The days of Big Ten teams playing lesser, cupcake-style opponents in the opening weeks of the season are coming to an end for the conference. A move commissioner Jim Delany knows is pivotal for his conference to impress the football playoff selection committee.
On day two of the Big Ten media days, Delany said that not only will the conference do away with playing teams in the Football Championship Subdivision, but the conference will also move to a nine game schedule. And that’s not all, he also will mandate that the non-conference slate include schools from the rest of the Power 5 conferences (SEC, Big 12, ACC, Pac-12) and stating that games against independents Notre Dame and BYU will count towards the strength of schedule committment.