Because the 2015 Big Ten football schedule is out and it still looks like a 1994 Big Ten football schedule for Purdue, if Purdue had had the balls to schedule a non-con game with Nebraska. (Which they did not. Thank goodness.)
We noted Rutgers' tough-looking go of a first season in the Big Ten in 2014 last week, but 2015 looks to be doing them no favors, either. Again, obviously no Big Ten season is every easy, per se, so what you need to look for to make these determinations is those brutal stretches. Those packs of games where a precious month goes by and you feel like you've just tried to cross West State Street at 1:15 AM while people are careening past the Chauncy mall. (That's what you get at this blog -- local flavor!)
Your head is kind of spinning and you have no idea what just happened, but you know your helmet is on crooked and your bones hurt. RU has that sort of stretch again in 2015, as from 10/24 to 11/14 they go:
vs OSU
@ Wisc
@ Michigan
vs Nebraska
Fun times! We know it all too well.
Purdue, though, as I mentioned, continues to be like the youngest child in a family of 14 kids. We don't get to play with any of the new things until everyone else has had a turn. So far, no Rutgers and no Maryland until at least 2016. I don't suppose that really matters to anyone.
In 2015, the Boilers will go @ MSU, vs Minn, @ Wisc, vs Neb, vs Ill, @ Northwestern, @ Iowa, vs IU. Their non-con games will be @ Marshall, vs Indiana State, vs ND and vs Bowling Green.