ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

After reading all the Big Ten scheduling snapshots, a friend tipped me off to a unique element of the league's non-league slate -- Syracuse appears three times. 

Big Ten teams make up three-fifths of Syracuse's non-league rundown, as the Orange host Minnesota and Northwestern and travel to Penn State. In an era when BCS teams rarely play more than two non-league games against foes from other BCS conferences, Syracuse's scheduling approach is rare.

When was the last time a team from another BCS conference played three Big Ten teams during the regular season?

Notre Dame does it every year -- the Irish have contracts with Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue -- but the program has more scheduling flexibility as an FBS independent.

I checked the schedules of several common Big Ten nonconference opponents from BCS leagues -- Syracuse, Iowa State, Pitt, UCLA, USC -- and found that UCLA faced Purdue, Wisconsin and Ohio State in consecutive weeks during the 1980 season. UCLA's run through the Big Ten nearly three decades ago appears to be the last time that this has happened. 

According to the Big Ten, MAC member Ball State was the last FBS team to face three Big Ten teams in the regular season, as the Cardinals played Indiana, Purdue and Michigan in 2006. Arizona State faced three Big Ten teams in 2004, though the final meeting against Purdue came in the Sun Bowl.