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Football Penn State adds FIU to 2025 schedule

Looks like a "dumbing down" of the schedule with the new B1G. I don't see a decent non-conference game in 2025 and, maybe, beyond. Looks like the easiest schedule we've had in a long time in 2025 with the only real quality programs being at Ohio State and home to Oregon. Of course, teams like Sparty, Iowa and Nebraska can always jump up but they aren't top-ten programs.
 
Looks like a "dumbing down" of the schedule with the new B1G. I don't see a decent non-conference game in 2025 and, maybe, beyond. Looks like the easiest schedule we've had in a long time in 2025 with the only real quality programs being at Ohio State and home to Oregon. Of course, teams like Sparty, Iowa and Nebraska can always jump up but they aren't top-ten programs.
I can see as we move along and the playoff keeps getting expanded (and it will) that we will measure the success of the season on not making the playoff but how deep we go. Just like the top college basketball programs and the Dance.
 
I can see as we move along and the playoff keeps getting expanded (and it will) that we will measure the success of the season on not making the playoff but how deep we go. Just like the top college basketball programs and the Dance.
Good thoughts. The idea is to get an early bye or patsy beyond just being in the top 12/14 to get a playoff birth. Being healthy is the wild card.
 
Geebuss the whole 25 schedule looks weak. Only Oregon at home, suckeyes and UCLA are the only solid programs. And Oregon/ UCLA are not consistently top teams.
 
Geebuss the whole 25 schedule looks weak. Only Oregon at home, suckeyes and UCLA are the only solid programs. And Oregon/ UCLA are not consistently top teams.
Oregon has been pretty consistent. Not sure what year we need to go to Oregon probably 2026, that will be very tough. UCLA is nothing great.
 
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Good thoughts. The idea is to get an early bye or patsy beyond just being in the top 12/14 to get a playoff birth. Being healthy is the wild card.
Yep, getting byes and high seeds will be the goal. It will be interesting to see how the playoffs shake out but my guess is it will be just like the Dance in hoops and probably even more pronounced. What I mean is that the champ probably will be no lower than a 5 or maybe 6 seed and most times will be a top 4 seed.
 
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Yep, getting byes and high seeds will be the goal. It will be interesting to see how the playoffs shake out but my guess is it will be just like the Dance in hoops and probably even more pronounced. What I mean is that the champ probably will be no lower than a 5 or maybe 6 seed and most times will be a top 4 seed.
its a good point. for the real blue bloods of college football (GA, tOSU, AL, etc.) it will marginalize the regular season. Who cares about winning a B1G championship anymore....just get into the NCAA playoffs as one of the 68 teams.
 
Absolutely pathetic. I’ve been begging for them to buy out the stupid Temple series and fix 2025/2026 and this is a huge step in the wrong direction.

It’s going to (potentially) bite us in the butt with the expanded playoffs as they will be looking at actual strength of schedule. It is not going to look good when our non conference schedule is Nevada, Florida International and Villanova. 🤮
 
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Absolutely pathetic. I’ve been begging for them to buy out the stupid Temple series and fix 2025/2026 and this is a huge step in the wrong direction.

It’s going to (potentially) bite us in the butt with the expanded playoffs as they will be looking at actual strength of schedule. It is not going to look good when our non conference schedule is Nevada, Florida Atlantic and Villanova. 🤮
I think it is just the opposite. PSU will have plenty of good teams on the schedule but it does appear 2025 will be a bit of a down year. This coming year we have WVU, Ill, USC, Wicy, tOSU and Washington. All bowl games that had good seasons last year. All were top 20 ranked at some point. tOSU and Washington were two of the four playoff teams.

But PSU is going to have plenty of good teams to play with USC, UM, tOSU, Oregon, Washington, Iowa, Ohio state, and Wisconsin. If you go through that season with one or two losses, you'll make the playoff. Why take a risk on an out of conference opponent that is really good?

Hell, look at UM last year. they played two good teams and that's it.
 
Waiting for us to get left out if the new playoff based on the pathetic non-conference schedule
 
Absolutely pathetic. I’ve been begging for them to buy out the stupid Temple series and fix 2025/2026 and this is a huge step in the wrong direction.

It’s going to (potentially) bite us in the butt with the expanded playoffs as they will be looking at actual strength of schedule. It is not going to look good when our non conference schedule is Nevada, Florida Atlantic and Villanova. 🤮
The bad non conference schedule and then only a couple big conference games versus quality opponents combined with an expanded playoff definitely starts to diminish the regular season.

The big games in the regular season will not be do or die. Even next year, the OSU game is not a must win. In years past with a 4 team playoff it basically was. You lose one and it was a free for all on who makes it among one loss teams and it comes down to conference champions, etc. If we had beaten Michigan after losing to OSU then we were all calculating the complicated tie breaker scenarios. Now that is gone, as one loss gets you in and even two if they are quality opponents. The crucial game for us in 2024 is at U$C. Need to win that one. Obviously we want to beat O$U and Franklin needs to demonstrate he can do that.

We are not there yet in terms of being like hoops but 10 years down the road or certainly 20 we will be there. Money drives everything and more teams more overall interest, more money. The playoff will just keep getting bigger and probably will get to over 20 teams at some point. Money drives everything and with more teams means more playoff games, more advertising spending and more money. Making the playoff will not be that great of an achievement.

What I would like to see but I doubt it will ever happen is an early season Big Ten vs SEC challenge series of games. Take one weekend and have all 16 B10 teams play the 16 SEC teams. That could he really cool. Puts some drama into an early season game.
 
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Looks like a "dumbing down" of the schedule with the new B1G. I don't see a decent non-conference game in 2025 and, maybe, beyond. Looks like the easiest schedule we've had in a long time in 2025 with the only real quality programs being at Ohio State and home to Oregon. Of course, teams like Sparty, Iowa and Nebraska can always jump up but they aren't top-ten programs.
That's going to the the future now. Interesting non-conference games are going to completely disappear. The regular season continues to lose importance, ignoring that the regular season was one thing that separated college football from the NFL and every other sport. There's no upside to scheduling good non-conference opponents anymore except for maybe increased ticket sales and concessions, but revenue from a mildly increased attendance for 1-2 games a year is nothing compared to the revenue from the media, playoff appearances, etc. Screw the locals and the ticket holders, everything is now for media partners. This is the present and future of the sport. I'm not even a local and I don't like it. Maybe we should hand out a trophy to the football program that makes the most revenue regardless of their win percentage, since that seems to be all they care about anymore.
 
That's going to the the future now. Interesting non-conference games are going to completely disappear. The regular season continues to lose importance, ignoring that the regular season was one thing that separated college football from the NFL and every other sport. There's no upside to scheduling good non-conference opponents anymore except for maybe increased ticket sales and concessions, but revenue from a mildly increased attendance for 1-2 games a year is nothing compared to the revenue from the media, playoff appearances, etc. Screw the locals and the ticket holders, everything is now for media partners. This is the present and future of the sport. I'm not even a local and I don't like it. Maybe we should hand out a trophy to the football program that makes the most revenue regardless of their win percentage, since that seems to be all they care about anymore.
Get rid of one of those useless non conference games then start the playoffs earlier. That won't happen because it is all about the money. Who cares about the fan experience. These coaches only want to play tough games in their conference and think that is enough.

These conference championship games are also a waste, blatant money grabs. Maybe say we will drop the ccg but you need to play one quality non conf game. Won't happen because of money, money, money.
 
That's going to the the future now. Interesting non-conference games are going to completely disappear. The regular season continues to lose importance, ignoring that the regular season was one thing that separated college football from the NFL and every other sport. There's no upside to scheduling good non-conference opponents anymore except for maybe increased ticket sales and concessions, but revenue from a mildly increased attendance for 1-2 games a year is nothing compared to the revenue from the media, playoff appearances, etc. Screw the locals and the ticket holders, everything is now for media partners. This is the present and future of the sport. I'm not even a local and I don't like it. Maybe we should hand out a trophy to the football program that makes the most revenue regardless of their win percentage, since that seems to be all they care about anymore.
Agree and disagree. I think PSU's home schedule for this year is one of the best we've seen in over a decade. So I am excited about being able to play teams like USC, Washington and Oregon to go with tOSU, UM and the rest of the B1G. So no complaints there from me.

The issue, I think, is how we compete for playoff spots against teams like OK State, TCU, Arizona, Utah, and Louisville (to name a few). They will. have much less competitive schedules and will fill out the bottom of the playoff teams.

Just a quick look at one team: OK State who finished ~ 16 last year. They play SD state, Arkansas, Tulsa, Utah, K State, WVU, BYU, Baylor, ASU, TCU, TX Tech, and Colorado. I would argue that not a single one of those programs measures up to USC, Washington, Oregon, UM or tOSU. Utah has had a good year or two but hasn't sustained against USC, Oregon, and Washington. BYU, K State, Baylor, TCU and Colorado are in the Wisconsin/Iowa territory IMHO.
 
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Get rid of one of those useless non conference games then start the playoffs earlier. That won't happen because it is all about the money. Who cares about the fan experience. These coaches only want to play tough games in their conference and think that is enough.

These conference championship games are also a waste, blatant money grabs. Maybe say we will drop the ccg but you need to play one quality non conf game. Won't happen because of money, money, money.
Meh. The “playoff” games are the pathetic money grabs. At least conference championship games have a real meaning and qualification requirements defining them.
 
Agree and disagree. I think PSU's home schedule for this year is one of the best we've seen in over a decade. So I am excited about being able to play teams like USC, Washington and Oregon to go with tOSU, UM and the rest of the B1G. So no complaints there from me.

The issue, I think, is how we compete for playoff spots against teams like OK State, TCU, Arizona, Utah, and Louisville (to name a few). They will. have much less competitive schedules and will fill out the bottom of the playoff teams.

Just a quick look at one team: OK State who finished ~ 16 last year. They play SD state, Arkansas, Tulsa, Utah, K State, WVU, BYU, Baylor, ASU, TCU, TX Tech, and Colorado. I would argue that not a single one of those programs measures up to USC, Washington, Oregon, UM or tOSU. Utah has had a good year or two but hasn't sustained against USC, Oregon, and Washington. BYU, K State, Baylor, TCU and Colorado are in the Wisconsin/Iowa territory IMHO.
We're saying the same thing essentially. The only relevant regular season games going forward will be conference games. All non-conference games will be teams that are so weak they are automatic wins. Things were already heading that direction and with the addition of strong new teams to the conference it will cement that scheduling approach in stone. And while in general that looks like a good thing for conference games, it makes each of these big conference games less important. Take last season for example. PSU-OSU and PSU-UM were massive games on a national scale because they had playoff implications. Lose, and you may miss the playoffs. Going forward a loss there means very little making each individual game far less important when viewed in the proverbial vacuum, because each team will have 3-4 such games on their schedule and will be able to lose 2-3 of them and will still be a lock for the playoffs because the Big 10 and SEC playoff deals are being done to ensure that teams with some losses in these power conferences get credit for the strength of the conference and thereby get more playoff bids over the ACC and Big 12. The only games that will carry that sort of huge importance going forward will be the last of the big conference games for teams that hadn't won any of their big matchups to that point putting them in a must win situation, and the playoff games. Non-conference games will be almost meaningless because they will be incredibly noncompetitive. Most regular season games viewed individually become less important. The conference championships loses a ton of importance.
 
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We're saying the same thing essentially. The only relevant regular season games going forward will be conference games. All non-conference games will be teams that are so weak they are automatic wins. Things were already heading that direction and with the addition of strong new teams to the conference it will cement that scheduling approach in stone. And while in general that looks like a good thing for conference games, it makes each of these big conference games less important. Take last season for example. PSU-OSU and PSU-UM were massive games on a national scale because they had playoff implications. Lose, and you may miss the playoffs. Going forward a loss there means very little making each individual game far less important when viewed in the proverbial vacuum, because each team will have 4 such games on their schedule and will be able to lose 2, possibly 3, and will still be a lock for the playoffs. The only games that will carry that sort of importance going forward will be the last of the big conference games for teams that hadn't won any up to that point, and the playoff games. Non-conference games will be almost meaningless because they will be incredibly noncompetitive. Most regular season games viewed individually become less important. The conference championships loses a ton of importance.
Well, what you are describing is how the “playoff” has continued to completely erode the regular season for college football. What previously was the most awesome regular season in sports - where every game was important - has been constantly diminished due to a focus on “playoffs”.
 
Get rid of one of those useless non conference games then start the playoffs earlier. That won't happen because it is all about the money. Who cares about the fan experience. These coaches only want to play tough games in their conference and think that is enough.

These conference championship games are also a waste, blatant money grabs. Maybe say we will drop the ccg but you need to play one quality non conf game. Won't happen because of money, money, money.
Certainly the merchants in State College won't want to give up a home game even if the local economy "is all about the money". And what of all those other teams (and even Penn State) who don't make the playoffs? Should they simply play one less game?
 
I'm not a fan of this, but look at UM last year. If you win in the B10 then it all works itself out. I can only see this mentality going stronger with the new B10/SEC and the playoff format.
 
Certainly the merchants in State College won't want to give up a home game even if the local economy "is all about the money". And what of all those other teams (and even Penn State) who don't make the playoffs? Should they simply play one less game?
Here’s a question: does downtown business drop during these cake walk weekends? I would assume so but wonder if anyone studied it.

For one thing they rarely sell out and a lot of season ticket holders don’t show. 100,000 vs 110,000+ people tailgating all game long.

It would also be people with less excess cash to blow. And fewer people spend the night and certainly not the weekend.

And last less foreigners….. fans of the other schools. Who wants to travel hundreds of miles and blow a grand or two to watch your team be down three TDs by the 2nd qtr and lose by 50-60 points?

Seems the merchants wouldn’t want these games either.
 
Here’s a question: does downtown business drop during these cake walk weekends? I would assume so but wonder if anyone studied it.

For one thing they rarely sell out and a lot of season ticket holders don’t show. 100,000 vs 110,000+ people tailgating all game long.

It would also be people with less excess cash to blow. And fewer people spend the night and certainly not the weekend.

And last less foreigners….. fans of the other schools. Who wants to travel hundreds of miles and blow a grand or two to watch your team be down three TDs by the 2nd qtr and lose by 50-60 points?

Seems the merchants wouldn’t want these games either.
The post to which I replied proposed getting rid of them altogether. I've got to think a cakewalk weekend is better economically than no game at all but I'll defer to others' specific knowledge of such things.
 
Well, what you are describing is how the “playoff” has continued to completely erode the regular season for college football. What previously was the most awesome regular season in sports - where every game was important - has been constantly diminished due to a focus on “playoffs”.
Yes but at least previously our big games against OSU and UM were huge games due to the playoff implications. Going forward we get more big conference opponents, but each game is of lesser importance because now you can lose a couple of games still make the playoff. And once they expand to 14 teams and the Big 10 and SEC lock in their contract with more automatic bids than other conferences then you'll be able to lose yet another game and still qualify for the playoff. So you'll have 3 loss teams potentially getting in because it may be mandatory, depending how things fall.

Playoff contenders are going to have opt outs during late regular season games, possibly during the conference championship, in addition to the bowl game opt outs we have now. If you're 9-0 you'll be able to sit your studs for the last 3 games of the season to ensure they are healthy and put all of your focus on the playoffs. And the home fans will still be paying top dollar to watch 3 crap non conference games as well as 1-2 late season games full of opt outs. Potentially 5 meaningless home games per year as part of your season ticket package because the team is mailing it in or playing a crappy opponent. But hey, at least the bank accounts will be filling up! It's going to be interesting to see November football get devalued due to late season opt outs, October is going to become the more important month under the new playoff structure.
 
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Here’s a question: does downtown business drop during these cake walk weekends? I would assume so but wonder if anyone studied it.

For one thing they rarely sell out and a lot of season ticket holders don’t show. 100,000 vs 110,000+ people tailgating all game long.

It would also be people with less excess cash to blow. And fewer people spend the night and certainly not the weekend.

And last less foreigners….. fans of the other schools. Who wants to travel hundreds of miles and blow a grand or two to watch your team be down three TDs by the 2nd qtr and lose by 50-60 points?

Seems the merchants wouldn’t want these games either.
I am willing to be State College has those numbers and is part of the ongoing negotiations with the university, town, and B1G. Lets take a look at the 2023 and the 2025 schedules
2023 home games
  1. WVU
  2. Delaware
  3. Iowa
  4. UMass
  5. Indiana
  6. Michigan
  7. Rutgers

2025
  1. nevada
  2. FIU
  3. Villanova
  4. Indiana
  5. Nebraska
  6. NW
  7. Oregon
Pretty close. I would consider the marquee matchups to be a push between UM and Oregon. In 23 you've got WVU, Iowa, Indiana and Rutgers as the mid-tier games. In 25 you've got Indiana, Nebraska and NW. But you've got two crap games in 23 in Delaware and UMass whereas you've got three in 25 with Nevada, FIU and Villanova. One thing about this schedule is we play Iowa, Sparty, and tOSU in a row on the road.

2024 we've got
  1. BGSU
  2. Kent
  3. Ill
  4. UCLA
  5. Ohio State
  6. Washington
  7. MD
This is the best home schedule we've seen in several years with W and tOSU matchups. UCLA is cool too as it is a unique opponent although UCLA hasn't been good in a while. There are only two crappy games (BG and kent).
 
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I am willing to be State College has those numbers and is part of the ongoing negotiations with the university, town, and B1G. Lets take a look at the 2023 and the 2025 schedules
2023 home games
  1. WVU
  2. Delaware
  3. Iowa
  4. UMass
  5. Indiana
  6. Michigan
  7. Rutgers

2025
  1. nevada
  2. FIU
  3. Villanova
  4. Indiana
  5. Nebraska
  6. NW
  7. Oregon
Pretty close. I would consider the marquee matchups to be a push between UM and Oregon. In 23 you've got WVU, Iowa, Indiana and Rutgers as the mid-tier games. In 25 you've got Indiana, Nebraska and NW. But you've got two crap games in 23 in Delaware and UMass whereas you've got three in 25 with Nevada, FIU and Villanova. One thing about this schedule is we play Iowa, Sparty, and tOSU in a row on the road.

2024 we've got
  1. BGSU
  2. Kent
  3. Ill
  4. UCLA
  5. Ohio State
  6. Washington
  7. MD
This is the best home schedule we've seen in several years with W and tOSU matchups. UCLA is cool too as it is a unique opponent although UCLA hasn't been good in a while. There are only two crappy games (BG and kent).
Season ticket price cut in half for 2025 or will value game prices mean that Oregon is $600?
 
Season ticket price cut in half for 2025 or will value game prices mean that Oregon is $600?
Well, it may be an anomaly. The B1G schedule for 25 is very weak whereas the B1G schedule for 24 is awesome with three very cool games (W, tOSU, UCLA). Of course, this year we will be in Morgantown to pay for them being in HV last year.
 
Well, it may be an anomaly. The B1G schedule for 25 is very weak whereas the B1G schedule for 24 is awesome with three very cool games (W, tOSU, UCLA). Of course, this year we will be in Morgantown to pay for them being in HV last year.
We shouldn't be agreeing to a home and home with a team like WVU. If they want to come here great but otherwise schedule Oklahoma or Texas or FSU or someone meaningful if you're giving up a home game.
 
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Absolutely pathetic. I’ve been begging for them to buy out the stupid Temple series and fix 2025/2026 and this is a huge step in the wrong direction.

It’s going to (potentially) bite us in the butt with the expanded playoffs as they will be looking at actual strength of schedule. It is not going to look good when our non conference schedule is Nevada, Florida International and Villanova. 🤮
Absolutely pathetic. I’ve been begging for them to buy out the stupid Temple series and fix 2025/2026 and this is a huge step in the wrong direction.

It’s going to (potentially) bite us in the butt with the expanded playoffs as they will be looking at actual strength of schedule. It is not going to look good when our non conference schedule is Nevada, Florida International and Villanova. 🤮
I don't believe it would hurt PSU in the playoff. Win 10 or 11 games including all OOC games and 1 or 2 losses in the B10 and PSU is in. And with only a couple games that really beat the team up it's easier to get rested and healthy for the couple physical games and potentially run the table.
 
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I don't believe it would hurt PSU in the playoff. Win 10 or 11 games including all OOC games and 1 or 2 losses in the B10 and PSU is in. And with only a couple games that really beat the team up it's easier to get rested and healthy for the couple physical games and potentially run the table.
Completely disagree when you look at the future non-conference schedules of the SEC and Big Ten. We aren't trying and, if it is held against us, can't complain as we have no one to blame but ourselves.
 
Future non con schedules-

2024 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Aug. 31st - at West Virginia
Sept. 7th - BOWLING GREEN
Sept. 21st - KENT STATE

2025 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Aug. 30th - NEVADA
Sept. 13th - VILLANOVA
Sept. - FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL

2026 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 5th - MARSHALL
Sept. 12th - at Temple
Sept. 19th - SAN JOSE STATE

2027 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 4th - SYRACUSE
Sept. 11th - DELAWARE
Sept. 18th - TEMPLE

2028 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 9th - at Syracuse
NOTE: Two non-conference games to be scheduled
 
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Certainly the merchants in State College won't want to give up a home game even if the local economy "is all about the money". And what of all those other teams (and even Penn State) who don't make the playoffs? Should they simply play one less game?
Of course the merchants in State College would like 12 home games or even more. Looking at it from the player and fan standpoint, if these 3 non conference games are total duds then don't play 3.
 
Future non con schedules-

2024 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Aug. 31st - at West Virginia
Sept. 7th - BOWLING GREEN
Sept. 21st - KENT STATE

2025 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Aug. 30th - NEVADA
Sept. 13th - VILLANOVA
Sept. - FIU

2026 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 5th - MARSHALL
Sept. 12th - at Temple
Sept. 19th - SAN JOSE STATE

2027 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 4th - SYRACUSE
Sept. 11th - DELAWARE
Sept. 18th - TEMPLE

2028 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 9th - at Syracuse
NOTE: Two non-conference games to be scheduled
@temple? lol.
 
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Looks like a "dumbing down" of the schedule with the new B1G. I don't see a decent non-conference game in 2025 and, maybe, beyond. Looks like the easiest schedule we've had in a long time in 2025 with the only real quality programs being at Ohio State and home to Oregon. Of course, teams like Sparty, Iowa and Nebraska can always jump up but they aren't top-ten programs.
Smart to play a Florida team, regardless.
 
Future non con schedules-

2024 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Aug. 31st - at West Virginia
Sept. 7th - BOWLING GREEN
Sept. 21st - KENT STATE

2025 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Aug. 30th - NEVADA
Sept. 13th - VILLANOVA
Sept. - FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL

2026 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 5th - MARSHALL
Sept. 12th - at Temple
Sept. 19th - SAN JOSE STATE

2027 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 4th - SYRACUSE
Sept. 11th - DELAWARE
Sept. 18th - TEMPLE

2028 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 9th - at Syracuse
NOTE: Two non-conference games to be scheduled
Weak OOC schedule. Not even worth attending. Disappointed in HC and AD forthis type of schedule.
 
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Weak OOC schedule. Not even worth attending. Disappointed in HC and AD forthis type of schedule.
The new Big 10 is tough enough now that this is necessary to give yourself the best shot at the expanded playoff.
 
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