You are a good poster and I say this respectfully,...but not gonna happen. Zero chance of a round robin. Maybe when there were ten teams, but not with 14.
I like the idea of no divisions so we can play old traditional rivals like Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State more often. I miss those games and it's more fair fore everybody. Back in the 11-game schedule we played eight conference games, Sometimes you dodged a very good team, like Ohio State. Now, with 14 teams, nothing is going to be perfect.
Three protected teams would likely be Minnesota (Floyd) Wisconsin and Nebraska. Since the divisions were formed I've enjoyed playing Illinois every year. I recall the 1980s-90s when Iowa-Illinois was a heated rivalry. If you were from Eastern Iowa at that time you know what I mean.
I will miss that but no divisions is probably the way to go. I understand many Iowa fans will miss the every-other-year to Chicago and play Northwestern. It's okay, the subway and el will still be there the next time the Hawkeyes play in Evanston.