I understand completely why to some fans it is not fair having to fly back to the Midwest or the East Coast for Big10 games 3 or 4 times per year. It is hard to keep from doing that with 9 B10 games on the schedule. There are only 3 other teams on the west coast and you don't play those teams every year. Let's say for this example Oregon played all three west coast B10 teams annually. That leaves 6 games to play to finish the conference. 2 of 3 OOC games are probably at home every year, 1 or 2 of those west coast teams would be home. So there is possibly 4 home games before any other B10 teams are played. IF 3 of those fly to Eugene to play that leaves a possible 7 home games for the year and 3 games "back east" ... so really there isn't a way to get around from playing B10 games "back east" 3-4 times every year.

The big problem I see here while sitting in Indiana ... starting times. For all schools that are flying opposite directions to play conference games. Like Washington in 2024 in Bloomington. That was a BigNoon Fox thing so kickoff is 9am for the Huskies. When IU went to Eugene last fall that was a 3:30pm ET and no problem for an IU team traveling west.

It will aways be advantageous for the other 14 B10 schools traveling west for games. TV tells the conference what games are going to be featured on THEIR times ... while not caring for starting times, where or who they played the previous week. Add that to a B10 office that has had mysterious scheduling in football and basketball every since they went from only 10 teams in the conference ... there isn't much hope for logical B10 scheduling.

How far will Oregon Ducks travel in the 2026 college football season?

at Oklahoma State (Saturday, September 12)

Miles traveled: 1,887

at USC Trojans (Saturday, September 26)

Miles traveled: 861

at Illinois Fighting Illini (Saturday, October 24)

Miles traveled: 2,136

at Ohio State Buckeyes (Saturday, November 7)

Miles traveled: 2,437

at Michigan State Spartans (Saturday, November 21)

Miles traveled: 2,340

Potential Big Ten Championship (Saturday, December 5)

Potential Miles Traveled: 2,261)

In total, without the Big Ten Championship game on the schedule, the Ducks are projected to travel 7,525 miles, which will be among the most in the nation this year.

It's the "cost of doing business" for being in a conference located in the Midwest. I hated to see the Pac12 break up. I couldn't believe the commissioner didn't have a decent tv deal set up. How does a conference with more National Championships won than anyone else do that? 20 years ago I told a fellow college football addict that in our lifetime we would see 64 of the top football teams take their sports and break away from the NCAA, forming 4 different divisions of 16 teams. The teams west of the Rocky Mts would have their own conference.