[NU Sports] 10 league games? Not likely

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> I wouldn't mind, but: NU and Minnesota and Indiana need
> the league games to fill stadiums. Penn State,
> Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan do not. From their

Quite honestly, nothing will fill NU's stadium before the students get back on campus. It might help, but don't count on an early September game with MSU or Purdue to pack the house. It won't be filled when the students return either, but it's a heck of a lot more lively (as I've said before - by percentage, our student fans are the best in the league :) ).

But the 10-game schedule is a pipe dream for so many reasons - scheduling that extra home game, money, loss of NC rivalries, etc. Plus, it's just weird out here in Pac 10 country to see a Pac 10 game in August or have crucial league showdowns against USC and Cal or so interrupted by New Mexico State or someone.

Besides, the Pac 10 doesn't get anything out of being the only "full rotation" league - it still gets knocked on for not playing a title game.

There's no reward in the current system for playing tough games outside league play - why schedule more? It certainly will hurt our bowl chances.

> Also, Delany raied a point in a story about the Big
> Ten's disgraceful non-league scheduling: he mentioned
> four teams that, over the long term historically, don't

I'll take our league's non-conference scheduling over the SEC or Big XII any day - Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan do more to consistently schedule major non-conference showdowns each year than top SEC or Big XII schools. And the lower half of each league looks for their gimme games about evenly.

> than play, say, non-league slates against USC, Oklahoma and
> Miami. In other words, 4 ifty non-cons plus a 3-5 BT record
> and you're going bowling! Call it the Glen Mason

Also, few schools will get into those contracts with upstarts like NU - as the Big East has found out, it's tough to get a lot of the big boys on your schedule (Louisville especially).

GO CATS!!!
-SjT