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Yesterday, the Iowa Hawkeyes released their planned opponents for the 2019-20 Big Ten Conference Schedule with a cool graphic involving Jordan Bohannon tying his shoe.
Iowa's Big Ten slate for 2019-20. #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/PMTbibwq3x
— Iowa Basketball (@IowaHoops) April 17, 2019
It makes sense because the teams Iowa played once last year are now teams they’ll play twice and vice versa with Nebraska as the exception. Is this a new scheduling quirk for the Big Ten as protected rivalries make their way into the conference landscape? It certainly makes sense to play each team thrice over two seasons with a common home-and-home opponent in back-to-back seasons. It will be interesting to see if Iowa is matched up with Wisconsin or Minnesota in such a scenario.
Some other scheduling quirks from Iowa’s schedule include back-to-back home games for Iowa in single-game seasons against Wisconsin (2018 & 2020) which has Bohannon playing in Madison just twice, as Chad Leistikow pointed out. Another notable game is D.J. Carton’s return to Iowa as the only matchup between the Hawkeyes and Buckeyes will be at Carver.
With a strong non-conference schedule of Creighton then San Diego State or Texas Tech, at Iowa State, in Chicago against Cincinnati, and to-be-determined opponents in the ACC and Big East for conference challenge games, next season figures to be the strongest out-of-conference schedule Iowa has faced in years on top of the 20-game conference season.
In using the final results of this year’s conference, Iowa’s schedule looks to be pretty middle of the pack.
Conference Strength of Schedules
| Team | 2018-19 SOS | Away SOS | Home SOS | 2019-20 SOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 2018-19 SOS | Away SOS | Home SOS | 2019-20 SOS |
| Illinois | 15.95 | 15.88 | 18.15 | 17.02 |
| Rutgers | 16.38 | 16.26 | 17.07 | 16.66 |
| Northwestern | 16.23 | 14.41 | 18.75 | 16.58 |
| Indiana | 16.87 | 14.28 | 18.22 | 16.25 |
| Ohio State | 16.17 | 15.23 | 17.04 | 16.14 |
| Iowa | 16.07 | 14.97 | 17.13 | 16.05 |
| Minnesota | 16.73 | 13.72 | 18.31 | 16.01 |
| Nebraska | 16.91 | 12.84 | 18.5 | 15.67 |
| Wisconsin | 15.71 | 15.23 | 15.98 | 15.6 |
| Michigan | 15.97 | 13.51 | 16.99 | 15.25 |
| Penn State | 16.86 | 14.74 | 15.66 | 15.2 |
| Michigan State | 15.76 | 14.23 | 15.53 | 14.88 |
| Maryland | 17.2 | 12.68 | 17.05 | 14.87 |
| Purdue | 15.91 | 12.84 | 16.59 | 14.71 |
Teams will look different with all of the new recruits, graduations, early declarations, and a coaching change so it’s obviously just an estimation. The team which sticks out for me, though, is Maryland who finished fifth with the most difficult conference schedule this year but will have the second easiest for next year. They’ll lose Bruno Fernando but return a very good and very experienced core.
One last bit of projection is: what does Iowa’s early December games look like? Those matchups are typically taken from the pool home-and-home games. My preferred pair would be at Minnesota while hosting Nebraska.
What are your thoughts on the schedule?