If you’re like me, you turned the page in a hurry.

Once 2018 was over, I was already trying to get excited for 2019. Nothing makes the offseason discussion juicer than a buffet of tasty opening-weekend matchups.

But the B1G’s 2019 opening weekend is drier than the chicken at your in-laws’ house.

It’s bad. Like, “don’t talk about the opponent until game week” bad. Why do I say that? Well, in case you haven’t looked through it like I have, here’s a rundown of all the B1G teams who will take on a Power 5 opponent on opening weekend:

  • Northwestern at Stanford

Yeah. That’s it.

And yes, there are a few B1G teams who will, for some reason, travel opening weekend to face Group of 5 teams. Wisconsin will head to Tampa to take on South Florida while Purdue is somehow traveling to Nevada and Indiana will take on Ball State at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

But still. All the bragging that B1G teams make about their strength of scheduling and 1 of 14 B1G teams will have a matchup against a Power 5 foe to kick off 2019.

Weak.

In case you were wondering, no, this isn’t normal. Technically, 5 B1G teams had matchups vs. Power 5 foes to kick off 2018. Six did so in 2017, and there were 3 in 2016, 5 in 2015 and 3 in the first year of the Playoff in 2014. From 2014-18, that’s an average of 4.4 Power 5 opponents that B1G teams faced on opening weekend.

As you’ll recall, the B1G implemented the rule at the beginning of the 9-game conference schedule back in 2016 that each team had to face at least 1 Power 5 opponent in non-conference play. And of course, there were exceptions. The likes of UConn, USF, Cincinnati, BYU, Notre Dame and others were passable in part because of previously agreed upon contracts.

But I’m not sure what ever happened to that rule because it seems all but gone.

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If you include Notre Dame, the B1G will only face a total of 10 Power 5 opponents in non-conference play in 2019. The B1G will face just as many MAC teams as Power 5 teams in non-conference play. Here’s a breakdown of that by conference:

Oh, and that one SEC team is Vanderbilt.

It’s ironic because on an annual basis, it seems like the B1G calls out the SEC for its weak scheduling. The SEC and ACC still go by the 8-game conference schedule, which the B1G did away with in 2016 and has yet to have its conference champion make the Playoff since that move was made. B1G coaches, athletic directors and Jim Delany have been vocal about wanting the playing field to even out with everyone playing the same number of conference games.

They’re right. They should be pushing for that. But watering down the non-conference slate to compensate for the scheduling imbalance with the SEC is the wrong way to go about it.

Consider this. Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio State and Wisconsin all have non-conference schedules without Power 5 opponents on them. Unlike the B1G, I don’t count the likes of UConn, Cincinnati or USF because none of those schools ranked in the top 60 in the 2019 class rankings. But I fully look forward to each team claiming that those teams “are run like Power 5 programs.”

Credit: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

It’d be one thing if this was just B1G cellar dwellers making this move. It’s understandable why they’d push for a weak non-conference slate to try and sneak into a bowl game.

But that’s not the case. Ohio State and Wisconsin were the B1G’s top preseason Playoff contenders in 2018. The fact that neither of them will play a non-conference game against a Power 5 team this year is baffling. Have those teams done a good job scheduling well in years past? They have for the most part, though this is Wisconsin’s third straight season without a Power 5 foe.

The problem is that non-conference matchups against Power 5 teams shape narratives. Ask 2016 Wisconsin about that. The Badgers won that mammoth opener against preseason top-5 LSU and then still had a chance to make the Playoff with 2 losses with a win in the B1G Championship.

The B1G heard throughout 2017 about how it didn’t have any quality non-conference wins. What about 2018? The B1G was 6-6 against Power 5 opponents in non-conference play, but the headline was that the conference lost 6 games to Group of 5 teams (7 if you include the BYU loss) while preseason contenders Michigan State and Penn State nearly fell to Group of 5 teams in their season openers.

Compare that to the SEC, which went 9-4 against Power 5 teams in non-conference play, and only 2-win Arkansas lost to a Group of 5 team.

And speaking of the other Power 5 conferences, here’s the breakdown of their opening weekend Power 5 opponents for 2019:

  • SEC: 4 (not including Vanderbilt vs. Georgia)
  • ACC: 4 (not including Clemson-Georgia Tech)
  • Pac-12: 3
  • Big 12: 1
  • B1G: 1

Before you tell me the B1G still plays on average more Power 5 opponents than the SEC, remember this. In 2019, B1G teams will average 9.7 Power 5 opponents compared to 9.1 for the SEC. That’s not that significant of a difference. At least not one worth bragging about. And there’s also the fact that the SEC has 5 teams in the top 10 in ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25 compared to just 1 for the B1G, so the preseason narrative doesn’t favor the latter, either.

But let’s get back to those other numbers.

Of the 36 Power 5 teams with 9-game conference schedules, only 5 of them will face such an opponent to kick off the 2019 season. And while the Big 12 is in the same boat as the B1G with only 1 Power 5 opponent in the opener, only 1 Big 12 team (Baylor) is without a Power 5 opponent throughout non-conference play. In case you forgot, 5 B1G teams left Power 5 opponents of their non-conference schedules.

Starting to see what I mean?

Yes, this is a case-by-case basis. The B1G doesn’t schedule teams as a conference. That’s up to athletic directors.

But for all this talk about how strong the conference’s scheduling is every year, this feels like an overcorrect. In reality, switching back to the 8-game conference schedule was what would’ve solved the B1G’s issues. Now, B1G teams will continue to beat up on each other AND the league will have fewer chances than ever to make non-conference statements.

It’s backwards thinking. For a conference that prides itself on being ahead of the curve, the B1G seems to be a step late when it comes to this whole scheduling thing.

It all comes back to this. The ACC and SEC have it figured out. That’s partially why they’re the only conferences who have had teams in the Playoff every year. Fair or not, the selection committee values an attempt at a non-conference headliner and how you perform against your conference schedule, and it doesn’t matter if that’s 8 or 9 games. Period.

The B1G continues to shoot itself in the foot. Time will tell if this ugly trend will hang like a dark cloud over the conference throughout the 2019 season.

All I know is that I’m bracing myself for B1G Media Days this summer, when Delany and Co. will pretend like it’s nothing but sunshine and rainbows.