2015/2016 B1G schedules released

[Gopher07]

Gophers add Ohio State and Purdue, drop Penn State and Indiana

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools.../misc_non_event/future-football-schedules.pdf

2015:
10/3 Nebraska
10/10 at Northwestern
10/17 at Michigan
10/24 Iowa
10/31 Ohio State
11/7 at Purdue
11/14 BYE
11/21 Wisconsin
11/28 at Michigan State

2016:
10/1 at Iowa
10/8 Michigan
10/15 BYE
10/22 at Nebraska
10/29 Northwestern
11/5 at Ohio State
11/12 Purdue
11/19 at Wisconsin
11/26 Michigan State

 

[GoAUpher]

Ick, I see that they failed to fix the Nebby/Iowa/WI issue.

 

[johnnybb]

Didn't there used to be this school called Indiana that we played with some regularity? Did they cease to exist?

 

[highwayman]

Wow. That 2015 home schedule is fantastic. Consequently, the 2016 road schedule is rough.

Looks like the Iowa-Whiskey-Nebraska H/A connection is in place for a while.

Didn't there used to be this school called Indiana that we played with some regularity? Did they cease to exist?

We play Indiana in 2013-14. Like the other Leaders teams, sans Bookyville, they will rotate in and out every two years (OSU, Pur, Ind, Ill, PSU).

 

[Gopher07]

Didn't there used to be this school called Indiana that we played with some regularity? Did they cease to exist?

We play them in 2013/2014. With the divisions we rotate two Leaders division teams (plus keep Wisconsin) every two years. This year and last year it is Purdue and Illinois. 2013/2014 it is Indiana and Penn State. 2015/2016 it is Purdue and Ohio State, etc. Probably in 2017/2018 it will be Illinois and Indiana, or Illinois and Penn State.

 

[GoAUpher]

Didn't there used to be this school called Indiana that we played with some regularity? Did they cease to exist?

We get them in '13 (away) and '14 (home) but lose them in '15 and '16.

Some other nuggets via the ESPN B1G Blog:
- We lose Illinois for 4 straight seasons starting in 2015. EDIT: Correction, misread the post...should be starting in 2013.
- Northwestern will miss OSU, PSU, and Wisky in 2015 and 2016

I also looks like MSU is officially our end of season game now.

 

[GoAUpher]

Also, that 2015 home schedule is stacked. Nebby, Iowa, OSU, and Wisky. If the Gophers are good then tickets to those games will be making scalpers and dollar sign oriented STH very happy.

 

[Curseislifted33]

This all at home one year, all away the next is ridiculous. But oh well, every other year we have a huge advantage lettts go!

 

[WolfontheProwl]

Huge advantage? I wouldnt call it that at all. The Gophers will need to improve agreat deal for that to be an advantage. Yes we get all the big teams at home in one year but if we win 1 of those games we will be lucky. Then we have all of our winnable games on the road which makes them twice as tough. If the Gophers improve a great deal maybe its a good thing but I would rather take those 4 games and split them 2 at home and 2 on the road.

 

[Cayman]

Huge advantage? I wouldnt call it that at all. The Gophers will need to improve a great deal for that to be an advantage. Yes we get all the big teams at home in one year but if we win 1 of those games we will be lucky. Then we have all of our winnable games on the road which makes them twice as tough. If the Gophers improve a great deal maybe its a good thing but I would rather take those 4 games and split them 2 at home and 2 on the road.

Who's to say they won't have improved a great deal in the three seasons between now and the beginning of the 2015 season? By that point, hopefully such a schedule will be an advantage. I think by then we should be good enough to win 2 out of 4 home games, maybe even more, against Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and Ohio State. A lot can change in three years. Maybe you're right and we will still be at the point where "maybe we'll go 6-6" will be considered optimistic. Maybe we'll be gunning for a bid in the conference title game. Then you also have to take into account changes at other programs, maybe Purdue and Northwestern will be top 25 teams. Maybe Ohio State will get caught again and receive program-crippling sanctions from the NCAA (probably not, but one can dream).

Basically, I feel like you're basing your prediction off of if this year's team played that schedule for the 2012 season, not the 2015 Gophers, in which case I would probably agree with you.

 

[GoAUpher]

Who's to say they won't have improved a great deal in the three seasons between now and the beginning of the 2015 season? By that point, hopefully such a schedule will be an advantage. I think by then we should be good enough to win 2 out of 4 home games, maybe even more, against Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and Ohio State. A lot can change in three years. Maybe you're right and we will still be at the point where "maybe we'll go 6-6" will be considered optimistic. Maybe we'll be gunning for a bid in the conference title game. Then you also have to take into account changes at other programs, maybe Purdue and Northwestern will be top 25 teams. Maybe Ohio State will get caught again and receive program-crippling sanctions from the NCAA (probably not, but one can dream).

Basically, I feel like you're basing your prediction off of if this year's team played that schedule for the 2012 season, not the 2015 Gophers, in which case I would probably agree with you.

This is why I focus more on the "how does this affect my road trips" side of things. And by that metric I must say BOOOOOOOO to this stacking of the schedule. Since I live in Madison, home games are road weekends already. Stacking the schedule like this makes years like this one or 2016 super tough for me (cue the small violins ).

 

[HouseOfHagen]

Who's to say they won't have improved a great deal in the three seasons between now and the beginning of the 2015 season? By that point, hopefully such a schedule will be an advantage. I think by then we should be good enough to win 2 out of 4 home games, maybe even more, against Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and Ohio State. A lot can change in three years. Maybe you're right and we will still be at the point where "maybe we'll go 6-6" will be considered optimistic. Maybe we'll be gunning for a bid in the conference title game. Then you also have to take into account changes at other programs, maybe Purdue and Northwestern will be top 25 teams. Maybe Ohio State will get caught again and receive program-crippling sanctions from the NCAA (probably not, but one can dream).

Basically, I feel like you're basing your prediction off of if this year's team played that schedule for the 2012 season, not the 2015 Gophers, in which case I would probably agree with you.

In regards to what a better team we will have in three years, people have been saying this for 40 years. As it stands, history is to say we won't have improved a great deal between now and the beginning of the 2015 season.

 

[GopherVotary]

The home schedule looks good to scalpers every other year. A policy of requiring new season ticket buyers to commit to two years would be unpopular but would capture that scalper money better.

 

[JoeDirt]

I hate the H/A with the big 3 because it makes the road trips nearly impossible for me. I can't go to madison, IC, and Lincoln all in the same year AND make it home for 6-7 home games. If they split those three teams up a little it would make it an annual road trip to two of three much easier especially because Lincoln is an easy trip from here.

 

[upnorthkid]

Huge advantage? I wouldnt call it that at all. The Gophers will need to improve agreat deal for that to be an advantage. Yes we get all the big teams at home in one year but if we win 1 of those games we will be lucky. Then we have all of our winnable games on the road which makes them twice as tough. If the Gophers improve a great deal maybe its a good thing but I would rather take those 4 games and split them 2 at home and 2 on the road.

It is an advantage for the sake that you don't have to play in a hostile environment. In 2015, when who knows who our QB will be for sure and how many young players will be playing, this can be a big advantage. I know our stadium doesn't rattle opposing QBs right now, but I think we can all agree that some of those stadiums have a tendency to get a little louder than TCF. That's where I can see it being an advantage by taking away an inherent disadvantage for the Gophs.

 

[GoAUpher]

That's where I can see it being an advantage by taking away an inherent disadvantage for the Gophs.

I think the point is that while true this is only helpful if the Gophers are playing at a certain level or if one of the "big 4" we're talking about are having a down year. Because the flip side of this is that the more "winnable" (at least based on recent performance) games are on the road where the opponent has the benefit of the positives you outline. It's a little bit "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" I'll admit.

 

[Ski-U-Mah24]

I hate that our last Big Ten game of the year is Michigan State and not Iowa or Wisconsin for that matter. Why can't all protected rivalries be played the last game of the season like they pretty much always used to be?

 

[t-docious]

I hate that our last Big Ten game of the year is Michigan State and not Iowa or Wisconsin for that matter. Why can't all protected rivalries be played the last game of the season like they pretty much always used to be?

plus a million. unfortunately i have no answer.

 

[MrGopher]

I'm never going to complain about playing all three (wi/Ia/Ne) at home and then all three away the next year.

We could have easily wound up missing one or two of those teams entirely on a given season. And the Jug game is guaranteed every year as well!! And we play Nebraska every year instead of Penn St!

We were colossal winners when those divisions (and crossover pairings) came out.

 

[Parski1]

The 2016 schedule is brutal - hope Kill recruits really well in the next few years.

 

[station19]

I remember Joel M stating a few months back he wanted to switch the H/A set-up with Wisc and Iowa. I hope Teague follows up on that.

Like Ski-U-Mah said, why can't all the protected rivalry games be on the last weekend? Maybe there is a reason I'm not thinking of.

 

[GoAUpher]

We were colossal winners when those divisions (and crossover pairings) came out.

We were colossal winners in terms of keeping of rivalry games intact. We're not winners when it comes to strength of schedule. That was a tradeoff I was cool with, but in years like 2016 it's more than a bit ugly.

 

[GoAUpher]

Like Ski-U-Mah said, why can't all the protected rivalry games be on the last weekend? Maybe there is a reason I'm not thinking of.

I'm assuming it's because they want to limit rematch opportunities in the CTG. That was one reason OSU/Michigan was almost moved off it's traditional weekend.

 

[ruppertflywheel]

It will be interesting to see in 2016 if have gone one step beyond the Mason level. By that I mean, at least 8 wins. It will also be interesting to see how much Teague has elevated the football program.

 

[Cayman]

I hate that our last Big Ten game of the year is Michigan State and not Iowa or Wisconsin for that matter. Why can't all protected rivalries be played the last game of the season like they pretty much always used to be?

Iowa had/has a rivalry with Nebraska, so they play each other for the last game of the regular season.

Current week 13 matchups:
Indiana/Purdue
Ohio State/Michigan
Illinois/Northwestern
Iowa/Nebraska
Minnesota/Michigan State
Wisconsin/Penn State

The first four make sense, they are actual rivalries, the last two do not, but there does seem to be some reason for this. After a look at Wikipedia, it seems that if we played Wisconsin on the last game of the season, that would leave only Michigan State and Penn State, who are in different divisions and do not have a protected rivalry, and so do not play every year like Minnesota and Wisconsin do, so Minnesota and Wisconsin got stuck with teams within their respective divisions that they play every year. Still, I think Minnesota and Wisconsin is arguably the second biggest rivalry in the conference after Ohio State and Michigan, and I feel like it should have been played on the last week instead of Illinois/Northwestern.

There are three cross-divisional protected rivalries (and I mean actual rivalries, not just protected crossover games), Ohio State and Michigan, Illinois and Northwestern, and Minnesota and Wisconsin. So, it was likely pretty easy for them to put intra-divisional rivalries (Indiana/Purdue, Iowa/Nebraska) on the last week of the season, and they sure as hell weren't going to move division crossover Ohio State/Michigan off of the last week, leaving two crossover rivalries (Minnesota/Wisconsin, Illinois/Northwestern) which would likely both like to have their games played on the last week. At this point, Indiana, Purdue, Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Michigan all have opponents, and Minnesota, Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan State, Illinois, and Northwestern do not. That is three teams from each division. Minnesota/Wisconsin is a protected crossover, and Illinois/Northwestern is a protected crossover, but Michigan State/Penn State is not. If Minnesota/Wisconsin and Illinois/Northwestern were to both be played on the last week of the season, that would leave only two teams, Michigan State and Penn State, without opponents, which would stick them with each other. Michigan State and Penn State are not from the same division and are not a protected crossover, and so they cannot end every season by playing each other, meaning only one of the two protected crossover rivalries (Minnesota/Wisconsin and Illinois/Northwestern) could be played on the last week. If they allowed us, Minnesota, to play Wisconsin on the last week, Illinois would end their season with Penn State, and Michigan State would end theirs with Northwestern.

Basically, under the current arrangement, for Minnesota to play Wisconsin on the last week, Illinois/Northwestern would have to be moved off the last week, or Ohio State/Michigan would have be moved off the last week (and we all know that's not going to happen). It had to be either Minnesota/Wisconsin or Illinois/Northwestern that didn't get to play each other on the last week, and our rivalry was the unlucky one chosen.

That said, with the current protected crossover games, Michigan State gets Indiana every year, and Penn State gets Nebraska. If they were to switch it to Penn State/Michigan State, and Indiana/Nebraska, then Michigan State could end their season with Penn State, and we could end ours with Wisconsin. Nebraska and Penn State are probably the best programs in the conference after Ohio State and Michigan, so I could see where having Nebraska get Indiana every year seems lame from the Nebraska point of view, and seems unfair from the Indiana point of view, but as now, Michigan State and Nebraska are probably going to be about equally difficult for Indiana to beat, and Michigan State/Penn State does actually have a trophy tied to it and would probably be a good game regardless.

 

[Unregistered User]

I hate that our last Big Ten game of the year is Michigan State and not Iowa or Wisconsin for that matter. Why can't all protected rivalries be played the last game of the season like they pretty much always used to be?

Which one? Iowa or Wisconsin? We've had both of them for the last game of the year, so we can't have both. And we've had some really fun games against MSU the past couple of decades, so all things considered, if this is the worst result of the conference realignment, I'm totally cool with it.

 

[Unregistered User]

We were colossal winners in terms of keeping of rivalry games intact. We're not winners when it comes to strength of schedule. That was a tradeoff I was cool with, but in years like 2016 it's more than a bit ugly.

It's the B10. Every year, everyone's schedule is brutal.

 

[Formo]

Iowa had/has a rivalry with Nebraska, so they play each other for the last game of the regular season.

Current week 13 matchups:
Indiana/Purdue
Ohio State/Michigan
Illinois/Northwestern
Iowa/Nebraska
Minnesota/Michigan State
Wisconsin/Penn State

The first four make sense, they are actual rivalries, the last two do not, but there does seem to be some reason for this. After a look at Wikipedia, it seems that if we played Wisconsin on the last game of the season, that would leave only Michigan State and Penn State, who are in different divisions and do not have a protected rivalry, and so do not play every year like Minnesota and Wisconsin do, so Minnesota and Wisconsin got stuck with teams within their respective divisions that they play every year. Still, I think Minnesota and Wisconsin is arguably the second biggest rivalry in the conference after Ohio State and Michigan, and I feel like it should have been played on the last week instead of Illinois/Northwestern.

There are three cross-divisional protected rivalries (and I mean actual rivalries, not just protected crossover games), Ohio State and Michigan, Illinois and Northwestern, and Minnesota and Wisconsin. So, it was likely pretty easy for them to put intra-divisional rivalries (Indiana/Purdue, Iowa/Nebraska) on the last week of the season, and they sure as hell weren't going to move division crossover Ohio State/Michigan off of the last week, leaving two crossover rivalries (Minnesota/Wisconsin, Illinois/Northwestern) which would likely both like to have their games played on the last week. At this point, Indiana, Purdue, Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Michigan all have opponents, and Minnesota, Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan State, Illinois, and Northwestern do not. That is three teams from each division. Minnesota/Wisconsin is a protected crossover, and Illinois/Northwestern is a protected crossover, but Michigan State/Penn State is not. If Minnesota/Wisconsin and Illinois/Northwestern were to both be played on the last week of the season, that would leave only two teams, Michigan State and Penn State, without opponents, which would stick them with each other. Michigan State and Penn State are not from the same division and are not a protected crossover, and so they cannot end every season by playing each other, meaning only one of the two protected crossover rivalries (Minnesota/Wisconsin and Illinois/Northwestern) could be played on the last week. If they allowed us, Minnesota, to play Wisconsin on the last week, Illinois would end their season with Penn State, and Michigan State would end theirs with Northwestern.

Basically, under the current arrangement, for Minnesota to play Wisconsin on the last week, Illinois/Northwestern would have to be moved off the last week, or Ohio State/Michigan would have be moved off the last week (and we all know that's not going to happen). It had to be either Minnesota/Wisconsin or Illinois/Northwestern that didn't get to play each other on the last week, and our rivalry was the unlucky one chosen.

That said, with the current protected crossover games, Michigan State gets Indiana every year, and Penn State gets Nebraska. If they were to switch it to Penn State/Michigan State, and Indiana/Nebraska, then Michigan State could end their season with Penn State, and we could end ours with Wisconsin. Nebraska and Penn State are probably the best programs in the conference after Ohio State and Michigan, so I could see where having Nebraska get Indiana every year seems lame from the Nebraska point of view, and seems unfair from the Indiana point of view, but as now, Michigan State and Nebraska are probably going to be about equally difficult for Indiana to beat, and Michigan State/Penn State does actually have a trophy tied to it and would probably be a good game regardless.

Great research and post!!

To be honest, I'm very happy with MSU as our last game of the year. For as long as I can remember, our games with MSU have always been a close, hard fought battle, no matter where either of us stood in the standings. I also have a mutual respect for MSU as we both have rivalries with scUM, and I've always liked the Spartans from back before I became a hardcore Gopher fan (read: before I followed college ball).

Yeah, it would be awesome if we had Wisky or Iowa as our last regular season game of the year, but if we had to trade either of those teams in, no team better to trade in for than MSU.

 

[GoAUpher]

It's the B10. Every year, everyone's schedule is brutal.

That's a nice sound bite but it's not the reality of the situation. 3 of our division foes each have easier protected games. MSU faces Indiana every year, Iowa gets Purdue, and Northwestern has Illinois. Like I said, I love that we get our rivals every season. But to pretend like it doesn't add to the difficulty of the schedule compared to others is silly.