For all of the posts in this series, visit the 2019-20 Non-Conference Scheduling Hub.

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Ranking The Teams

With 11 of the Big Ten’s 14 teams seeing their four-year rankings improve over the last year, it’s no surprise the conference leapt over the Big East and SEC into third place among the 32 Division I conferences. Plus, the league increased its memberships in the top 10 (from two to three), top 25 (four to five) and top 50 (seven to nine). Rutgers remains the lone Big Ten team outside of the national top 100, but the Scarlet Knights are now 45 places closer than they were entering the 2018-19 season. If they improve by even half as much this year—and no one else takes a step back—the Big Ten will be in business next season.

Ranking The Schedules

Heading into its second season with a 20-game conference schedule, the Big Ten’s non-league slates took a minor step back as a collective. Much of this can be blamed on Rutgers, which owns the second-worst power non-conference slate, with only East Carolina ranking lower nationally. And while the league doesn’t have a top five slate like Michigan State’s of a season ago, there are still three top 30 schedules. However, this is a drop from four in 2018-19.

When compared to last season, the Big Ten’s totals of true and non-power road games both declined, while the number of non-D1 contests scheduled doubled. Purdue is brave enough to travel to Athens to take on an Ohio team they hammered in West Lafayette last December, while Illinois visits Grand Canyon before heading down Interstate 10 to take on Arizona.

Indiana won’t play a true road game this season, while six Big Ten teams will play just one away contest during non-league play. Of the other seven members, none play more than two road games.

As expected, the Big Ten’s two series partners, the ACC and Big East, are well ahead of the rest of Division I in this table. The biggest surprise in this season’s standings is the rise of the Big 12 and SEC into a third-place tie with the Summit League. Last season, third spot went to the MEAC on its own. That conference now has just four Big Ten non-conference games on its slates for 2019-20. No Division I league is completely absent from Big Ten schedules, though the only way a Mountain West opponent will officially appear is in the later round of bracketed tournament play.

Amazingly, only a pair of teams appear on three Big Ten schedules, DePaul and Seton Hall from the Big East. Flipping it around, no Big Ten team will play more than two non-league games against teams from a single conference.

There’s a remarkable consistency at the top of this table, as the Big Ten lined up 31 Quad 1 games (based on the four-year rankings) both this season and last. There’s also been a bit of improvement at the bottom, with four fewer Quad 4 opportunities, with Quads 2 and 3 seeing marginally higher totals as a response.

The Big Ten By Team

Teams are listed in order of their Average Schedule Ranking. The number in front of an opponent name is its Four-Year Ranking.

Teams that failed to max out their schedules (2/14): Minnesota (no fourth MTE game), Northwestern

13. Purdue Boilermakers

The Boilermakers will be well-tested early as they attempt to improve upon last season’s Elite Eight appearance. Not only does Purdue get the team that knocked it out of the NCAAs, champion Virginia, in West Lafayette for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, but they travel to Marquette for the Gavitt Games, host Texas in a very early high-quality home game, and take on Butler at the Crossroads Classic. And that lineup doesn’t even factor in Purdue’s exempt event, a stacked Emerald Coast Classic, which will see the Boilers take on A 10 favorite VCU, then either Florida State or Tennessee. And the bottom of the slate isn’t terrible either, as Chicago State is the lone truly bad opponent, and the Boilermakers make a rare trip to a MAC arena to play Ohio. This is non-conference scheduling done right, courtesy of Matt Painter.

22. Michigan State Spartans

The Spartans picked a great year to finally participate in the Gavitt Tip-Off series, as the preseason No. 1 team of many is paired up with a Seton Hall Pirates team that should be far better than its four-year ranking of 40th. If that matchup and a season-opening Champions Classic tilt with Kentucky are the appetizers, Michigan State’s trip to Maui and visit from Duke for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge serve as the dual main courses. For dessert, a trio of winnable in-state matchups follow the first Big Ten window of the season, though Tom Izzo’s team will have to play Horizon contender Oakland at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

30. Minnesota Golden Gophers

Considering the difficulties Richard Pitino had in filling the Golden Gophers’ Minneapolis-focused exempt event, this is a high-quality schedule, even if it is a game short. Six of the 10 opponents are from power conferences, with five of them having a half-decent shot at reaching the NCAAs (sorry DePaul). Four of those matchups take place away from Williams Arena, with road trips to Butler and Utah, a Sanford Pentagon showdown with Oklahoma, and semi-road game against Oklahoma State in Tulsa all contests that aren’t for the faint of heart.

45. Wisconsin Badgers

The Badgers rebounded nicely in 2018-19 after a 15-18 campaign the season prior, even if an NCAA First Round exit wasn’t the happiest ending. Wisconsin is one of several teams that will challenge itself early and often during November and December, starting with an Opening Night showdown against defending WCC Tournament champion Saint Mary’s at the Sanford Pentagon. While there are five winnable home games scattered around the slate, a possible Legends Classic championship showdown with Auburn, a visit from in-state rival Marquette, and December road trips to NC State and Tennessee will test the Badgers’ mettle.

59. Iowa Hawkeyes

While the Hawkeyes’ home slate looks rather typical for Fran McCaffery’s tenure, Iowa’s five road and neutral games impress. Yes, the annual series with Iowa State is a given, even if the Hy-Vee Big Four Classic is now part of the history books, and a quality matchup is expected for the ACC Challenge, with Syracuse filling the role for 2019. But the Las Vegas Invitational field is a pleasant surprise, especially with 2019 NCAA runner-up Texas Tech featuring as the Hawks’ semifinal opponent. Plus, the Chicago Legends NCAA rematch with Cincinnati should be an opportunity for Iowa to pick up a strong win in front of what should be a relatively friendly crowd.

68. Michigan Wolverines

With John Beilein now in the NBA with Cleveland, Juwan Howard begins his first season in charge of his alma mater with five winnable home games and six contests that will quickly give him an idea of how good his Wolverines can truly be. Unlike Iowa’s schedule immediately above, at least Michigan fans will get a couple of interesting games to check out at Crisler, as Creighton visits for the Gavitt series and Oregon also travels to Ann Arbor. The Ducks are also a possible day three opponent for Michigan in the stacked Battle 4 Atlantis. Of course, the Wolverines have to take on Iowa State and either North Carolina or Alabama before that could come to pass on Black Friday. And while Michigan only plays a single true road game, Louisville will be quite the ACC Challenge between a trip to the Bahamas and the first two Big Ten games of the campaign.

90. Maryland Terrapins

Like Michigan, the Terrapins play just one true road game, and it’s a doozy—the back end of a two-year home-and-home series with Seton Hall. While Maryland’s home schedule isn’t quite as weak as either Michigan’s or Iowa’s, a Big Ten/ACC Challenge showdown against Notre Dame and visit from Rhode Island are the only two real difficult matchups. As for the Terps’ exempt tournament, well, the Orlando Invitational won’t be mistaken for either Maui or Atlantis this year. A possible final matchup with Marquette would be the best Mark Turgeon could hope for out of a weekend at Walt Disney World.

92. Ohio State Buckeyes

Yes, the top of the Buckeyes’ schedule is among the best in the country, thanks in no small part to a trio of top eight matchups with North Carolina, Villanova, and Kentucky. But Chris Holtmann’s club will also host no fewer than four teams ranked 299th or worse in the four-year ranking, with two of those games serving as part of Ohio State’s eponymous exempt event. Making matters worse for the Buckeyes, they had to add a waiver game against 333rd-ranked Morgan State, already participating in the Islands of the Bahamas Showcase, to complete their allotment of four games under the current MTE rules.

124. Indiana Hoosiers

The Hoosiers join Minnesota and Ohio State dealing with some exempt event weirdness this season, as Indiana’s game against North Alabama isn’t part of the Indiana Challenge, even though it’s also the Lions’ MTE for the year. Since that game takes place just before the event’s designated November 16th–30th window, Indiana will play Princeton in a waiver game instead. (The Lions are playing one of the numerous other mid-majors tied to the event as part of their participation.) Archie Miller has built a schedule that builds to a crescendo with the opponents gradually becoming more difficult up until Florida State visits Bloomington for the ACC Challenge. Then things get marginally easier (based on the rankings anyway), as the Hoosiers play their lone non-league game outside of Indiana, as they’ll head to New York to take on UConn in the Jimmy V Classic. Finally, the Hoosiers return for a game with Notre Dame in Indianapolis and a third meeting with Arkansas in a little more than a calendar year.

150. Penn State Nittany Lions

Would you believe that Pat Chambers is entering his ninth season in charge in State College? It’s true, even if the Nittany Lions have often struggled to hit the .500 mark never mind reach the NCAAs during that time. Coming off a 14-18 2018-19 season, Penn State will need wins—and they should be able to pick up at least four of them during non-conference play. But there are plenty of potential landmines for the Nittany Lions. For starters, all four games in the NIT Season Tip-Off come against teams with legitimate postseason aspirations. Georgetown will be looking to make a statement as Patrick Ewing continues to build that program, while Nate Oats will want to do the same when his Alabama team visits the Bryce Jordan Center. Then there’s the Big Ten/ACC Challenge matchup, a home game against Wake Forest, led by another coach feeling the heat in Danny Manning.

200. Northwestern Wildcats

The Wildcats have followed up 2017’s historic NCAA berth and win by winning just 28 of its last 64 games. So, Chris Collins is yet another coach feeling some pressure. At first glance, the Gavitt Tip-Off matchup with Providence and a potential Thanksgiving Eve showdown with Kansas State look like the most difficult games here by some distance. But given how Northwestern has struggled since breaking through, road trips to Boston College and DePaul will challenge the Cats, so will the Fort Myers Tip-Off semifinal against Arch Madness champ Bradley.

202. Nebraska Cornhuskers

After a 19-17 campaign that ended in the NIT, not NCAAs, Tim Miles was relieved of his duties in Lincoln, with former Iowa State and Chicago Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg taking over. The Mayor should be able to get his term in office in Lincoln off to a good start against this slate, which features just one game against a top 50 opponent and just two others guaranteed against teams ranked in the second 50 nationally. However, if the Huskers want to make the postseason, they’ll need to pick up a couple more such wins in the Cayman Islands Classic.

233. Illinois Fighting Illini

Even though the Fighting Illini went 12-21 in Brad Underwood’s first season, hopes are high in Champaign-Urbana. However, this non-conference schedule doesn’t resemble one of an at-large threat. Sure, games against Arizona, Miami, and Missouri could be worth something ... if those teams improve upon poor 2018-19 campaigns, while Old Dominion and Grand Canyon are quality mid-majors. But Illinois is playing in a weak exempt event, one that features a non-D1 game because of the difficulty the Illini had in filling the field, along with a pair of bottom 50 teams outside of it.

331. Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Steve Pikiell’s Scarlet Knights are also expecting better things after 2018-19’s 14-17 campaign that had some moments of promise. Rutgers should get off to a great start thanks to this weak, home-heavy schedule. Three dates stand out among the crowd of triple-digits on the opponents’ list: the visit from Seton Hall, the game in Toronto against St. Bonaventure, and the trip to Pittsburgh for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Rutgers may need to sweep all three to have a shot being ranked and considered an at-large threat heading into the bulk of Big Ten play.

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