Week 0:
Saturday, August 27:
- Northwestern vs Nebraska in Dublin, Ireland, 12:30pm, FOX
- Wyoming at Illinois, 4:00pm, BTN
I think that Nebraska will roll here. Last year the Cornhuskers were an abysmal 1-8 in conference and even THAT team obliterated the Wildcats (56-7). Still, it is neat to have a league game on free TV and in Ireland so I'll be watching.
Week 1:
Thursday, September 1:
- Penn State at Purdue, 8pm, FOX
- NMST at Minnesota, 9pm, BTN
Friday, September 2:
- WMU at Michigan State, 7pm, ESPN
- Illinois at Indiana, 8pm, FS1
Saturday, September 3:
- SDST at Iowa, noon, FS1
- Buffalo at Maryland, noon, BTN
- Colorado State at Michigan, noon, ABC
- Rutgers at Boston College, noon, ACCN
- ND at Nebraska, 3:30pm, BTN
- ILST at Wisconsin, 7pm, FS1
- Notre Dame at Ohio State, 7:30pm, ABC
The ND/tOSU game is the obvious highlight here and will likely give us a good indication of how both teams' seasons will go. That said, the most intriguing matchup of the weekend may be that Thursday night PSU/PU tilt in West Lafayette. As covered
here and
here, I think that both teams have a legitimate shot to win their respective divisions but the loser of this game will have to be near-perfect from this point forward. I really can't call a first week game an "elimination" game but I see this as close to it. I also like that Rutgers has a decent road game here to challenge themselves, we'll see how things are progressing there right away.
Week 2, Saturday, September 10:
- WIL at Minnesota, noon, BTN
- DOOK at Northwestern, noon, FS1
- ARST at Ohio State, noon, BTN
- Ohio at Penn State, noon, ABC
- WashingtonSt at Wisconsin, 3:30, FOX
- Maryland at Charlotte, 3:30, TV?
- ISU at Iowa, 4pm, BTN
- Virginia at Illinois, 4pm, ESPNU
- INST at Purdue, 4pm, BTN
- Akron at Michigan State, 4pm, BTN
- Wagner at Rutgers, 4pm, BTN
- GaSo at Nebraska, 7:30pm, FS1
- Idaho at Indiana, 8pm, BTN
- Hawaii at Michigan, 8pm, BTN
This is just an embarrassingly bad set of games. With the possible exceptions of Northwestern, Iowa, and Illinois all of our teams should be trying out backups by the middle of the third quarter.
Week 3, Saturday, September 17:
- Rutgers at Temple, TBD, ESPN+
- Oklahoma at Nebraska, noon, FOX
- UCONN at Michigan, noon, ABC
- SoIL at Northwestern, noon, BTN
- Purdue at Syracuse, noon, ESPN2
- WKY at Indiana, noon, BTN
- Penn State at Auburn, 3:30, CBS
- Colorado at Minnesota, 3:30pm, ESPN2
- NMST at Wisconsin, 3:30pm, BTN
- Toledo at Ohio State, 7pm, FOX
- Michigan State at Washington, 7:30pm, ABC
- Nevada at Iowa, 7:30pm, ABC
- SMU at Maryland, 7:30pm, FS1
- Illinois is off thus making up for their "week 0" game
I am very interested to see how Nebraska looks at home against Oklahoma. Despite their awful record last year, the Cornhuskers were actually competitive in nearly all of their games including losing to Oklahoma by just a TD in Norman. Moreover, it might have been just a FG loss but for a blocked XP run all the way back for two point the other way late in the third quarter. Another thing making this game interesting is that neither team is likely to be seriously challenged in any of their games before this one so this will be the first real opportunity to see both the Cornhuskers and the Sooners.
PSU/AU, PU/Cuse, and MSU/UWash could also be interesting.
Week 4:
Thursday, September 22:
- Chattanooga at Illinois, 8:30pm, BTN
Saturday, September 24:
- Iowa at Rutgers, TBD, TBD
- Minnesota at Michigan State, TBD, TBD
- Miami, OH at Northwestern, TBD, TBD
- Wisconsin at Ohio State, TBD, ABC
- Indiana at Cincinnati, TBD, TBD
- CMU at Penn State, TBD, BTN
- Maryland at Michigan, noon, TBD
- FAU at Purdue, 7:30pm, BTN
Wisconsin at Ohio State is the obvious headliner here and could have a substantial impact on either or both divisional races. The loser in either case could still end up winning their division but they will not have much margin for error coming off of a loss here. I see Minnesota/MSU as more similar to the week 1 PSU/PU tilt in that the loser is highly unlikely to end up winning their division. Indiana at Cincinnati could be interesting. Otherwise this looks like a pretty slow week.
