Mailbag: Big Ten schedule math, Stanford (and Cal) in the realignment game, Pac

The Hotline mailbag publishes weekly. Send questions to wilnerhotline@bayareanewsgroup.com and include ‘mailbag’ in the subject line. Or hit me on the social media platform X: @WilnerHotline

Some questions have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Do you think the Big Ten will ever follow the SEC and adopt a conference schedule with three protected games? — @KwadeSays

That would ensure the four West Coast schools play each other every year, which the Hotline fully supports. But the conference has a math problem that can only be solved with a major structural change to the schedule.

First, the SEC’s easy math: With 16 teams, nine conference games and three protected opponents, every school plays each of the other 12 teams every-other-year (or twice in a four-year cycle).

That works bec