The Big Ten has released its 2015 and 2016 schedules and we can now get a good idea of what current recruits will face as upperclassmen. Granted, 2016 is a loooong way away and the landscape of the Big Ten could be much different, but let's take a quick look at both schedules.

Some initial reactions:

- As has been pointed out on twitter by Kyle Meinke, things set up well for a Michigan/Michigan State night game in one or both years to open the Big Ten season. If both teams continue to play at the top of the conference -- no reason to expect either to slip -- I wouldn't be surprised if one of those games gets a visit from the College Gameday crew.

- You want to prematurely talk about national title runs? Set your sights on 2015 because getting Michigan State, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Ohio State at home gives Michigan an advantage and a pretty solid strength of schedule when paired with tough but manageable games against Iowa, Northwestern, Minnesota and Illinois on the road.

- You want to panic? Look at the back half of the 2016 schedule. Five games in five weeks with three of them on the road (Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Ohio State) sandwiched around home games vs. Illinois and Iowa. That is a gauntlet, folks.

- Notice who isn't listed? That would be Indiana, Purdue, and Penn State. Michigan will get Penn State and Indiana in the next round of scheduling (2013. 2014), but loses big by avoiding both Indiana schools in '15 and '16. The beauty of protected rivalries is that Michigan always gets Ohio State, but the downside is...Michigan always gets Ohio State. Now is the time to shoot glares at Michigan State (rival Indiana) and Iowa (rival Purdue) for lucking out.

- Depending on your view of the Bye week being a good thing or a bad thing before a tough game, Michigan either lucked out or is at a disadvantage with two challenging opponents (Nebraska '15, Wisconsin '16) following the week off.

- One thing is appreciated: Michigan gets the Bye in the middle of both seasons, rather than early or late. This breaks the schedule up a bit more and should help the team recover going into two tough home stretches.

- Hopefully 2016 has a marquee non-conference opponent coming to town early, because that is a pretty lousy home schedule with Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Ohio State all on the road.

- If the status quo holds, Ohio State should have a pretty easy path to the Championship game in both years. The Buckeyes have all the three Leaders division punching bags -- Purdue, Indiana, and Illinois -- with the added bonus of Minnesota as a crossover game.

- Meanwhile, Minnesota gets the toughest looking schedule with all five Legends division opponents and crossover games against Ohio State and Wisconsin (plus Purdue).

Bonus per twitter:

I can report ESPN has removed Pam Ward from its college football coverage.

— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) May 21, 2012

No more Pam Ward or Craig James? Pinch me, I've got to be dreaming.

Every time you get comfortable with the state of college football's current conference alignment, things just go and change a little more. It seemed that going into this summer that the only significant changes would be on the lower levels of the FBS. The WAC was by all accounts put to sleep while the Big East continued grasping at straws in a futile attempt to remain relevant. Meanwhile, the Big Ten, SEC, and Pac-12 all had stability and profitability after the last couple years of moves. Things seemed calm, but all was not quiet on the western front.

It seems now that the Big XII is finally making its play to firmly establish itself as one of the Big Four. Two years after nearly losing half of its membership and a year removed from what seemed like a possible death knell, the conference has moved onto the offensive. After reports surfaced that Florida State was unhappy -- and rightfully so -- with the ACC's latest TV deal, there were rumblings that the 'Noles could be Big XII bound. Now, with the announcement of an SEC/Big XII bowl partnership to rival the Rose Bowl, it seems that the wheels on the next round of conference realignment might already be turning according to some reports (I'm not familiar with this site, so take this with a grain of salt until there is further corroboration).

A move by Florida State and Clemson to the Big XII would be a clear hit to the prestige of the ACC and could trigger another wave of moves as the Big Ten and SEC pick through the rest of the depleted conference to shore up their ranks. Two years ago we narrowly avoided the rapid proliferation of super conferences, but the way things are looking right now it wouldn't be hard to believe that within three to five years the top four conferences (Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12, Big XII) will all be 14- to 16-team super conferences with media rights deals that far outweigh that of the rest of the lower rungs of college football.

The losers in all of this? The Big East, first and foremost, which isn't even in a position to fight back. The northeastern conference is for all intents and purposes a basketball conference once more, one that moonlights in C-USA level football. The ACC could find itself on the outside looking in, or worse yet, stripped of most of its valuable assets and left for dead.

The other losers are tradition and the regional flavor of the college game. Whether you will pine for that or welcome a new, national focus to college football is a discussion for another time.

Right now all we can do as watch the future take shape.

Let's go to the links, shall we?

Michigan offensive coordinator Al Borges still advocating for expanding Devin Gardner's role next year

"I think you have to struggle before you do well," Borges said. "If he just jumped in there and romped and stomped, I don't know if that's the real world. The real world of quarterback is usually you have to go through some bumps in the road, and it's better he does it in the spring than when everyone's watching."

Looks like Devin Gardner and the goofy two-quarterback packages aren't going anywhere this year. With Gardner's emergence as a legitimate receiving threat this shouldn't be a surprise.

Michigan's Lewan maturing into a leader - This is an older link, but if you haven't read it yet you should take the time to do so. Taylor Lewan is the best hope this team has for a first round draft pick in the near future, and he is unquestionably the most important lineman on the team this year (and hopefully next). Good to see he is progressing mentally as well as physically.

Michigan’s recruiting success recognized by national media - UMHoops runs down some of the national praise for Michigan's incoming basketball class and next year's class. I am excited to see what John Beilein can do with top-ten recruiting classes after winning so long with much less.

Year of unemployment helped Al Borges create his Denard Robinson-led Michigan hybrid offense - I wish I got as much use out of my year of unemployment. All I did was start a blog and rack up a bunch of credit card debt.

Rural Meyer, A Spring Q+A with Luke Zimmermann At Land-Grant Holy Land Regarding Ohio State Football - Luke Zimmermann talks shop with Cal Golden Blogs.

B1G revenues estimated to keep rising - Remember, Jim: mo' money, mo' problems.

What's Your College Football Program Worth? Introducing Realignment Value Rankings - Jason Kirk over at the mothership figures out how to value programs in the days of conference realignment fever.

The Expanding Reach of Alabama Recruiting - I understand that all anyone ever wants to talk about when you bring up Alabama recruiting is the evils of oversigning, but that overlooks one of the most interesting aspects of recruiting: demographics. Talent is not distributed equally amongst the states, and this is the reason that certain programs are at an advantage (it is no coincidence that Texas, Florida, California, and Ohio have produced some of most dominant football teams of the past decade). See how Nick Saban and his staff adjust their recruiting focus to different areas of the southeast.

'The Essential Smart Football' - Question And Answer With Author Chris Brown Of SmartFootball.com

What I find too is that people really enjoy the analysis because it gives them a better understanding of players. If you understand the difference between Cover 3 and Quarters coverage, and the defense gives up a big touchdown, you will be able to identify who made the mistake and who didn't. Often the announcers get that wrong too, with a zoomed-in close-up of some poor defensive back who did nothing wrong. The same goes for offense, particularly the offensive line. Plus, once you understand those little games within the game, it opens up a whole new world where you can see -- in real time -- new tactics and changes in strategy, personnel and technique differences, and how players and coaches are exploiting weaknesses or getting exploited.

You haven't bought the Smart Football book yet? Shame on you.

When Coach Jerry Kill was hired to be the next head football coach at Minnesota, I didn't think much of it. That's not to say that I thought he was a bad coach, rather I literally did not think much about it. I did not know who Jerry Kill was, and I think that the only ones to claim otherwise were of a select cadre of college football followers so monomaniacal about the sport that they can, you know, tell you who the head coach at Southern Illinois, Northern Illinois, or some other far-flung collegiate location defined by its location within a state.

I heard news of the hiring, at some point, but I don't really remember how. I probably received the news via ESPN text alerts--"Minnesota football hires NIU HC Jerry Kill"--or by a quick and timely glance at the ESPN bottom line. As far as prominence goes, it wasn't like hearing about the Hoke, Meyer, and, yes, the RR hirings in terms of media exposure and overload. The news of Brady Hoke's hiring was not just something you "heard", it was something you downright experienced through a number of media outlets--on the Internet, TV, the radio (if you happen to be in a car or 90 years old), talking about it with friends, etc.--in such a way that it wasn't just something that happened: it was an event. A spectacle, even.

Well, that's not what this was. I vaguely remember reading this post from EDSBS about the Kill hiring, and I'm not sure that I even heard the man speak at his introductory press conference (to my surprise many months later, Kill is folksy/country-sounding as all get out). If he had a Minnesotan equivalent to Hoke's "This Is Michigan" moment, I missed it. From everything that I read about him at that point in time, he was a logical hire for a school like Minnesota, one that has been embarrassingly uncompetitive since Glen Mason's firing. Kill's resume, most particularly his work at the two Illinois directional schools, indicated that he was a sensible choice.

In retrospect, the best way to compare and contrast the football hirings of two hapless programs like Indiana and Minnesota goes as such. Indiana's hiring of Kevin WIlson, a spread offense guy with name brand experience at a football institution like OU, was akin to receiving an X-Box 360--whatever the newest iteration is these days--for your birthday. It was flashy, exciting, and certainly high-powered. After years of mediocre and ephemeral products--yes, Gerry DiNardo is the Sega Dreamcast in this analogy--receiving said X-Box is quite the boon. Will it be fun? Yes, probably, but the chances of that red ring appearing a couple years down the line are startlingly real; history tells us that IU football and the X-Box are both infrastructurally flawed.

On the other hand, the hiring of Jerry Kill was like receiving a several pairs of thick winter socks. Whereas IU figuratively took out a loan to bring in a guy like Wilson--a calculated risk with relatively decent upside--Minnesota's decision thinking was decidedly antithetical. Minnesota grabbed a hammer, cracked open its piggy bank, and made a sensible decision. Of course, I don't mean that Minnesota made a better choice or had a superior selection process; the modes of thinking were just completely different.

And so, in review, I knew very little about Jerry Kill outside of the above details, of which are vague and sparse to begin with. On December 6th of 2010, he was just a coach that had been selected from the anonymous coaching ether. "Jerry Kill" even sounds like pure invention, a fabricated name for the silver screen.

Well over a year later, I think I know a little bit more about Jerry Kill, and that is decidedly a good thing.

Continue reading this post »

A few weeks ago EDSBS had its annual charity drive, and for the second straight year Michigan led the way in donations -- this time with $6316 (more than the rest of the top five combined). Michigan will receive its prize in the form of a themed week over at EDSBS, a disparaging post about Ohio State, and as you no doubt see above, an episode of Shutdown Fullback dedicated to the maize and blue.

If you donated, thank you not only for making Michigan the best (once again) but for doing such wonderful things for a good cause. It is things like this that make the words "leaders and the best" ring true.

Now I overslept so we are going with a lightning round for the links on this beautiful Friday morning:

A Few Recruiting Notes 5/17 - Tremendous has some insights on Michigan recruiting including a top in-state basketball target and a top lineman in 2014.

Leadership, chemistry first on Beilein’s summer to-do list - John Beilein has a lot to work on this summer as Michigan brings in five new players to replace the five departing players from last year's team. More than just getting the new players to learn his system, Beilein is going to have to find leadership among the remaining players while getting everyone to play together. No small task, but there is plenty of talent to work with.

Big Ten post-spring power rankings - ESPN's Big Ten blog has a post-spring power ranking that looks pretty similar to the pre-spring power ranking. Michigan State and Michigan are one and two -- in that order -- and while you could make an argument for reversing them, I think for now it is right.

B1G aims 'to not be the barrier' any more

"But it's pretty clear that some level of compromise is necessary. So instead of putting stakes in the ground and making it hard for the various constituencies around the country to get ideas up on the table, we're trying to be part of the process."

Instead we will just roll over and let the SEC do whatever it wants. Because that is compromise, right? One side gives up all its leverage for the sake of happy feelings all around.

Urban Meyer Committed an NCAA Violation for Telling a Recruit "Good Luck" Before a Game - This week on "The NCAA Is Incredibly Stupid" OSU commits such violations as not understanding facebook and being ignorant of Germany's primary education system.

Ban The College Football Hall of Fame - Or at least fix it so guys like Tommie Fraizer and Orlando Pace get in.

No. 99: Central Michigan - Paul Myerberg on Michigan's neighbor to the north.

Big Ten wants to stress strength of schedule in college football playoff

"I personally believe that strength of scheduling should be more important, so we don’t get to a world where we’re all being incentivized to come up with the (easy) schedule the way we can, because people forget in December who we played in September," Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon said.

Dave Brandon then got on the phone and scheduled Appalachian State to a lifetime series.

A Takeaway from 'Bama-WVU in 2014

Here’s the second takeaway: Alabama and West Virginia were not afraid to schedule each other in the 2014 season opener even if the chance exists that the new playoff system widens its eligibility standards to include teams that did not win their own conference.

In essence, such a decision might eliminate the loser of this game from the playoff conversation – it might, though both could obviously make a push for the top four with an undefeated run through SEC and Big 12 play, respectively. But the general theory floated amid rumors of a new postseason format was that this would dilute the level of competition during non-conference play.

B1G's Master Plan

Once a decade or so, the pragmatic Jim Delany comes out from his time-deprivation chamber to advance the plodding Big Ten a revolutionary step forward. Inexplicably, Delany then crawls back into his shell like a frightened turtle where the league hibernates for an indeterminate amount of time.

This cycle is as predictable as the day is long.

Either Jim Delany is a mastermind whose prodigious talents for negotiation and advanced planning/scheming are being wasted on college football, or someone is giving ol' Jim too much credit.

Learning How to Lose — and Bounce Back - Getting cut in high school isn't any fun, and doing the cutting isn't any fun either, but as John U. Bacon says, it is that kind of life experience that helps children grow into adults capable of dealing with the larger problems that life will throw at them. As someone who both played and coached high school sports, I can't recommend this strongly enough.

If you are unfamiliar with any of the statistics mentioned below, check out the glossary at the beginning of the post here. There will also be a short list of definitions at the bottom of the post.

Heading into the game:

This was the first weekend of Big Ten play for both teams, and both had very different non-conference showings. Michigan beat its non-BCS opponents (Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and San Diego State) with relative ease, and along with that inexplicable win under the lights against Notre Dame, went undefeated in non-conference play. The Gophers, on the other had, didn't fare so well: after a shockingly close 19-17 loss at USC, they traveled home to face an easy slate of weak opponents. Unfortunately, New Mexico State and FCS 1-AA North Dakota State beat Minnesota in Minneapolis, two of the worst losses recorded by a Big Ten team all season. A 29-23 over Miami (OH) was the only thing keeping the Gophers from having a winless non-conference showing.

Perhaps the biggest story for the Gophers over the early part of the season was the health issues of Jerry Kill -- he had a seizure during that loss to New Mexico State and continued to have them sporadically through the next few weeks. Kill didn't miss any games and had a history of seizures in the past, but this was a serious concern for Minnesota. The seizures thankfully have subsided and Kill's health has improved. Less seriously, MarQueis Gray was injured and wasn't expected to play against Michigan (he didn't), so the Gophers were down to a true freshman quarterback, Max Shortell, coming into Ann Arbor, a week after losing to a 1-AA team by 13 points. I commented to a friend of mine shortly before the game that this would be the worst team that Michigan had faced, considering their bad losses to NMSU and NDSU and their only playmaker on offense -- Gray -- would be out (no offense to Da'Jon McKnight, but it's hard to do a lot when no one can throw you the ball).

What Happened:

In short, Michigan absolutely destroyed Minnesota. The 58-0 win was Michigan's largest margin of victory against a Big Ten team since beating Northwestern by 69 in 1975. It was dominant.

Here are the first-half drives for each team:

That's a 38-0 halftime lead with Michigan scoring five touchdowns and Minnesota recording four first downs in the first half. It's pretty safe to say that this game was basically over sometime early in the first half, if not when Minnesota stepped onto the field to start the game. Michigan's defense smothered the Gophers on almost every play, mostly due to pressure from the defensive line. Add in the extra blitzes by Jake Ryan and Jordan Kovacs, and the Minnesota offensive line was simply overwhelmed. The long fumble return for a touchdown by Courtney Avery was the exclamation point on a phenomenal defensive performance. Denard Robinson and the Wolverine offense were clicking on all cylinders -- Denard was 15-19 with 169 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions (and added a rushing touchdown), Fitzgerald Toussaint rushed for over a hundred yards and scored a touchdown, and Vincent Smith scored on a touchdown run, a nice throwback screen, and threw a touchdown to Drew Dileo. I'm guessing that Al Borges decided to debut the odd formation with Denard in the backfield and Devin Gardner under center to throw Michigan State off, but it was effective.

New Math:

Click on the image for a larger version.

Continue reading this post »

Yesterday we talked about the recent developments in the college postseason discussion. One of which was the Big Ten completely caving on the idea of home site semifinals in order to save the Rose Bowl. Now, if the Big Ten backing off this issue doesn't make any sense to you, then you aren't alone. Adam Rittenberg:

Of the Big Ten groups advocating for playoffs at bowl sites, the coaches' position makes the least sense. These are guys who typically capitalize on every possible advantage presented to them. But they seem to value their players' bowl experience over the possibility of making Alabama or USC play them in the snow. Why should the Big Ten care if TCU and Oregon have small stadiums and can't accommodate the media and the corporate sponsors? The Big Ten, for the most part, doesn't have those problems.

DY Byrnes from Land-Grant Holyland:

Unlike athletic directors with posh salaries and closets full of 16th century scotch, I fail to see where the "value" is here for those dwelling in America in the year 2012. Let's say this bowl-playoff abomination took effect this year. Somebody like Michigan plays in Jerry Jones' Fantasy Factory, then the Sun and Blue might have trips to the Big 10 title game and two other neutral sites for the play-offs?

I know these guys take their private jets and dine on a corporate credit card, (and let's make no mistake, these are corporations we're talking about), but who has that kind of money to waltz around the country to follow their local band of amateur footballers?

Most pertinently, what about the students of these corporations?

Dan Wetzel:

Somewhere Mike Slive of the SEC and Larry Scott of the Pac-12 are kicking back with a cackle of delight. These guys are angling for every possible edge while the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl sit in adjacent bathtubs, holding hands and waiting for the moment to be right.

Wait, the rest of college football has to be asking, you're not even going to fight and try to make us look like wimps for arguing against football in the cold? Wait, you seriously are going to ask the same fan base to travel three times in a month – Big Ten title game, semifinals and championship game, the last two at least via airplane? And you think we won't end up with the majority of the crowd?

Yeah, so I guess staging games in the cold isn't fair, but..

"The Big Ten's bowl lineup will be revisited soon, and league commissioner Jim Delany said the Pinstripe Bowl in New York City "will be in the mix" as a possible replacement for one of the existing bowls."

Wait, what?

Just so everyone has this straight: B1G concerned about cold weather for playoff, but would like to play bowl games in NYC in January.

— Kyle Meinke (@kmeinke) May 16, 2012

Finally, Ace from mgoblog:

What's really remarkable is that the Big Ten is so brazen in its hypocricy that these ideas are presented within mere minutes of each other. The sooner the bowl system dies a fiery (icy?) death, at least when it comes to determining a national champion, the better.

The Big Ten Conference: cannibalizing its own interests for the sake of a meaningless exhibition game for almost 100 years. How Jim Delany can go from outmaneuvering Mark Shapiro and creating the Big Ten Network to falling helplessly in love with the Rose Bowl when every shred of common sense says it is time to give the Big Ten an advantage in the postseason is mind blowing. There must be two Jim Delanys. Or maybe he has an evil twin? Did anyone check the most recent Jim for a goatee?

[Update: 10:45]

You want more? Drew Sharp thinks the Big Ten SHOULD HAVE caved on home site semi-finals. Sorry Jim, if Drew Sharp is agreeing with you, you really need to rethink your position.

Links? Links:

Michigan expects to continue using special uniforms - Ok, so I'm fine with this because I realize that special uniforms are a great marketing tool (Marketing!) and that recruits love them. On top of that it isn't like this is any threat that Michigan is going to go full Oregon (I do like Oregon's uniforms, just not for a team like Michigan that doesn't need to manufacture its own tradition in such a way). But please, for the love of god, kill whoever designed the away uniforms that the team wore at Michigan State last season. Woof.

Scout 300 for 2013 updated - Touch the Banner has the roundup of who moved where on Scout's latest update. Most of Michigan's commits stayed at or close to the old ranks, but Wyatt Shallman was the big dropper while Cass Tech players Jourdan Lewis and David Dawson both saw big jumps.

Spring breakout players in the Big Ten - Walk-on offensive lineman alert.

Class of 2012 Big Ten Recruiting Rankings: May 16th, 2012 - UMHoops ranks the Big Ten's 2012 recruiting classes.

Michigan to spend $250 million to upgrade facilities for non-revenue sports

"We’ve really taken our entire campus footprint and said, ‘What do we need to do to get all of our facilities lifted to a point where we really feel we would be competitive with any other campus location for a national tournament,’' said Brandon, in Chicago for the Big Ten's annual spring meetings. "So, our standard would be to have facilities in every sport that would make us eligible as a site for regional or national competition."

A Day In The Life of Dennis Norfleet and OTHER STUFF

I also think the whole "we can't recruit skill positions well" stuff is garbage. Scout has Deveon Smith as the 53rd ranked player in the country. Wyatt Shallman is a four-star recruit across the board. As far as missing on Isaac goes, USC will always have that allure. Sanctions or without sanctions. With Kiffin or without Kiffin. As long as there's at least some level of competency permeating from the Coliseum, USC is going to be a tough head-to-head recruiting matchup with any school. People should know this.

Maurice Hurst Jr. Update (Part 2) - Tremendous with two very good posts (including the one above). It seems that Maurice Hurst Jr. is not only serious, but a solid candidate to break out on the national recruiting scene. Meanwhile, Tremendous is another to say "keep calm" in the wake of Isaac's commitment to USC.

Michigan Museday Meets Michigan Replay, Part 1

Michigan Replay ran from 1975 through 2008, beginning on Channel 7, moving to 4, and then back to 7 before ending up at Fox. The Sunday show spanned three coaches, two hosts, and six athletic directors. In some ways it was the spiritual predecessor to MGoBlog, in that its calling card was picking apart the plays from a wide angle, and using the latest available medium—television—to bring fans closer to the program than they'd ever been before. Many people made the show what it was—from the coaches who finished their game days with after-midnight taping sessions an hour's drive away from their wives and beds, to the humble Jim Brandstatter, to the camera guys and crew like Pierre Woods and MGoReader Mike Berens.

If you have any attachment to Michigan Replay at all, you are going to want to read this. Phenomenal work by Seth at mgoblog.

Each Wednesday, up through August, I’ll cover a different Big Ten team or Michigan non-conference opponent. This week, I’m covering the Minnesota Golden Gophers, who Michigan will battle for the 93^rd meeting of the Little Brown Jug.

To see all of our football previews, click here.

2012 Minnesota Golden Gophers Football Preview

2011 Record: 3-9 (2-6 Big Ten)

Head Coach: Jerry Kill, second season (3-9 at Minnesota) (130-82 overall)

Projected Returning Starters: 13

Spring Game: April 21^st (Maroon 3 Gold 0)

Notes: The Gophers haven’t been to the post-season since 2009, and haven’t been a consistent team since the Glen Mason era, which ended at the conclusion of the 2006 season. Minnesota has only finished above fifth, once, in the 2000s. Jerry Kill enters his second season at Minnesota, but Kill has a large amount of coaching experience, most of which is outside of the FBS level. The most important thing for Kill, right now, is to make sure he has his health under control, as he missed a few games last season.

BVTSB Take: Entering the 2011 season, Minnesota was largely considered to be tone of the worst Big Ten team, if not the worst. And that statement would be tough to argue with, especially after Minnesota’s drubbing at the hands of Michigan, to the tune of a 58-0 beatdown. Two more blowouts ensued, in losses to Purdue and Nebraska, but Minnesota was competitive in their final five games, with wins over Iowa and Illinois and a close loss to Michigan State. Minnesota was 2-3 in games decided by seven points or less in 2011. Starting quarterback MarQueis Gray, a wide receiver convert, returns this season, as does backup Max Shortell, who saw significant time last season. The Gophers return third leading rusher Donnell Kirkwood, but lose Duane Bennett to graduation. Receivers Brandon Green and Malcolm Moulton will need to step up this season, with the loss of Da’Jon McKnight to graduation. Minnesota struggled a lot on defense last season. Experience in the secondary will help, as the Gophers secondary was riddled with inexperience and injuries last season. The non-conference schedule is more forgiving, too. The Gophers open with games against UNLV, New Hampshire, Western Michigan, and Syracuse; the Gophers could very well win 3-4 of their non-conference games. If the Gophers win their first four, they could be looking at a post-season berth. For now, though, I’ll be conservative and say the Gophers improve on their 2011 win total in 2012.

2012 Early Projection: 4-8

To see the 2012 Big Ten composite schedule, click here.

What are your thoughts on Minnesota football? Tweet to us @BVTSB.