STrib: Early Big Ten games among historic changes that will be an adjustment

per Marcus:

Gophers fans like their counterparts across the league were quick to notice what the biggest difference in this season's Big Ten schedule was from any other year -- earlier conference games.

For the first time every Big Ten team opens conference play with two games in the first week of December. For Minnesota that means hosting Rutgers on Dec. 3 at home and playing Dec. 5 at Nebraska.

“This year is really unique,” Minnesota coach Richard Pitino said Wednesday morning on 1500 ESPN radio. “Normally, you would kind of look at (nonconference and conference) as two seasons.”

After the early start, the Big Ten schedule picks up nearly a month later for the Gophers with back-to-back home games Jan. 3 against Illinois and Jan. 6 against Indiana. It could be a favorable start for Minnesota with the four of the first six Big Ten games at Williams Arena, including Jan. 13 vs. Purdue at the Barn right after a road game Jan. 10 at Northwestern.

The Big Ten tournament runs a week early this year from Feb. 28 through March 4 at Madison Square Garden in New York. That led to conference games also now being scheduled on Monday and Friday.

http://m.startribune.com/early-big-...changes-that-will-be-an-adjustment/440856943/

Go Gophers!!

"We went from a 10-week season to a nine-week season,” Big Ten senior associate commissioner Mark Rudner said Wednesday on the Big Ten Network. “We moved some games to early December to alleviate some of the compression."

I'm not sure if I understand the purpose of the early Big Ten games. If compression is the concern, this move does nothing to help. Teams go from playing 1.80 (18÷10) games per week to 1.78 (16÷9). The only purpose that would make sense to me is to gain a week of rest prior to the NCAA Tournament.