The Big Ten announced the outline of its men’s basketball schedule for 2015-16 on Thursday, unveiling a slate that is, at least for Michigan, light on rivalry games.
After playing home-and-home series against Michigan State and Ohio State this season, the Wolverines will play each of those teams just once next year. The clash with the Spartans will take place at Crisler Center, while Michigan will travel to Columbus to take on the Buckeyes.
The Wolverines have home-and-home series scheduled with Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Penn State and Purdue next season. One of the contests with the Nittany Lions, though, will be played at Madison Square Garden in New York. Per MLive.com’s Brendan Quinn, the New York game will be Penn State’s home game, and the teams will also meet in Ann Arbor.
Single-play games at home, in addition to Michigan State, are Indiana, Northwestern and Rutgers. Maryland’s visit to Ann Arbor will be its first as a member of the Big Ten.
To round out its schedule, Michigan will travel for single-play games at Illinois, Nebraska and Wisconsin.
All schedule dates — with the exception of the “Big Ten Day” clash in New York — have yet to be determined, as have game times and television broadcast information.
The 2016 Big Ten Tournament will be held at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis after spending the 2013 through 2015 at the United Center in Chicago.
The Big Ten’s schedule has changed substantially in recent years as the conference’s membership increased from 11 to 14. Nebraska joined the conference in the summer of 2011, while Maryland and Rutgers joined the conference in the summer of 2014.
The additions forced a drastic increase in single-play competition. With an 11-team membership, the conference was able to facilitate home-and-home series for the vast majority of pairings, an ability that vanished when the membership grew by three teams and the conference schedule held steady at 18 regular-season games. Since the league’s expansion, Big Ten teams play five opponents twice and eight opponents once.
Michigan had single-play pairings just twice per season in 2009-10 and 2010-11, the years before Nebraska’s addition to the conference. In both seasons, the Wolverines played Purdue and Illinois once each, alternating venues each season.
In 2011-12, the first year of the Cornhuskers’ membership, Michigan played four teams — Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Iowa — only once each during the Big Ten regular season.
The Wolverines’ home schedule features four of the seven teams currently in the top half of the Big Ten standings: Maryland, Michigan State, Purdue and Indiana. Similarly, the road schedule features four teams currently in the bottom half.