It’s here…it’s finally here! Football season – at last! All fourteen Big Ten teams are in action this opening week and some of these games are even watchable. Sure there are some of the usual cupcakes but this is the most exciting opening week schedule I can remember in quite some time.
Game of the Week:
Wisconsin vs LSU – Houston, Texas
There are only three games between ranked teams this opening week and this is one of them. Both the 13th and 14th ranked teams lost a lot of talent but the faces coming back and solid recruiting over the last few season have both eyeing a way to move up the rankings and be in the tournament come winter.
Saturday, 9/8 central, ESPN / WatchESPN app
Sleeper:
Rutgers at Washington State
I’m really excited for this one and I’m not sure why. Some curiosity about seeing a new league member in action. The oddity of a cross-nation trip. The fact that Mike “The Pirate” Leach in involved. I don’t even think it will be a close game with WSU’s air raid dominating but I’m going to watch it. Well, up to half time at least.
Thursday, 10/9 central, Fox Sports 1
Don’t Ignore:
Cal at Northwestern
Another Pac 12-Big 10 game that intrigues me. NU won this a year ago but Cal was dreadful and the wheels came off Northwestern shortly after the win, perhaps the chance to see if either squad is improved is what makes me want to tune in.
Saturday, 3:30/2:30 central, ABC / ESPN 2
Snoozer
Jacksonville State at Michigan State
A top 10 FBS team against an FCS squad? Doesn’t sound too fun, even if Jacksonville St won 11 games a year ago.
Upset Watch
Right end – Big Ten is favored in all their games but Wisconsin-LSU and Rutgers-WSU. While I’m curious about the game in Pullman, I have a hard time seeing Rutgers pulling off the upset, so I’ll go with Wisconsin…not a bad idea considering I picked them in my best case/worst case.
Wrong end – Sure it’s easy to pick against Purdue or Illinois so I’ll go with a big swing…Navy is a pesky team with a tough offense and a great quarterback in Keenan Reynolds who knows that offense like the back of his hand. OSU has a ton of question marks on offense going into this one. A Midshipmen stunner is on the table folks.
OSU at Navy, Saturday, 12/11 Central, CBS Sports Network
Random Musing
Some funny distances between campuses in the opening week. On the short end is Indiana-Indiana State sitting just 70 minutes away. Iowa-Northern Iowa is a mere 80. Rutgers to Washington State? 38 hours. Penn State to Central Florida is 15 hours, 17 minutes. Of course they are playing the game in Dublin, Ireland. Dublin is a scant 3,326 miles from State College compared to the 4,050 from UCF’s Orlando location.
The things we do for this sport.
Big Ten and Counting 