Gophers open B1G season with 2 road games

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Is it just gonna become a yearly thing to wrap up our home slate with Penn State? I'm pretty sure Senior Day has been PSU like 3 of the last 4 years, right?
 


Monty519 said:
Is it just gonna become a yearly thing to wrap up our home slate with Penn State? I'm pretty sure Senior Day has been PSU like 3 of the last 4 years, right?
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Actually 3 straight, and 4 out of the last 5: 2011, 2013, 2014, and now 2015. The year before that, 2009-10, we opened our home Big Ten schedule with Penn State. I wonder if the schedule creators have noticed that pattern, or if other such patterns exist with other teams.

I notice we're only playing one exhibition game this year, whereas I believe we've done two for quite a few years now. Does that mean we're playing one of those closed scrimmages against another high-major team? Those exist right?
 

Cayman said:
I notice we're only playing one exhibition game this year, whereas I believe we've done two for quite a few years now. Does that mean we're playing one of those closed scrimmages against another high-major team? Those exist right?
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That's what I'm assuming. I don't mind that. Seeing 1 exhibition game is enough, especially in light of the rest of the nonconference home schedule.
 


I don't love having two of our (on paper) more winnable road games back to back to open the conference slate. I also don't love the at Wisconsin/ at Michigan State/ Home to Wisconsin 3 game blitz just prior to finishing the year with Penn State at home. The Gophers need to be comfortably above the bubble after the February 18 game at home against Northwestern.

Overall, this strikes me as kind of a soft schedule (as B1G schedules go) with the Gophers seeing MSU and tOSU just once each.
 

Dammit, no game at Northwestern. Watching the Gophers play at Welsh-Ryan is the singular highlight of my endless winter.
 

The two road openers will be tough. Purdue at home in the B1G opener is a good barometer game and I can tell you having been to College Park to watch the Terps that they will be very tough at home. The first four games B1G games may tell us just how good we are.
 

BOUNDOUTPASSDUNK said:
The two road openers will be tough. Purdue at home in the B1G opener is a good barometer game and I can tell you having been to College Park to watch the Terps that they will be very tough at home. The first four games B1G games may tell us just how good we are.
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+1. It's tough to say how Maryland will do in the B1G, but I think a lot of people are underestimating them a bit. I think they'll finish in the top half of the standings.

Purdue has been tough for us in recent years. If we can get wins in both of these games, I'll have really high hopes for the rest of the schedule.
 



I love all of the Saturday games. It seems since the creating of the BTN, we've had the majority of our weekend games on Sundays and often on Sunday evenings. College sports are meant for Saturdays IMO. Just a different vibe on campus on a Saturday. We only play twice on Sundays all year and in fact we end up with 4 straight home games on Saturdays at one point. Love it!
 

Pumped the Wisconsin road game is a Saurday. Hopefully I'll be able to make it up to the cities for a home game at Williams since there are a goo number of Saturday home games.
 

BOUNDOUTPASSDUNK said:
The two road openers will be tough. Purdue at home in the B1G opener is a good barometer game and I can tell you having been to College Park to watch the Terps that they will be very tough at home. The first four games B1G games may tell us just how good we are.
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So have I. The XFinity Center is no tougher than the typical B1G arena, and a lot less imposing than the old Cole Fieldhouse. It's a large, modern, cookie cutter pro-style arena.

Maryland's roster has been gutted, their coach is questionable, and their fan base is pessimistic. They are a young team and it will be good to play them early in the conf season.

The one tough aspect about this game that's unique is that it will be Maryland's first-ever B1G home game.
 




EG#9 said:
I don't love having two of our (on paper) more winnable road games back to back to open the conference slate.
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Why not? We have a veteran team. Should have more of an advantage earlier in the year.
 


We'll get an early barometer of what the team is made of. 2 winnable road games before coming home. I like the idea of playing Maryland early in the season, but I don't know that I want to be their first B1G game.
 



Five teams played home and away: Wisconsin, Iowa, Purdue, Nebraska, Penn State

Four teams played only at away: Maryland, Michigan, Indiana, Michigan State

Four teams played only at home: Rutgers, Ohio State, Illinois, Northwestern

Not the toughest schedule ever, but also not the easiest. Should be fun.
 

Just for the hell of it, here's my opinion on all the games from easiest to most difficult:

1: vs Rutgers
2: vs Penn State
3: vs Northwestern
4: at Penn State
5: vs Purdue
6: vs Nebraska
7: vs Illinois
8: at Purdue
9: vs Iowa
10: at Maryland
11: at Nebraska
12: vs Wisconsin
13: at Iowa
14: at Indiana
15: vs Ohio State
16: at Michigan
17: at Wisconsin
18: at Michigan State
 


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