Big Ten commissioner says scheduling methods will evolve and change

Big Ten football media days began on Tuesday in Indianapolis. Commissioner Tony Petitti began the festivities with his opening remarks, followed by a question-and-answer media availability session. In the process of fielding questions from reporters at Lucas Oil Stadium, Petitti noted that Big Ten sports scheduling practices are not set in stone for the next several years. The next two football seasons are in place, but future schedules have not yet been laid out in full.

Petitti called scheduling “a natural progression” in which he would expect the conference to continuously listen to coaches and athletes in a collaborative process which would lead to various adjustments and tweaks.

This is good to hear, because there are aspects of scheduling for USC and the other incoming West Coast schools which weren’t addressed in these first few schedules but need to be taken into account in the future. A good example is to have two road games at a time in close-by locations, and then play two straight games at home, so that the number of plane flights can be substantially reduced over the course of a season. Clustered scheduling — making teams play larger blocks of games at home or away, instead of having them alternate home and road games in smaller numbers (meaning more plane flights) — is something the Big Ten needs to pursue in the future.

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