[NU Sports] Our non-conference schedule

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> Add Army and Navy to the list.  Surprisingly, Air
> Force turned out to be 
> a bunch of jerks so count them out.

I'll second the ruling out Air Force. Especially after
they left us in a lurch for the Tennessee series.

I'm not sure what Army or Navy get us - it's a tough
game to prepare for and really won't be TV-friendly,
recruiting-friendly or help for Big Ten games.

I think of Jim's list, Stanford seems an ideal match
with the California location and two high-profile
academic schools. Of course, Notre Dame already tries
to do this with their Stanford series, but it's a good
game for us and makes sense (I like what they did with
their stadium, too - it'd make a better trip than
Nevada).

Rice or TCU are similar for their Texas recruiting
appeal. Unfortunately, I'm not sure there's an
academic school in Florida.:) Maybe Georgia Tech for
the South? Or Duke/UVa? And Boston College/Syracuse is
a nice east-coast connection as well.

Mix those in with NIU and a low MAC school like EMU
and it'd still be a challenging NC schedule without
banging our heads against the top 25 powers. I don't
think there's much reason to even stretch it that much
with our rugged Big Ten slate, but it still gives a
good NC slate. I'm not sure how much it will boost
attendance, but not much will aside from an Irish game
in Evanston.

I don't think it's defeatist to avoid scheduling USC
or Florida (and I'm not sure they'd even want us if we
tried) ... just sensible in the current state of
college football. We have plenty of Top 25 games to
grab attention and prove our mettle later on in Big
Ten play.

As for Nevada this weekend, it is what it is. I'm not
wild about not getting a 2-for-1 ... not being able to
go to Vegas instead ... or playing Friday night. But
Fitz couldn't do anything about that, so I don't blame
him for being excited to showcase NU football on
national TV. Now let's just hope the O-line comes
together and it's a good showcase for the purple.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!

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