Gophers 2025 Schedule Announced - how many wins do you predict?

Donate To GopherHole
With the Gophers having a bye before going to Oregon, and the Wrigley game the next week, how about a Friday Big Ten after dark game in Eugene?
 


Zeppelin Gopher said:
Seems pretty pointless to predict wins and losses right now, but love the schedule.

Much better balance of home and road games in 2025.
Click to expand...

You're right, of course, but I'm going to do it anyway. 7 wins for now (until I know more).
 

Somewhere between 7-9 likely again. 6 if things go wrong and 10 tops if things go extremely well.
 




The home schedule seems a bit boring. Wisconsin, yep, Nebraska, ok, the remainder are low quality opponents. I'm sure the reduced ticket prices will reflect this reality.
 


I don't see a loss on the schedule.
 




MaxyJR1 said:
Official from B1G Website: Iowa vs NE will continue to annually be Black Friday, but others could move as well.

ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference today announced the 2025 football schedule. The 2025 schedule marks the second season with 18 teams, no divisional format and the use of the Flex Protect XVIII model.



The model features a combination of protected opponents and rotating opponents for universities. Each member institution will continue to play nine intraconference games per season, and teams will play every other conference opponent at least twice – once home and once away – and will play rotating opponents no more than three times in a five-year period.



The 2025 season will conclude with the annual Big Ten Football Championship Game at Lucas Oil Stadium, which will feature the top two teams in the overall conference standings at the end of the regular season, with the winner earning the Big Ten Championship.



Selected Saturday games in the 2025 season may be adjusted to select Fridays and other special dates, including Labor Day Sunday and Black Friday. The 2026 football schedule will be announced in the future.
Click to expand...
With Oregon-Washington & USC-UCLA the final week of the season, I would think at least one will be a Prime Time game for NBC either Black Friday or Saturday. Maybe they get both, but CBS might want one of them too.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
there is a pretty elaborate structure that determines which networks get first choice of games in a given weekend.

this is from an article on Awful Announcing. it parallels the discussion I heard on the podcast (The Varsity with John Ourand on Puck)

From a sports media perspective, one of the biggest stories of the 2024 college football season has been Big Ten fans being frustrated with Fox’s handling of the conference’s rights.

And as it turns out, they aren’t the only ones tired of seeing the Big Ten’s biggest games predominantly played at noon.

While the windows for the Big Ten’s three media rights partners have been well established — Fox at noon, CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET and NBC at primetime — NBC reportedly wasn’t aware of the hurdles it would face regarding the league’s night games. Specifically, Ohio State and Michigan both have clauses allowing them to veto night games following the first week of November, with the Wolverines only obligated to play two primetime games per season.

Similar clauses for other Big Ten schools also exist, limiting NBC’s potential offerings throughout the season.

Writes Ben Strauss:


What’s more, despite NBC being a media rights partner since the 2023 season, its deal with the league has yet to be officially signed—something that isn’t necessarily uncommon in the sports rights space but can create additional “haggling,” per Strauss.

Ultimately, the lopsided nature of the Big Ten’s media rights package was always going to favor Fox, which owns the rights to the conference’s football games and subleases them to CBS and NBC. Laying claim to the first three picks in the conference’s annual schedule draft, Fox was/is always going to have the inside track to the conference’s biggest games, regardless of how many Big Ten — and specifically, Ohio State — fans are tired of the Big Noon experience.
Click to expand...
Yes I know. None of that disgreees with the fact that nbc’s lineup wasn’t weak because people shifted night games to day games

It was because too many weeks only had 1-2 good games and nbc gets 2nd or 3rd pick
 

Some guy said:
Yes I know. None of that disgreees with the fact that nbc’s lineup wasn’t weak because people shifted night games to day games

It was because too many weeks only had 1-2 good games and nbc gets 2nd or 3rd pick
Click to expand...
Plus extra bye weeks in 2024 and 2025
 



WindyCityGopher said:
Really excited to see us play at Wrigley. The temporary NW facility by the lakeshore is cool, but really small and hard to get tickets for. Wrigley will be a great backdrop and far more accessible for Gophers fans who want to spend the weekend in Chicago.
Click to expand...
I know it's tough to get tickets, but I was really hoping we'd be playing in the temp NW stadium. One time opportunity and what a setting.

Wrigley is awesome...in the summer, sitting in the bleachers, pounding beers and watching the Cubbies lose.

I'm less thrilled about another football game in a baseball stadium, played in late November at that.
 

WindyCityGopher said:
Really excited to see us play at Wrigley. The temporary NW facility by the lakeshore is cool, but really small and hard to get tickets for. Wrigley will be a great backdrop and far more accessible for Gophers fans who want to spend the weekend in Chicago.
Click to expand...

Zeppelin Gopher said:
I know it's tough to get tickets, but I was really hoping we'd be playing in the temp NW stadium. One time opportunity and what a setting.

Wrigley is awesome...in the summer, sitting in the bleachers, pounding beers and watching the Cubbies lose.

I'm less thrilled about another football game in a baseball stadium, played in late November at that.
Click to expand...

I'm with Zep on this one. I was looking forward to an early to mid-season game on the lake. Having been to one of the Wrigley games this year, I can tell you that the experience was rather mediocre. There are good food and beverage options, but a lot of poor seats at an inflated price. Maybe it will change if the Wildcats have a bounce back year or the Gophers are 8-2, but I foresee a cold day in a half full stadium. (In other words, a typical Minnesota game at Northwestern, but with much better concessions and much higher ticket prices.)
 

MNVCGUY said:
Need a new QB and have games @Oregon and @PSU. Will be interesting to see if Cignetti can sustain anything there because that has not been possible under other coaches.
Click to expand...
So you have no confidence in Lindsey?
 

I'll be optimistic but realistic. 9-3. Playing at OSU, OR and IA will be too much to overcome. Get an extra win and they're on the CFP bubble.

All of this, of course, depends on the roster the Gophs assemble and luck with injuries. They need good QB performance for this to happen, a good left tackle replacement, much better play at center, replacing some pass rush and LB depth, young receivers to step up, and explosive backup to Taylor at RB.
 


PMWinSTP said:
So you have no confidence in Lindsey?
Click to expand...
My comment was about Indiana.

In regards to Lindsey, doesn't matter if I have confidence in him or not....the coaches clearly have confidence in Lindsey or Wittke based on them bringing in what looks more like a depth option at QB as opposed to a starter.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Wisconsin next year plays Alabama, Iowa, Oregon, Michigan and Ohio St in a 6 game stretch (also plays Maryland).
Click to expand...
I actually kind of felt bad for them. That is a brutal 6 game stretch. 3 of those games they will for sure be underdogs and Iowa and Michigan are always tough to predict but you know they are going to play hard. Maryland is an absolute must win for them.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Road game at Iowa really isn't all that scary. In 4 trips to Kinnick under Fleck the team is 1-3 but all 4 games have been 1 score games and a couple of the loses easily could have been wins if not for some crazy plays that flipped the game in Iowa's favor.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but they seem to get a lot of those, don't they? 9-1 in the last 10 games can't be chalked up all to luck.
 

Holy Crap! Some Hotels in Eugene are already sold out and the rates are through the roof. $238/night at a freaking Roadway Inn!

Either there is another big event that weekend, or there’s going to be a lot of Gophers in town.
 

WAGopher said:
Holy Crap! Some Hotels in Eugene are already sold out and the rates are through the roof. $238/night at a freaking Roadway Inn!

Either there is another big event that weekend, or there’s going to be a lot of Gophers in town.
Click to expand...

Eugene isn't that big. There's probably not a lot of hotel capacity. That town is probably busting at the seams for every home Ducks game.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Need a new QB and have games @Oregon and @PSU. Will be interesting to see if Cignetti can sustain anything there because that has not been possible under other coaches.
Click to expand...

11 wins has never been possible for Indiana before either. Indiana's previous high for wins in a regular season was 9. They did that twice in their history: once under John Pont in 1967 and once under Bo McMillan in 1945 (that probably was an unusual year with so many young men deployed in the armed services).

I don't think the guy will win 11 games very often but he's already taken the program into uncharted territory.
 

WAGopher said:
Holy Crap! Some Hotels in Eugene are already sold out and the rates are through the roof. $238/night at a freaking Roadway Inn!

Either there is another big event that weekend, or there’s going to be a lot of Gophers in town.
Click to expand...
Had the same issue yesterday- paying like $200/night for a Motel 6 in Springfield, and feel lucky to have that locked down!
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
11 wins has never been possible for Indiana before either. Indiana's previous high for wins in a regular season was 9. They did that twice in their history: once under John Pont in 1967 and once under Bo McMillan in 1945 (that probably was an unusual year with so many young men deployed in the armed services).

I don't think the guy will win 11 games very often but he's already taken the program into uncharted territory.
Click to expand...
Yep....trick now is sustaining it and proving it wasn't just a flash in the pan built on transfers and a really soft schedule.

Game against Notre Dame will be interesting. They failed in their one test against a quality team this year but my guess is they will give the Irish a battle.
 




10, minus our usual 2 games where we totally shit the bed. So...8.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom