue there might even be an advantage in getting in full practices all week in sunny So Cal before traveling to the Michigans and Minnesotas and Wisconsins and other miserable places people choose to live and study. Both teams will play in the same weather on Saturdays. It may be an issue, but I don't think it'll be a huge one like some suggest. Also, welcome, B1G Tenners, to the east side of the Rose Bowl in September...
I am a fan of tradition, but I also recognize the necessity of survival, and those two issues sadly didn't align well anymore. Thus, I look forward to watching and cheering (and hopefully sometimes traveling, Hello Chicago!!) for our Bruins in our new conference, and still rooting against *$c and tOSU every week. It's even more efficient now. Go Bruins!!
Interesting to see how the 9 conference games will affect the number of B10 teams that make the CFP. SEC sticking to 8 games to improve chance of getting one less loss.
Just want to say that almost all of these draftees being introduced other than Jaime look absolutely and totally ridiculous in their attire.