Cupcakes on Big Ten Schedule In Week 3

[LuteHawk]

Ohio State will play Northern Illinois in Columbus

Wisconsin will welcome Troy to Madison


Minnesota will play Kent State in Minneapolis

Each week of the nonconference schedule you see some
real cupcakes.

 

[J_Heater]

Every team in the country does this just some do it on different weekends. I kind of like what the SEC did putting their real cream cheese schedule the last week before rivalry week. It gives your players much needed rest. Surprised more teams aren't doing this.

 

[Hawk-A-Doodle-Doo]

Frankly, fans of a program that, in the not terribly distant past, has on its home field...

• Lost to Northern Illinois, Western Michigan (x2), and Central Michgan
• Come perilously close to losing to Ball State, Northern Iowa (x2), and Arkansas State

...probably have very little ownership stake in the moral high ground to belittle the opposition other conference members are playing.

 

[markfromj]

Troy beats Wisky.

 

[LuteHawk]

Hawk-A-Doodle, I am talking about the Elite Teams of
the Big Ten like Ohio State and Wisconsin in week 3.
Obviously, the Iowa Hawkeyes are guilty of putting too
many cupcakes on their schedule and then getting beat
by them.

 

[cedarvalleykid14]

You folks do realize that Toledo beat Arkansas last week and that Auburn had to go OT to beat FCS Jacksonville State, right? Missouri nipped Arkansas State 27-20 as well. So let's give the SEC--the cupcake conference--the credit it has actually earned on the field, OK? LOL

 

[Hawk-A-Doodle-Doo]

Hawk-A-Doodle, I am talking about the Elite Teams of
the Big Ten like Ohio State and Wisconsin in week 3.
Obviously, the Iowa Hawkeyes are guilty of putting too
many cupcakes on their schedule and then getting beat
by them.

Well....first off maybe Wisconsin isn't elite this year. And you did include Minnesota in your post, so clearly you weren't only referring to the historical (or even past 10-15 years) elites.

Secondly, was Iowa or was Iowa not "elite" in 2009 when we scheduled and then barely slid by Arkansas State and Northern Iowa?

All Ol' Doodle was trying to say was we aren't really in a position to cast a lot of stones about scheduling. Especially if those stones are being cast at Ohio State who in the past 10 years or so has had series with CFB bluebloods like USC, Texas, and Miami(FL), and a Va Tech program that has played for a national title with the memory of everyone on this board. Wisconsin has played Alabama and LSU the past two years. MSU has had the home-and-home with perennial national championship contender Oregon. Minnesota has had recent home-and-homes with USC and TCU. Penn State and Michigan both played Alabama within the past few years and until very recently Michigan also had to play Notre Dame every year, as did MSU and Purdue. And there are many other examples.

So they feast on a cupcake every now and again. What's the harm? They also each have sat down to a full-sized four-course steak dinner on more than one occasion over the past few years. As for Iowa...well, honestly, we've enjoyed our series with Pitt. We've sprinkled in an Arizona-based university every now and again, and they're usually pretty solid. And of course we're locked into playing Ames Community College every year. But that doesn't exactly have the same ring to it as Texas, Oregon, USC, Notre Dame, LSU, and Alabama.