OT: 2016 B1G Football Season Openers: IU and Minnesota/Open Thread

Submitted by Steves_Wolverines on

Indiana @ FIU 7:30 PM ET on ESPNU and WatchESPN

Two B1G teams start their season tonight. Indiana starts the night off with the 2nd leg of their home/home with FIU. The Hoosiers beat FIU 36-22 last season in Bloomington. Tonight, they start their season in Miami. I don't know anything about FIU, other than seeing that they finished 5-7 last year, and we'll get another chance to see them against a B1G team, as they host Maryland next week. We are familiar with Team Chaos. They will likely score a lot of points. They will likely give up a lot of points. Should be a fun game to watch if you like high scoring affairs.

Oregon St @ Minnesota 9:00 PM ET on BTN

The headline for this game is future 1st rounder Mitch Leidner. Last season, Minnesota finished 6-7, beating the bad teams and losing to the good teams. This year, they are an upset darling to compete as B1G West Champs. They've got some good pieces, and I do think they'll actually beat one of the good teams this year (Wisconsin perhaps?). As for Oregon State, well, they were terrible last season. They finished 2-10. Maybe they'll be better this year? 

Predictions

Indiana 48 - FIU 27

Minnesota 31 - Oregon State 17

 

EDIT: I rushed this in the hopes of having a positive post to cover up all the calamities we've seen today. 

Teams of interest (to college football fans) also starting their seasons today:

#19 Louisville vs. Charlotte 7:00 pm EST on ACCN
#9 Tennessee vs. Appalachian St. 7:30 PM EST on SECN
South Carolina vs. Vanderbilt 8:00 PM EST on ESPN
(DII) GVSU vs. Tiffin 7:00 PM on ESPN3 and WatchESPN (GVSU is my alma mater)

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B1G Football 2016
Thursday Night Open Thread

Goggles Paisano

September 1st, 2016 at 6:57 PM ^

This is the game of the night for me.  Obviously interested in seeing Tenn after all the talk (I wonder how many more eyes we get this year for the same reason) and App St.  They have what the analysts say is a really really good team this year.  Hope they can keep it close into the 4th and then you never know.  

Joined: 07/30/2011

MGoPoints: 41232

stephenrjking

September 1st, 2016 at 6:21 PM ^

I gave serious thought to going to the Minnesota game, but ticket prices have surprisingly doubled in the last two weeks, at least on stubhub. Right now the only stubhub tickets available are almost 50% over face; not sure what to make of that.

But... there's real football tonight!!!! So I am not unhappy.

 

Joined: 03/15/2012

MGoPoints: 20143524

stephenrjking

September 1st, 2016 at 6:45 PM ^

You bet it's cool, the winters here are... oh, you mean the other way.

Michigan is years away from playing here again. We've only played at TCF Bank stadium twice. It's not huge and it's not spectacular, but it's a nice place that is well-suited to the scope of the program and fanbase. I've had a good time going to the Michigan games there. 

The only real weakness is that there's no real tailgating space. There are a few lots which are reserved for donor season ticket holders and there's the St. Paul lot, but you need to ride a shuttle from there. It doesn't have the same feel you get in Ann Arbor or some other good college towns where the whole landscape around the stadium is saturated with fans. On the plus side, though, Dinkytown is a reasonable walk and there are plenty of places to eat there.

Joined: 03/15/2012

MGoPoints: 20143524

UMfan21

September 1st, 2016 at 7:20 PM ^

hit me up and I can give you details. If you like small towns, it's for you. if you need the business of a big city, look elsewhere. everything is a 45 minute drive from corvallis (beach, oceans, etc) but within city limits there isn't much but restaraunts.

Joined: 09/28/2009

MGoPoints: 51217

Trebor

September 1st, 2016 at 7:30 PM ^

So far I've really enjoyed it. It's very small, about 55k people, but the 'downtown' area has a lot of things to do for being such a small town. You can bike pretty much anywhere, since there are bike lanes on every street, it's basically flat in town (it gets sort of hilly the further north and west you go), and drivers are actually extremely attentive and courteous to bikes. And there are 5 breweries, a cidery, and a meadery, so you're never hurt for happy hour hangouts.

Oregon as a state has been awesome, especially since my wife and I have been trying to really get into outdoorsy things. If you want to get out of town, you don't have to drive that far to get somewhere interesting - it's about an hour and a half to Portland, an hour to Eugene, 45 minutes to the coast, 2 hours to the Cascades (and onward to Bend, which is really cool).

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 4573

WolverineHistorian

September 1st, 2016 at 7:05 PM ^

Proceed with caution if you're watching the Tennessee/App State game. They just announced on the radio that today is the 9th anniversary of The Horror. And I'm sure the commentators will look for excuses to bring that up with ASU trying to "do it again," at every turn.

Joined: 08/10/2009

MGoPoints: 55460

UMfan21

September 1st, 2016 at 7:23 PM ^

oregon State is in year 2 under Gary Andersen. I'm expecting them to be better, but they have a huge talent gap compared to the Pac10. Early season game, anything could happen, but Minnesota is definitely favored.

Joined: 09/28/2009

MGoPoints: 51217