Should Big Ten basketball have protected rivalries?

Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY SportsIt’s time to talk about a big of B1G basketball news that has become a bigger deal in recent weeks. For years, Purdue Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter has been pushing for the Big Ten to implement protected rivalries for basketball. The idea is exactly what it sounds like. It would allow a school to have a rival who they always play two times a year in basketball.

Currently, the Big Ten’s (often comically) unbalanced basketball schedule means even blood rivals on the hardwood like Purdue and Indiana play only once a year nearly half of the time. This is of course due to conference expansion. Adding Nebraska, Rutgers, and Maryland reduced the number of “two…