CBS: Breaking down the schedules: B1G (Gophers may want to clinch bowl before Nov)

[BleedGopher]

per Jerry Palm:

The Big Ten welcomes Maryland and Rutgers into the fold for 2014 and realigned their divisions into a much more logical East and West format. While I was always critical of it, I'm going to miss going through the exercise of trying to figure out who was a Legendary Leader every fall.

The league is working toward a 9-game conference schedule format, which will debut in 2016. In the meantime, each team will play everyone else in it's division, plus two rotating crossover games, except for Indiana (East) and Purdue (West). They'll always have each other, plus one rotating game.

Minnesota: If the Gophers are going bowling this year, they may want to get eligibility sewn up before November. They finish with Iowa and Ohio State at home, followed by roadies with Nebraska and Wisconsin.

http://www.cbssports.com/general/writer/jerry-palm/24573457/breaking-down-the-schedules-big-ten

Go Gophers!!

 

[imthewalrus]

The game in Ann Arbor will be crucial to my Golden Gopher's bowl invitation hopes. And my Gophers MUST beat the stinking badgers in Madison. At some point in time this team NEEDS to win some big games on the road in trophy games. So, throw the iowa game into that trophy games that need to be won category. And, the nightmare that has recurred for such a long time has got to turn into a sweet dream in 2014 if my Golden Gophers are move forward within the ranks of their conference foes. These three conference/trophy games will be my keys to the 2014 Conference Season and will show just what kind of progress is being made. BEAT the stinking badgers! If very few other things have gone well headed into that final conference game in November, a win in Madison could make the season a success. BEAT the stinking badgers!

 

[Deleted_User]

At Minnesota, we have a win-win philosophy. All games we win, we win big!

 

[MNVCGUY]

The game in Ann Arbor will be crucial to my Golden Gopher's bowl invitation hopes.

The game in Ann Arbor may be crucial to getting a good bowl invitation. With the way the bowl system is structured though getting to .500 and getting an invitation should not be a problem for the staff or team in year 4. it would be really disappointing to see a team with this many returning players manage to not get to at least 6 wins. At this point getting to a bowl isn't really much of an accomplishment, it is winning the trophy games and getting into the conference title picture that really matters.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

I know those last four games are tough, and we might be dogs in all four of them, but if we can't pull off at least one upset in that stretch and close the season on a four game snide, I would be pretty annoyed.