Weird opening week B1G schedule
was poking around the schedules of other B1G teams on football schedules.com and man what a weird looking opening week for B1G teams.
Michigan, OSU, MSU and PSU are all on the road to open the season.
Thursday, 9/3
Michigan at Utah
TCU at Minnesota
Friday, 9/4
MSU at Western Michigan (WTF?)
Kent State at Illinois
Saturday, 9/5
Penn State at Temple
Norfolk State at Rutgers
Richmond at Maryland
Southern Illinois at Indiana
Illinois State at Iowa
Stanford at Northwestern
BYU at Nebraska
Wisconsin vs. Alabama (Cowboys Classic)!
Sunday, 9/6
Purdue at Marshall
Monday, 9/7
Ohio State at Virginia Tech
Or is it the other way around? The Tide played us there in 2012, play Wisconsin this year, and play USC in Big D next year.
Wondering if they are the only fanbase dumb/desperate enough to repeatedly pay the silly ticket prices for a game so far from campus.
Good for recruiting Texas.
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April 18th, 2015 at 10:36 PM ^
April 19th, 2015 at 12:04 AM ^
Consider the fool who set up the game (Brandon).
Wisconsin vs. Alabama
How many times are they going to keep making me root for Wisconsin this year?
Oklahoma State is playing at Central Michigan on Thursday, September 3. I can't believe a power 5 conference school is willing to fly half way across the country to play a Michigan directional school on its home field. It's great for CMU and their fans though.
I don't know if the Big 12 has some sort of agreement in place with the MAC, but if they do I don't think the Big 12 realizes they have the leverage to never ever play away at a MAC school (for the right price of course)
was the name of Michigan State's series with the directionals.
Western Michigan deal was 2013, 2017, and 2019 in EL, 2015 in K'zoo.
Central Michigan deal was 2011, 2015, and 2018 in EL, 2012 in Mt. Pleasant.
Eastern Michigan deal was 2012, 2014, 2016 in EL, 2018 or 2020 in Ypsi. However, Eastern got out of the final two games earlier this year and replaced them with two trips to Missouri in 2016 and 2020.
Thursday, 9/3
Michigan at Utah
TCU at Minnesota
Friday, 9/4
MSU at Western Michigan (WTF?)
Kent State at Illinois
Saturday, 9/5
Penn State at Temple
Norfolk State at Rutgers
Richmond at Maryland
Southern Illinois at Indiana
Illinois State at Iowa
Stanford at Northwestern
BYU at Nebraska
Wisconsin vs. Alabama (Cowboys Classic)!
Sunday, 9/6
Purdue at Marshall
Monday, 9/7
Ohio State at Virginia Tech
Michigan at Utah could be either on ESPN or Fox Sports 1. That is a Pac-12 controlled game. I am not sure of the pecking order of TV in the Pac-12, but I know ESPN and FS1 both have rights. I'm sure whoever gets to pick first will snag Michigan at Utah.
TCU at Minnesota is a Big Ten controlled game. I suspect it will be on ESPN2 if I had to guess.
North Carolina-South Carolina is at a neutral site location in Charlotte, NC, so I believe that since that is outside the SEC footprint, the SEC Network is not an option for pickup of that game. What may happen is ESPN puts this game on at say 6 o'clock or so and then the Michigan at Utah game would follow it at 9 or 9:15 ET.
Oklahoma State at C Michigan smells like ESPNU. The reason OK St is traveling to CMU is they have a 2 for 1 deal set up. Two games in Stillwater, one in Mt. Pleasant.
There are three primary games on Friday night. Baylor at SMU, Michigan St at W Michigan, and Washington at Boise St. The U-Dub at Boise game has already been picked up by ESPN for a 10:15 ET start. Baylor at SMU is an AAC-controlled game, which has TV contracts with ESPN and CBS Sports. I imagine ESPN will want a doubleheader to lead into Wash-Boise, so I see the Mich St @ WMU game at 7pm ET on ESPN, and Baylor-SMU on something else, either ESPN2 or CBS Sports.
I believe the Penn St-Temple series is also a 2 for 1. Penn State hosted Temple once a couple years back, will make the trip to Philly this season, and then hosts Temple again at some point in the future.
I think Stanford-Northwestern is actually part of a 3 and 3. They play each other several times in the future. Talk about a Brain Bowl.
BYU at Nebraska is a one-off. How are you enjoying independence, BYU?
Purdue at Marshall is a Conference USA controlled game, which means it will be on either FS1 or CBS Sports. The conference moved it to Sunday so it would be more likely to be picked up by TV.
Of course Ohio State-VT is the Labor Day night game on ESPN.
It's a split contract. Both get Thursday and Friday night games, the conference works with the networks to see who gets what. Some weeks ESPN gets preference, some weeks Fox gets preference. There is no set order.
In 2014, Fox Sports 1 had a combined 5 Thursday/Friday night games, while ESPN networks had 4.
In 2013, they both had 4.
Note that ESPN doesn't have ESPN2 available on the Thursday before Labor Day (US Open Tennis), so that's one less place for ESPN to potentially show a game (UNC/South Carolina or TCU/Minnesota are also possible ESPN games).
Thurs-Sun games. I will watch as many as I can! Love CFB!
ESPN's.
Weird and entertaining. Only Illinois, Rutgers, Maryland, Indiana, and Iowa are playing the typical home game against a smaller that just signed up to get paid. All the rest of those games (9 out of 14) are pretty compelling matchups for opening weekend. Even MSU - Western is made interesting by the fact that it's a road game for them.