Was the Gophers Schedule THAT easy?

[Winnipegopher]

It is a common belief around here that the Gophers schedule was as easy this year as they are going to see. In retrospect, it wasn't.

Until the Big Ten ditches its insane east-west divisions (at least they are not Legends and Leaders, amirite?) this is a fairly standard schedule.

With three crossover games, it will be a rough year if they play two of the top three teams in the east. Prior to the start of the year, the Gophers probably felt lucky getting Penn State instead of Michigan State. Turns out not so lucky. Moreover the Gophers played all their top teams on the road. As of now, they lost to #6 Wisconsin, #7 Penn State and #16 Nebraska all on the road.*

It is important to note that although the Gophers did not play Michigan and the Ohio State University, they also didn't play Michigan State or Indiana.

The new 14 team Big Ten will make schedules like this year relatively common place and with luck, the home- away schedule will better favour the Gophers.**

*Yes, they should have won 1, 2 or all 3 of these games. No need to join the thread just to say this. No need also to mention any players by name either.
**Yes, I also realize the Gophers lost to Iowa at home.

 

[Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0]

Penn St ended up having a great year. CSU's win made their season look pretty good. I'd say it was slightly harder than it looked at the beginning of the season.

 

[XMan]

I agree that the Penn State game turned out being a better opponent than we thought bunt helps having Rutgers and Maryland. Two years ago we had Ohio state at home and Michigan on the road (we won the Michigan game). Last year we had same two teams but we had Ohio state on the road and much an at home when we lost on the goal line as time ran out. But those two seasons Wisconsin got Maryland and Rutgers two years in a row. baving the third crossover game will help.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

Penn St ended up having a great year. CSU's win made their season look pretty good. I'd say it was slightly harder than it looked at the beginning of the season.

From a purely "fan" expectations perspective (and not a Vegas odds or advanced stats perspective) IMO:

Oregon State about where we expected
Colorado State about where we expected
PSU overperformed
Iowa started really rough but have improved over time; underperformed overall
Maryland is worse than expected or perhaps about the same - some projected this as a loss
Illinois possibly worse than expected
Nebraska about where we expected
NW worse than expected after last season
Wisconsin better than expected

I'd say it's a wash overall. If we traded MSU for PSU then it could have been easier.

 

[gopher7]

By my count, we had the 2nd easiest cross-over schedule in our division. Here are the opponents records. Illinois had the easiest by getting both Michigan St and Rutgers.

WI: 16-11
IA: 15-12
Pur: 15-12
NW: 13-14
MN: 11-16
IL: 8-19

We also caught a break in that we played Penn State before they got really good. When we played them their previous 3 games were Pitt (L 42-39), Temple (W 34-27) and Mich (L 49-10). Three weeks after our game against OSU is when they really turned it on and never looked back. They've improved a lot from when they played us.