The new Big Ten schedule is out and Wisconsin faces a tougher path to the Big Ten Championship than ever.
Despite my consistent messaging that the new schedule would make success tougher, the changes add premier games to the schedule and will make the season more entertaining to watch. There is one other positive from the schedule release I haven’t yet commented on: Wisconsin will only have protected rivalry games against Minnesota and Iowa.
There have been guesses over the past year as to what schedule the Big Ten will choose. One of those guesses was the 3-6-6 model with three protected games for each team. If that had come to fruition, Wisconsin would’ve had to pretend yet again that Nebraska was a true rival.
The Cornhuskers have not beaten the Badgers since 2012 and have never won the Freedom Trophy.
I share former Wisconsin linebacker Zack Baun’s thoughts on the matter:
I’ll let Zack Baun take this one. pic.twitter.com/JaRbUmv7kq https://t.co/AWXrdJc9E5
— Zach Heilprin (@ZachHeilprin) June 9, 2023
Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts went on his weekly show Thursday night as the schedule was being released, and said he actually tried to get Wisconsin as one of Nebraska’s protected games.
Instead, Nebraska has one protected rivalry game: Iowa.
As Baun said above, it is not a true rivalry unless the other team actually wins sometimes. The Big Ten did well not protecting the Wisconsin-Nebraska game.