2023-24 B1G Non-Conference Schedules

Ignatius L Hoops

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Rutgers is first out of the gate and quickly moves to the lead along the rail facing five 300+ teams. It must be noted that the two opponents in the Las Vegas South Point Shoot Out have yet to be named so the schedule will likely improve. Here are the opponents with last season's NET Ranking:

352 St. Frances (PA)
348 Delaware State
326 Lafayette
321 Monmouth
305 Wagner
250 Fairfield
164 La Salle
81 Auburn
70 @ Seton Hall
40 @ Princeton
7 Virginia Tech

Plust two teams at the Las Vegas tournament
 


Nebraska's non-conference schedule, "It's not for everyone", lacks two Thanksgiving tournament opponents: Here are the teams with last season's final NET

328 Northwestern State
317 UNC Wilmington
313 Alcorn State
218 Florida Atlantic
175 Southern
95 Wyoming
77 Georgia Tech
30 @ Kansas
23 Creighton
Thanksgiving tournament
Thanksgiving tournament
 

For a team likely to be pre-season 13th/14th in the BIG, the Badgers have a pretty challenging non-conference schedule (last season's NET):

216 Milwaukee
297 Western Illinois
34 South Dakota State
65 @ Kansas State
48 Arkansas (tournament)
42/87 Marquette/BC (tournament)
189 Northern Illinois
124 Butler
234 @ St. Thomas
210 Eastern Illinois

 



Half of the Wildcats B1G wins in a 2-16 conference season came against the Gophers. Northwestern took a 76-62 mid-February home victory by forcing 25 Minnesota turnovers. This season, Minnesota's non-con schedule encourages tossing aside the shovels and climbing toward daylight. Northwesterns? The Wildcats should keep the shovels handy.

Here's Northwestern's non-con with last season's final NET ranking.

338 Bradley
270 Loyola
265 SE Missouri State
263 Omaha
188 UIC
128 @ Temple
108 Georgetown
62 @ DePaul
26 @ Florida State (Las Vegas)
9 @ Notre Dame
4/84 @ Stanford or Belmont (Las Vegas)
 



Maryland's schedule runs the gamut from bball royalty to the founding fathers.

249 Niagara
174 George Mason
171 Towson
101 James Madison
74 @ Green Bay (Cancun)
71 Harvard
60 @UMass (Cancun)
54 Syracuse
35 @ Washington State (Cancun)
3 @ UConn
1 @ South Carolina
 


Maryland's schedule runs the gamut from bball royalty to the founding fathers.

249 Niagara
174 George Mason
171 Towson
101 James Madison
74 @ Green Bay (Cancun)
71 Harvard
60 @UMass (Cancun)
54 Syracuse
35 @ Washington State (Cancun)
3 @ UConn
1 @ South Carolina

Back to back road games against South Carolina (Nov 12) and UConn (Nov 16)!

(UConn then plays Minnesota 3 days later at Minnesota).
 


Robyn Fralick's first Michigan State non-con is a triple digit delight-heavy on the light.

336 Detroit Mercy
306 Wright State
287 Central Michigan
276 Evansville
275 Oakland
242 Miami of Ohio
209 @Coastal Caroline (Cherokee NC)
101 @James Madison (Cancun)
92/156 @ Richmond or Chattanooga (Cherokee NC)
66 @ DePaul
23 @ Creighton (Cancun)
 


Penn State sounds the depths of the 361 NET ranked schools

355 Navy
352 St. Francis (PA)
347 Central Connecticut
284 Radford
237 Bucknell
129 Providence
59 @ West Virginia
56 @ St Johns
46 @ Oklahoma St (Bahamas)
34 @ Southern Cal (Bahamas)
30 Kansas
 





I wonder how this kind of scheduling will work out next year with the conference realignment. Anybody have an idea on how many conference games will be played?

The commisoner sez:

The Big Ten may not need to adjust the number of conference games it plays for men’s and women’s basketball.
 




What matters most are the team power rankings at year end. That determines who makes a tournament or not. Conference tournaments matter and conference winners matter. But winning a division?
 




Purdue with some road tests:

293 Valparaiso
281 Southern Indiana
265 Southeast Missouri State
260 Southern
226 Indiana State
214 @ Dayton
104 Texas A & M
76 @ Florida (Bahamas)
28 @ Georgia (Bahamas)
22 @ UCLA
9 @ Notre Dame
 


Penn State sounds the depths of the 361 NET ranked schools

355 Navy
352 St. Francis (PA)
347 Central Connecticut
284 Radford
237 Bucknell
129 Providence
59 @ West Virginia
56 @ St Johns
46 @ Oklahoma St (Bahamas)
34 @ Southern Cal (Bahamas)
30 Kansas
Penn State ousted this team in the first round of BIG tourney last year. We should win this year with a new captain at the helm.
 

For a team likely to be pre-season 13th/14th in the BIG, the Badgers have a pretty challenging non-conference schedule (last season's NET):

216 Milwaukee
297 Western Illinois
34 South Dakota State
65 @ Kansas State
48 Arkansas (tournament)
42/87 Marquette/BC (tournament)
189 Northern Illinois
124 Butler
234 @ St. Thomas
210 Eastern Illinois


Wisconsin must have arranged this a year or two ago based on expectations. Looks like not one 300+ team. Now the cupboard is bare.
 


Maryland's schedule runs the gamut from bball royalty to the founding fathers.

249 Niagara
174 George Mason
171 Towson
101 James Madison
74 @ Green Bay (Cancun)
71 Harvard
60 @UMass (Cancun)
54 Syracuse
35 @ Washington State (Cancun)
3 @ UConn
1 @ South Carolina

That's eight games of 101 or lower. Plus back to back road games against UConn and South Carolina. Bold. Oh, not one 250+ game.

Thanks for posting all these, ILH.
 


Penn State sounds the depths of the 361 NET ranked schools

355 Navy
352 St. Francis (PA)
347 Central Connecticut
284 Radford
237 Bucknell
129 Providence
59 @ West Virginia
56 @ St Johns
46 @ Oklahoma St (Bahamas)
34 @ Southern Cal (Bahamas)
30 Kansas

This looks like a clever schedule. 5 teams under 60 but at least 30. Plus 3 cup cakes.
 

When might we see a conference schedule? It was out Sept 7 last year.
 


Iowa hits the road:

270 Loyola Chicago
243 @ Purdue Fort Wayne (Estero, Florida)
137 Fairleigh Dickinson
69 Cleveland State (Des Moines)
67 Bowling Green
64 @ UNI
58 Kansas State
57 Drake
37 @ FGCU or 182 Delaware (Estero, Florida)
7 @ Virginia Tech (Charleston)
6 @ Iowa State
? @ TBD (Estero, Florida
 

This will be the first year of not traveling to watch either of my children playing. It might be fun to drive down to Drake to watch Iowa, if it doesn’t conflict with the Gophers schedule.
 

This will be the first year of not traveling to watch either of my children playing. It might be fun to drive down to Drake to watch Iowa, if it doesn’t conflict with the Gophers schedule.

Will be interesting to see how ticket sales go for that with the Hawks selling out for the season. Iowa also plays at ISU so that should also be close to a sellout. Cyclones have great attendance but not sellouts. ISU inflates the attendance with all sorts of special season ticket deals (kids, groups etc) etc and it's usually among the top in the national at 9,000+ however the actual cheeks-in-the-seats at a game are more like 5,000 or so which would still be Top 10. It's a touchy issue with my Cyclone brethren but I cite the last NCAA March Madness game we hosted where attendance as 6,000.

Related to Drake and Twin Cities, St. Thomas will also travel to open their season at Drake. Later in N/C the Tommies will host both Iowa State and the Wisconsin Badger in St. Paul. Last time i rolled up I-94 to Fargo to watch ISU play a Summit League team, NDSU, there were only a few hundred folks in the stands but bet this game in here in the twin Cities draws better than that. Planning on popping over for that.
 

This will be the first year of not traveling to watch either of my children playing. It might be fun to drive down to Drake to watch Iowa, if it doesn’t conflict with the Gophers schedule.
Drake plays at Iowa this year and the complete season is a sellout at Carver.
 


Indiana released a somewhat abbreviated 9 game non-con schedule

278 Evansville
210 Eastern Illinois
206 @ Maine (Portland)
199 Lipscomb
130 Murray State
67 Bowling Green
40 @ Princeton (Fort Myers)
13 @ Tennessee (Fort Myers)
4 @ Stanford
 


Michigan's non-con lacks a certain verve:

333 Florida Atlantic
322 SIUE
275 Oakland
243 Purdue Fort Wayne
242 Miami (Ohio)
232 Eastern Michign
76 @ Florida (Charlotte)
71 @ Harvard
66 @ Toledo
62 or 222 @ DePaul or South Dakota (Atlantis)
33 @ Middle Tennessee State (Atlantis)
?? TBA @ Atlantis
 

Will be interesting to see how ticket sales go for that with the Hawks selling out for the season. Iowa also plays at ISU so that should also be close to a sellout. Cyclones have great attendance but not sellouts. ISU inflates the attendance with all sorts of special season ticket deals (kids, groups etc) etc and it's usually among the top in the national at 9,000+ however the actual cheeks-in-the-seats at a game are more like 5,000 or so which would still be Top 10. It's a touchy issue with my Cyclone brethren but I cite the last NCAA March Madness game we hosted where attendance as 6,000.

Related to Drake and Twin Cities, St. Thomas will also travel to open their season at Drake. Later in N/C the Tommies will host both Iowa State and the Wisconsin Badger in St. Paul. Last time i rolled up I-94 to Fargo to watch ISU play a Summit League team, NDSU, there were only a few hundred folks in the stands but bet this game in here in the twin Cities draws better than that. Planning on popping over for that.
When South Dakota would play at either of the North Dakota schools, we would often have more fans than them. We always traveled very well, but they also draw terribly from their home fans.
 

The U of M system made a mistake with my season tickets. 1/3 of my Gophers tickets are UMD opponents.

LOL. Argh.

Well, I understand the last coaching regime arranged that, the team was starting over basically with good freshmen so make the schedule easier, and coaches need to pad the wins count when wins are hard to get.

But... maybe next year we can have more teams 150-ish instead of 1,500-ish.

Then again, the West Coast onslaught is coming...
 




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