Thursday, September 02, 2010

As Far as Purdue Football Goes, Nebraska Isn't Joining Big Ten for Years

As we all heard endlessly yesterday, the Big Ten announced their divisional alignment for football (starting next year) as well as the 2011 and 2012 schedules. I like the fact that the two years of schedules are out, but if you were excited about seeing new member Nebraska anytime soon, well, sorry. They'll be harder to find that Boilerdowd's hairline.Due to the new divisions and scheduling breaks, Purdue football will not see Nebraska football on either school's campus until 2013 at the earliest. Of course, the two could meet in the conference title game sooner. What?

The 2011 schedule:

Sept. 3 - KENT STATE
Sept. 10 - at Rice
Sept. 17 - SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
Oct. 1 - NOTRE DAME
Oct. 8 - MINNESOTA
Oct. 15 - at Penn State
Oct. 22 - ILLINOIS
Oct. 29 - at Michigan
Nov. 5 - at Wisconsin
Nov. 12 - OHIO STATE
Nov. 19 - IOWA
Nov. 26 - at Indiana

The 2012 schedule:

Sept. 1 - EASTERN KENTUCKY
Sept. 8 - at Notre Dame
Sept. 15 - EASTERN MICHIGAN
Sept. 29 - MARSHALL
Oct. 6 - MICHIGAN
Oct. 13 - WISCONSIN
Oct. 20 - at Ohio State
Oct. 27 - at Minnesota
Nov. 3 - PENN STATE
Nov. 10 - at Iowa
Nov. 17 - at Illinois
Nov. 24 - INDIANA

In 2012, how about that scheduling balance, folks?  Five of six at home to start, then four of five on the road, with the only home game vs Penn State. Yeesh.

Next year, on September 10, the team travels to Houston to take on Rice. While this pleases me since I live here (BS tailgate in the Rice parking lot -- mark your calendar now), it's also interesting to think about how much time Purdue sports could be spending in Houston.

Last March's regional semi-finals in the NCAA Tourney.
This December, the Texas Bowl is in Reliant Stadium and features the 5th place Big Ten team.
Next April....there's something here. I can't quite remember what.

As you were.

8 comments:

zlionsfan said...

If you look at the 2011 and 2012 conference schedules (that's a direct link to the PDF files, by the way), what's funny is how the end-of-season matchups seem to have been determined.

Obviously Ohio State-Michigan is the last week; everyone's heard that by now. (That should have been a Mr. Obvious thing, but apparently some idiots were ascairt that they might actually play twice or something, because that worked so well in the ACC for Miami and Florida State.) And as you see above, the Bucket is still the last week of the season.

Everyone else? Not so much. Obviously Iowa jumped at the chance to close with Nebraska; Penn State apparently figured Wisconsin would be an appropriate rival, and then the other four teams are random or something. (It should be obvious to everyone by now that Illinois doesn't consider Northwestern a rival.)

It does make sense when you think about it, but it's still nice to see that at least for now, the Bucket is on the same level with the premier football rivalry in the conference.

jay.westfall said...

So Mr. Money, being a fellow Purdue grad living in the Houston area, would it be rude of us to fill the Rice Bowl with folks wearing Gold? :)

Brad said...

So what's the road to the B10 Title game in 2011?

We'll have Marve, Most of our OL, our RB's, our WR corps (minus K. Smith), and new TE. On D, we'll have most of our front 7 rotation (minus Kerrigan), and likely return our entire secondary.

That looks like a solid team.

We face OSU: defense will be good as always, but there's a good chance T. Pryor may be gone. If he's gone, I think it's winnable.

PSU: With their youth at QB, they'll have a 2nd-year starter behind center (once they figure out which one starts this year). Again, I expect defense to be good. I don't know enough about their OL/RB/WR situation to decide the rest.

WIS: Defense is young, O has a mix (Tolzein is Sr, as is one WR and TE). John Clay may go to the league. A tough game.

IU/IL: Both may be under new head coaches by this time, and aren't factors yet.

That slate doesn't line up well for going 5-0 against the division, but 4-1 is a possibility. Not sure how the tiebreakers will fall, but 2011 could put us in the conf. title game.

J Money said...

Brad -- love your optimism. Let's see how 2010 goes first...

Jay -- Rice has that HUGE stadium and nobody to fill it. I see no problem with us owning it.

Plang said...

Nebraska is playing a home-and-home with UND? Does that then make 4 Big (12) 10 teams that UND will be playing. Why, it is as if they were in one of our divisions...

Anonymous said...

I'm glad I won't be a student anymore by 2012, a stretch like 1 home game in 5 weeks would kill me.

Andrew Mizener said...

Ooof. The marching band is going to have fun with that 2012 schedule...
Four five-day shows in a row. Ouch.

Purdue Matt said...

Hard to get excited about EKU, EMU, and Marshall. Aren't we starting a series with Cincinnati soon? I would also like to see a series with Louisville. I know it doesn't make sense to schedule a hard non-con until we can build more talent and depth, but its something I would like to see down the line in a few years.