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Penn State 2016 was down to third and fourth stringers in the linebacker corps which isn’t ideal playing Michigan. They started to get healthy when they played us.

In addition, their new spread RPO offense started hitting on all cylinders about the time we played them. Then, Saquon. We contained him for most of the game but...
 

Face The Facts said:
Probably more top 30 level opponents this year.

Also the perception is that the Big Ten West is more "on the rise" than in 2016. (Provided you believe WI and Iowa are constants).
Nebraska and Purdue are both arguably on the "upswing" vs being the last season before their coach gets fired. And Northwestern will probably be better than a 0.500 team coming off a Big Ten West title.

WI, IA, NW, PUR, NEB - That's 5 tough games.
In 2016, 3 of those were considered tough and 2 not as tough.

Also, PSU was reeling going into 2016 and thus we were favored I believe when we played them. In reality though, the 2016 and 2019 PSU teams might be very similar.
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You really think so? Let's look at the results...

In the 2016 Big Ten West, final standings, compared to final 2018:

2016 Wisconsin: 11-3.......... 2018 Wisconsin: 8-5 (2 games worse in 2018)
2016 Iowa: 8-5................... 2018 Iowa: 8-5 (no change)
2016 Nebraska: 9-4............. 2018 Nebraska: 4-8 (Much worse in 2018)
2016 Northwestern: 7-6....... 2018 Northwestern: 9-5 (Slightly better in 2018)
2016 Illinois: 3-9................. 2018 Illinois: 4-8 (1 game better in 2018)
2016 Purdue: 3-9................ 2018 Purdue, 6-7 (1 1/2 games better in 2018)

Not seeing much difference in Iowa and Illinois; they seem more or less the same as in 2016, quality-wise. Wisconsin and Nebraska were clearly better in 2016 than in 2018. Northwestern and Purdue seemed better in 2018.

And as far as Penn State in concerned, well... I'm comfortable saying that the 2016 PSU team was a pretty solid squad. Big Ten Champs.

So, we'll have to agree to disagree, because I'm just not seeing any objective way to make the 2019 schedule look harder than the 2016 schedule.
 

RememberMurray said:
You really think so? Let's look at the results...

In the 2016 Big Ten West, final standings, compared to final 2018:

2016 Wisconsin: 11-3.......... 2018 Wisconsin: 8-5 (2 games worse in 2018)
2016 Iowa: 8-5................... 2018 Iowa: 8-5 (no change)
2016 Nebraska: 9-4............. 2018 Nebraska: 4-8 (Much worse in 2018)
2016 Northwestern: 7-6....... 2018 Northwestern: 9-5 (Slightly better in 2018)
2016 Illinois: 3-9................. 2018 Illinois: 4-8 (1 game better in 2018)
2016 Purdue: 3-9................ 2018 Purdue, 6-7 (1 1/2 games better in 2018)

Not seeing much difference in Iowa and Illinois; they seem more or less the same as in 2016, quality-wise. Wisconsin and Nebraska were clearly better in 2016 than in 2018. Northwestern and Purdue seemed better in 2018.

And as far as Penn State in concerned, well... I'm comfortable saying that the 2016 PSU team was a pretty solid squad. Big Ten Champs.

So, we'll have to agree to disagree, because I'm just not seeing any objective way to make the 2019 schedule look harder than the 2016 schedule.
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You are using 2018 records which are different than 2019 records (most likely).

But either way, you've made a good point and have changed my mind for the time being. We'll only know now at the end of 2019 which was tougher, and then yet it still might be debatable.
 

RememberMurray said:
You really think so? Let's look at the results...

In the 2016 Big Ten West, final standings, compared to final 2018:

2016 Wisconsin: 11-3.......... 2018 Wisconsin: 8-5 (2 games worse in 2018)
2016 Iowa: 8-5................... 2018 Iowa: 8-5 (no change)
2016 Nebraska: 9-4............. 2018 Nebraska: 4-8 (Much worse in 2018)
2016 Northwestern: 7-6....... 2018 Northwestern: 9-5 (Slightly better in 2018)
2016 Illinois: 3-9................. 2018 Illinois: 4-8 (1 game better in 2018)
2016 Purdue: 3-9................ 2018 Purdue, 6-7 (1 1/2 games better in 2018)

Not seeing much difference in Iowa and Illinois; they seem more or less the same as in 2016, quality-wise. Wisconsin and Nebraska were clearly better in 2016 than in 2018. Northwestern and Purdue seemed better in 2018.

And as far as Penn State in concerned, well... I'm comfortable saying that the 2016 PSU team was a pretty solid squad. Big Ten Champs.

So, we'll have to agree to disagree, because I'm just not seeing any objective way to make the 2019 schedule look harder than the 2016 schedule.
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To make your comparison for heading into each year and the expectations, using the 2015 results would seem to be more equivalent to using 2018 for the coming year.

2015 Wisconsin: 10-3.......... 2018 Wisconsin: 8-5 (2 games worse in 2018)
2015 Iowa: 12-2................... 2018 Iowa: 8-5 (3 1/2 games worse)
2015 Nebraska: 6-7............. 2018 Nebraska: 4-8 (A little worse in 2018)
2015 Northwestern: 10-3....... 2018 Northwestern: 9-5 (Slightly worse in 2018)
2015 Illinois: 5-7................. 2018 Illinois: 4-8 (1 game worse in 2018)
2015 Purdue: 2-10................ 2018 Purdue, 6-7 (3 1/2 games better in 2018)
Penn State was 7-6 in 2015 and this past year were 9-4.
So, heading into the 16 season the conf. Schedule looked a little more challenging then the one we are going to see this coming year as WI, IA, NE, and NW were all coming off better seasons when compared to 18. Penn State was the one in 16 that looked like we could win as they were down some in 15 and were struggling at the start of 16. Who knew they would go on to win the BIG that year after our painful loss to them.
 

GFBfan said:
To make your comparison for heading into each year and the expectations, using the 2015 results would seem to be more equivalent to using 2018 for the coming year.

2015 Wisconsin: 10-3.......... 2018 Wisconsin: 8-5 (2 games worse in 2018)
2015 Iowa: 12-2................... 2018 Iowa: 8-5 (3 1/2 games worse)
2015 Nebraska: 6-7............. 2018 Nebraska: 4-8 (A little worse in 2018)
2015 Northwestern: 10-3....... 2018 Northwestern: 9-5 (Slightly worse in 2018)
2015 Illinois: 5-7................. 2018 Illinois: 4-8 (1 game worse in 2018)
2015 Purdue: 2-10................ 2018 Purdue, 6-7 (3 1/2 games better in 2018)
Penn State was 7-6 in 2015 and this past year were 9-4.
So, heading into the 16 season the conf. Schedule looked a little more challenging then the one we are going to see this coming year as WI, IA, NE, and NW were all coming off better seasons when compared to 18. Penn State was the one in 16 that looked like we could win as they were down some in 15 and were struggling at the start of 16. Who knew they would go on to win the BIG that year after our painful loss to them.
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I understand your point, but if we're using expectations rather than results, then another way to look at schedules would be, say, S&P projections.

This was posted elsewhere, but it an interesting look at what expectations are going into 2019 (at least from S&P models).

https://www.sbnation.com/college-fo...63/2019-college-football-rankings-projections

According to S&P projections (or expectations, if you prefer), Minnesota is ranked #33. Of the teams on our 2019 schedule only Penn State, Wisconsin and Iowa are ranked above us. So if the projections/expectations are 100% accurate, we would expect to be 9-3 heading into a nice bowl game.

Maybe I'll do a quick search and see if I can find the S&P projections going into 2016, for comparison's sake..
 



Depth is good. I hope Minnesota doesn't find out the hard way though.
 
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Face The Facts said:
At the point we played them, they were still reeling from the scandal and had just suffered one of their worst defeats ever vs Michigan.

Yes, they turned around and were top 10. Not disputing that, but the loss vs PSU that day was viewed as "Gophers let a winnable game disappear", not a moral victory "We gave a Top 10 team everything they could handle".

In the end, it was a well played game against a quality opponent, but at the time, it looked like disappointment compared to our expectations at that time.
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hard part was we dominated them early, and wheels fell off
 





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