How will Big Ten’s 2024 football schedule play out? Here’s an attempt to plan it

With painstaking detail and discussions lasting for more than a year, Big Ten and campus officials crafted a league football schedule beginning in 2024 that eliminated divisions, protected signature rivalries and ensured every athlete would play at least one game at every venue in a four-year period. Advertisement It was called flex protect-plus, and its supporters were excited to tout it during the weeks after it was unveiled June 8. “What they’ve put together shows a tremendous amount of creativity and recognizes the unique situations that each of our schools faces with rivalries,” Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman said at…