Big Ten non-conference schedules a joke; MSU included

What do Illinois State, Eastern Kentucky, Northern Iowa, Delaware State, Montana State, South Dakota State, Towson, Eastern Illinois, Wofford, and New Mexico State all have in common?

First, none of those schools is part of the “Football Bowl Subdivision” or FBS if you prefer, which is a convoluted way of referring to Division 1 football teams in the college game today.

Second, all of those schools are coming to a Big Ten stadium near you.

Let the excitement begin. And yes, my sarcasm is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Or a chainsaw.

When the Spartans hit the field for first time this season, the home crowd will be fired up for another season. They will get to their tailgates early, basking in the late summer sunshine and gearing up for the, um, whatever mascot Montana State has (for the record it’s the Bobcats).

Nothing against Montana State. I’ve been to Montana. I even stayed overnight in Butte before. Large state. Great mountains and terrain. You can drive to Yellowstone from within a few hours or less from anywhere in the state. But I don’t want to see their football team come to East Lansing. And neither do you.

But that is the college football world we live in today. In addition to the 10 games against non-FBS teams that Big Ten schools are collectively playing this year, there are 14 games against Mid-American Conference teams, and three combined games against Syracuse, which is far worse than most MAC teams. In fact Syracuse probably needs a full-time secretary just to handle the barrage of calls from FBS athletic directors wanting to schedule the Orange each fall.

I thought (hoped) the Spartans were better than this. I don’t think it is too much to ask for Spartan season-ticket holders to get one highlight non-conference home game each year for their hard-earned money. Look Central Michigan and Western Michigan have good teams and they are in-state schools. But there is no upside for MSU in scheduling those two home games AND the Bobcats this year. How can Spartan fans get fired up about the home non-conference schedule?

At the end of the day if you don’t win the Big Ten or go to a BCS game, any bowl game really isn’t anything more than a glorified exhibition. I could care less whether the Spartans go 9-3 and go to the Capital One Bowl or 8-4 and go to the Alamo Bowl. If that fourth loss was an exciting defeat to Florida State or West Virginia that would be better to me than a snoozer of a win over Wyoming Tech Junior College.

But of course college football is about money. Athletic directors think that going 6-6 with a win over three or four non-conference creampuffs and playing in the Wannabe Bowl on December 20 is better than going 4-8, playing tough squads and building your program for better things in the future.

If the NCAA wanted to get away from these horrible non-conference games, they could simply allow teams that don’t qualify for bowl games to be allowed to practice or prepare for next year until late December or January 1. But the NCAA wants to make money and it is just too easy to allow such ludicrous matchups to occur.

So I’ll be the one to say it. Shame on your Mark Hollis and MSU for scheduling Montana State instead of someone like Oklahoma State (I do realize it takes two teams to tangle but still). At the very least schedule a fourth FBS team instead of a non-MAC “directional” school. There's about 110 of them that aren't in the Big Ten. Of course MSU is just following the trend that the rest of the Big Ten, and the BCS schools, have set in motion for many years.

After all it’s always easier to be a sheep.

With that said, here are my three toughest and three weakest non-conference schedules for Big Ten teams this year. And believe me “toughest” is a relative term.

Toughest:

Illinois: (Missouri on a neutral field, Illinois State, at Cincinnati, Fresno State)

Purdue: (Toledo, at Oregon, Northern Illinois, Notre Dame)

Ohio State: (Navy, USC, Toledo at neutral site, New Mexico State)

I give Illinois some credit. Missouri and Cincinnati likely will both be down from last year, but those are two intriguing games. Fresno State was pretty bad last year but they are a name school. Purdue is the only Big Ten team that plays only FBS teams and the Oregon and Notre Dame games are respectable. Ohio State only has one interesting game, but it is a pretty darn big one.

Weakest:

Penn State: (Akron, Syracuse, Temple, Eastern Illinois)

Northwestern: (Towson, Eastern Michigan, at Syracuse, Miami Ohio)

Michigan: (Western Michigan, Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan, Delaware State)

Pick an adjective to describe Penn State’s schedule: laughable, embarrassing, disgraceful, etc. They all fit. Oh and the Nittany Lions and the Wolverines don’t have any non-conference road games. Apparently Duke is getting too good for the Wildcats to schedule anymore. And the only reason the Spartans aren’t tied with the Wolverines here is because Central Michigan is much better than Eastern. Heck even Indiana plays at Virginia this year and Wisconsin travels to the one-sided officiating capital of the world in Hawaii.