Big Ten Network is unveiling the 2021 conference schedule at noon today. Looks like it's already up on the NU athletics site.
2021 Schedule
- Thread starter cats2017
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Does that mean they are going to change it? You can find the Big Ten schedule for almost a decade in advance. Or is this just an excuse to get a half-hour of talk on the network discussing marquee games like Ohio State-Michigan?
I can't believe we've scheduled Duke from 2021-2025. Maybe we can follow up this announcement today with cancelling one of them and going somewhere that brings excitement/gets eye balls. Duke is just good enough to beat us and just bad enough for that to be embarrassing.
So they must be significant revisions then. Purdue was going to be our senior day - would we have senior day at Wrigley Field? I wouldn't think so.
What I notice is that the last two games are not at Ryan allowing renovations to begin two weeks before the season is over.
I'm not saying these are the only contenders in 2021, but if we say that Northwestern's top two contenders for the West crown are Wisconsin and Iowa, the three-week stretch from October 30 to November 13 will be interesting:
NU has Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin
Iowa has Wisconsin, Northwestern, and Minnesota
Wisconsin has Iowa, Rutgers, and Northwestern
NU has Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin
Iowa has Wisconsin, Northwestern, and Minnesota
Wisconsin has Iowa, Rutgers, and Northwestern
Actually, the last 3 games......What I notice is that the last two games are not at Ryan allowing renovations to begin two weeks before the season is over.
The last time we played Ohio (2008) was the last time they had a losing record. They've been to several bowl games since and have won some divisional championships. Of course we have a history with Solich.
Is that a potential trap game? Given some other nonconference letdowns we've had, I certainly wouldn't want to phone it in against Ohio.
Is that a potential trap game? Given some other nonconference letdowns we've had, I certainly wouldn't want to phone it in against Ohio.
The Duke question is an interesting one. Does NU get much, if any, benefit from playing them from a recruiting standpoint?
As far as I can tell, only 2 players who NU offered in the 2021 class chose Duke: CB Brandon Johnson, from North Carolina, and S Placide Djungu-Sungu. They both had decent offer lists but weren't standouts.
Here's what that looked like from 2016 through 2019 (# of players with an NU offer who chose Duke):
2019: 4
2018: 2
2017: 5
2016: 3
That's not nothing... but it's also not a lot. And it's not as if these are the absolutely top, A list guys in each case.
I think it's pretty clear when looking back on recruiting classes, and, most recently, Austin Uke's hat dance, that Stanford remains stiff competition for academically minded high 3-star low 4-star recruits. And the other main non-conference rival for the best Midwestern recruits is obviously Notre Dame.
Would scheduling Vanderbilt get us anything in SEC country? Now that Franklin's no longer there, they probably wouldn't cancel their series with us.
Not really to be honest.
Stanford really is our main competitor when it comes to the most academically inclined talented recruits that we target.
But it's understandable. Removing the "how good is the situation around the team" part of it and just focusing on academics, Stanford is going to have the edge over every competitor in CFB from the perspective of the academic brand.
If we really have a "super cycle" of winning where we go to Rose Bowls and win the Big Ten, we can probably win recruits off them consistently during that window, but other than that, I don't really think it's possible to overcome their academic brand consistently.
You ask random people on the street what the best school in the country is and other than Harvard, you probably hear Stanford as much as any other school.
And of course they have the location/weather/etc. They had great teams in recent memory as well.
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I went to ND V Navy in Dublin (2012) and planned to go again last year but game and trip were cancelled due to Covid.
I will check my schedule in the next few weeks to see if I can get to Dublin for NU v Illinois. I have no interest in either team but any excuse to spend a weekend in the Templebar should not be missed.
The pubs open at 8AM and close at 6AM to clean up. There will be street entertainers, traditional Irish music and sing a longs all day and night not to mention Smithwick's and Guinness
The Aviva Stadium has great sightlines much like the west stand at NU. I doubt NU or Illinois will be able to "rock" the stadium with "The Fields of Athenry" but I can assure you that the Husker and Illini fans that make the trip will remember it as one of the best football weekends of their lives
If you can't make NU v Illinois then try Leinster v Munster next Christmas or one of The Six Nations games of Ireland v England, Wales, France ,Italy or Scotland. Ireland will stand together to the tune of "Ireland's Call" praising the 4 "Great provinces of Ireland", including Ulster that has counties of both the Republic and Northern Ireland. Ireland's athletes compete as a unified island in most team sports
Two things stand out.
Iowa is the only team we play with a winning program from last season (minimum 4 games).
In contrast to last season, a team will play NU after coming off a bye only once: Michigan 8/23. I used to think this slightly advantaged a team but, with our results this season, I dunno anymore. Plus, the prior two weeks, we're coming off a bye and then a nice tune-up with the Rutgers game at home.
But, as we all know, Covid affected with all these teams in 2020, including NU and its zero rate of Covid infection playing no small role in its on-field success.
Iowa is the only team we play with a winning program from last season (minimum 4 games).
In contrast to last season, a team will play NU after coming off a bye only once: Michigan 8/23. I used to think this slightly advantaged a team but, with our results this season, I dunno anymore. Plus, the prior two weeks, we're coming off a bye and then a nice tune-up with the Rutgers game at home.
But, as we all know, Covid affected with all these teams in 2020, including NU and its zero rate of Covid infection playing no small role in its on-field success.
No longer willing to give Stanford the 'stronger FB program' nod. Our records since 2015 are virtually identical and we split games between us.
Why such low confidence?
We could very well go undefeated next season. I don't see why not. Let's run the table starting with MSU.
But the point is that’s still the perception among a good number of recruits.
Which is why NU would benefit from playing Stanford every other year or so. At least have a chance to control the narrative.
A rivalry with Stanford would be better primarily because they are better than Duke. I hope we show over these next 4 (four!) seasons that we have passed Duke as a football program. After that, rescheduling them should be contingent on them scheduling us for basketball.
But we don't have to have a rivalry. Mix it up. Get Georgia Tech in 2025. We have Colorado 2026 and 2027. In 2028, let's go play UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Easier to spitball ideas than to get them done, but I'd even take a group of 5 school in a good recruiting location (Houston, SMU, USF/UCF, Cincinnati).
You raise an interesting question earlier regarding recruiting. In my opinion, yes the academic minded kid will choose between us and the Dukes and Stanfords. We actually edged out both programs in our 2021 class. The majority of the kids we want decide between us and other big name power 5 schools. Getting any kind of a bigger stage would benefit us more, in my opinion. I mean, Duke got Alabama in 2019. Not saying we should go get blown out by Alabama (though I'd travel to Tuscaloosa in a heart beat and would love it to be us instead of Wisconsin in 2025), I'm just saying that this shouldn't be impossible.
Yeah I agree with that for sure.
I think though to win recruits off them consistently we have to be "clearly better" to overcome their academic brand.
With Fitz here, it can happen and I expect it to at some point as their success a decade ago fades.
This is the main reason I like this 4 game series with Duke; the games with Daniel Jones and their veteran teams left me feeling like we had leftover business.
I hope it turns out like the BC, Syracuse, and Vandy series a decade ago where we made clear that we had the superior program and went 7-1 against those 3 from 2008 to 2013.
We clearly have a superior program to Duke and it isn't close, but it'll be nice when the record shows that too.
Rice and Tulane are two quality options for location/recruiting among private schools we could schedule, but there really aren't many.
Ivies won't do it. Makes no sense, their players would just get beat up by players as athletic as ours.
It'd be like those FCS schools that the SEC schools still schedule as a late season patsy before a big rivalry.
I agree with those saying we should schedule other good publics as well like more games against UCLA, UCB, UVa, UNC, Georgia Tech, etc. would be fine by me.
The only interesting thing about that game is that one of these loathsome teams has to make the long trip home with a loss