The Big Ten has not discussed returning to an eight-game conference football schedule, Iowa athletics director Gary Barta told Land of 10.
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Two weeks ago, rampant speculation began that the Big Ten may trim back their conference schedules from nine to eight games after Nebraska athletics director Bill Moos suggested scheduling news may soon be released for the 2022 season.
“We might have some other schedule news here in a week or so in regards to from 2022 on,” Moos said last month “[It’s] something I really became a bulldog on in regards to Nebraska and some of the traditional power programs in the Big Ten not beating each other up so bad."
The news is not an eight-game schedule, says Barta.
"Will there be a reduction from nine back to eight Big Ten games? We haven’t talked about that in any meeting,” Barta told Land of 10. “What we’re constantly doing is trying to talk about ways we can get better. But that topic has not come up.”
The Big Ten went from an eight-game schedule to a nine-game schedule in 2015, one year after the conference added Maryland and Rutgers as their 13th and 14th members. The Big 12 and Pac-12 also play nine conference games while the ACC and SEC play eight.
So what was Moos hinting at?
Moving some non-conference games to the middle or end of the season? Having a flexible schedule? Division realignment?
