2 0 1 9 K I C K O F F S P E C I A L
made 11 starts and averaged a school-record 295.1 yards of
total oh in school
history, and he still has two seasons of eli-
gibility remaining. Taylor leads all active
Football Bowl Subdivision players with
an average of 154.5 rushing yards per
game and last year became the fourth
Wisconsin running back to win the
Doak Walker Award, joining Ron
Dayne (1999), Montee Ball (2012)
and Melvin Gordon (2014). ■
game league slate "is something that
needs to be discussed."
"When you play nine conference
games,
you're going to have more losses
within your conference," Franklin said.
"Mathematics tell you that. Obviously,
we've made some changes now in some of
the philosophies that go around I-AA
games, FCS opponents and things like
that. So I just think all these things need
to be discussed a>er the last two years
and what's happened, because… people
in our conference feel like we have an op-
portunity to compete with anyone, any-
where at any time. We want the
opportunity to do that."
Two years ago, the league relaxed some
of its nonconference scheduling restric-
tions, allowing teams to play Football
Championship Subdivision opponents in
years
when they only play four Big Ten
home games (odd-numbered years for
East Division teams). The Nittany Lions
will open against an FCS opponent this
year, as Idaho is set to visit Beaver Sta-
dium on Aug. 31. In addition, the Lions
will face Villanova in 2021 and '25 and
Delaware in 2023. But they've also lined
up home-and-home series against
Auburn, Virginia Tech and West Virginia
in the coming years, so with a nine-game
Big Ten slate to navigate and a perennial
Top-25-caliber nonconference opponent
appearing on the schedule every year
from 2020 to '25, the road to the playo<
will not be an easy one.
One of the rationales for playing mar-
quee
nonconference opponents is that
schedule strength is supposed to be one
of the key factors that CFP committee
members use to evaluate teams. But are
they doing that? Some people in the Big
Ten aren't so sure.
Delany, who is set to step down as Big
Ten commissioner next June, said he
hopes that in the years to come, the com-
mittee "pays more attention to the
founders' e
