Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith and his Big Ten colleagues prefer to keep a nine-game league schedule, even if it limits the number of contests against teams from their alliance with the ACC and Pac-12. Smith, speaking Wednesday with reporters in Columbus, Ohio, said the Big Ten athletic directors “walked away” from the idea of reducing the conference schedule from nine games to eight, which would have allowed more alliance matchups. The three-league partnership, formed in the wake of Oklahoma and Texas announcing their departures from the Big 12 to the SEC last year, included a football scheduling component for more future games. Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff said in December that his league would immediately reduce its conference schedule from nine games to eight as long as the Big Ten did the same. The ACC currently plays an eight-game league schedule, although multiple future models, including a nine-game slate,…
Continue Reading: Big Ten ADs prefer to keep nine-game league schedule, despite its effect on alliance, says Ohio State Buckeyes' Gene Smith
