2021 Schedule
- Thread starter cats2017
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In 1986. A pretty awful NU team beat Princeton 37-0.
Playing Ivy League teams would be pointless and dumb if it weren’t impossible, as the Ivies changed their rules and don’t play P5 teams.
Yeah but it was important enough that NU sent the NUMB to Palmer Stadium for that game
Happy those days are behind the program.
They were supposed to play Princeton at Dyche Stadium the following year and Princeton cancelled the game. I can't remember another Big Ten-Ivy League game being played since the 50s.
Well, the good news is that it is a close game for me. I already have my hotel in Durham reserved.
The 1986 team was more ill-fated than awful, suffering from not knowing how to win as well as lack of depth. It finished 4-7, but let 2 or maybe 3 wins trickle through its fingers. Leading with seconds to go against Purdue, it had a punt blocked, setting up a field goal to lose. Against an eventual 9-3 Iowa team at Iowa City, leading late in the third quarter, they fumbled in their own end zone, leading to a 7 point loss. Against Duke, they had 6 drives within the Duke 35 that produced 0 points, losing by 9. They also jumped out to a 17 point lead at Minnesota, gave up a TD on a kickoff return at the end of the 1st half and collapsed in the third quarter.
The ‘86 team was largely Dennis Green’s recruits, and you have to wonder whether it would have posted the Cats’ first post-streak winning season if he had not left for Stanford.
Not that I’m aware of. For example, Harvard basketball has already beaten Texas A&M and Cal this year, lost to Maryland and USC.
Wouldn't think so, as football is the only D1 separated between FBS and FCS. Really doesn't make sense in any of the other sports, as the basketball champ is probably going to be seeded against a P5 in the NCAA Tournament, for example. Meanwhile, Princeton's path never has to cross with Alabama's, and I don't see the Ivies needing the guarantee games LOL.
Ivy League in basketball is a normal D1 league with an automatic NCAA tournament bid. They can schedule anybody.
Football is just a different animal given the fact that it's a game with a lot of physical punishment as the teams collide.
It makes no sense to have teams that are at completely different levels of athletics compete in football. We'd beat a random Ivy team by 6 or 7 TDs before the 4th quarter. No reason to even play a game where they'd take that kind of physical punishment.
The level of athleticism is just too different. Most Ivy football recruits aren't rated; some can probably play at the Group of 5 level... and maybe there's a rare star hidden away there, but you're not going to find many Power 5 level players there.
Football is just a different animal given the fact that it's a game with a lot of physical punishment as the teams collide.
It makes no sense to have teams that are at completely different levels of athletics compete in football. We'd beat a random Ivy team by 6 or 7 TDs before the 4th quarter. No reason to even play a game where they'd take that kind of physical punishment.
The level of athleticism is just too different. Most Ivy football recruits aren't rated; some can probably play at the Group of 5 level... and maybe there's a rare star hidden away there, but you're not going to find many Power 5 level players there.
I agree with your point. So why is NU playing Indiana State this season?
I meant from NU's perspective. It will cost them mucho money to buy a win, they should really schedule an FBS team. No upside to beating InSU, huge downside if they lose (see ISU.....)
I was thinking the same. Actually why do a bunch of these powerhouse programs, including the like of Alabama, Georgia, OSU and Michigan play these type of small schools. Pad their records?
The biggest schools do it to guarantee themselves 7 home games for revenue purposes.
For a school with 100k home seats, you don't want all your non-conference games to be home-away because those home games generate several million revenue each.
Have to have one slot guaranteed as a home game every year. Some schools do 2.
Ohio State has gone as far as paying Power 5 teams for 1 off home games. Those are big money for opponents while guaranteeing OSU that huge gate revenue. Most Power 5 teams won't agree to that but if you're a Colorado struggling to balance your books, maybe you take it.
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I get that we've lost some of those games, but that's no reason not to schedule them.
You do need a "95-97% likely win" buy game in there given we're playing 9 Big Ten games now.
A MAC game is more like a "85-90% likely win" buy game.
Of course that just makes the losses stand out more.
But I don't have a problem with it. Our 2021 schedule sets up really nicely if we can get our offense to gel quickly and take care of business against what looks like 4-6 early games where we should be favorites in every game.
If you want to look at similar example, look at Wisconsin's non-conference scheduling the previous 10-15 years. They "scheduled for success", and it worked. If we have a big run of years where we can win 10-11 games most years, easy non-conference can help make the difference between getting NY6 bids or not.
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I broadcasted that Princeton game for wnur.
The game was scheduled because if historians on here recall, the president was trying to engineer a move to the Ivy League in the 70’s.
also of note for that game
Princeton had the Garrett brothers. Jason at qb and dean cain at linebacker.
The game was scheduled because if historians on here recall, the president was trying to engineer a move to the Ivy League in the 70’s.
also of note for that game
Princeton had the Garrett brothers. Jason at qb and dean cain at linebacker.
There were 21 Ivy League players in the NFL at the start of the 2021 season. While there may be an athletic difference across the board it would not be accurate to say there aren’t good players in the Ivy.
I mean, with all due respect to the Ivies and their athletes, there were 17 NU players alone “in the NFL” this year, let alone all of the other schools. It’s just a different thing entirely.
I think you'll find at least a bunch at any Ivy that can make the cut to play in a Group of 5 school. And you'll probably find at least maybe 1-2 older players per squad that can play at the Power 5 level. And yeah I'd expect some across the Ivies to make it to the NFL.
But when you talk about "team athleticism", it's just not the same game. Been that way for decades but the differences get bigger and bigger.
We played at Princeton under Peay and won 37-0. We had Dartmouth scheduled for the next season, but after a below average NU team won by that margin, Dartmouth and other Ivies canceled their games with us. Sorry, just GCG's post. Redundant on my part.
It really is, speaks to great player development and those guys hustling like hell. Always admire the guys that take a different path.
Hard as heck in a sport like football.
Pretty remarkable too for Harvard to have that kind of production of TEs alone too.
Ivies don't have spring practices either. Another reason they have stopped playing FBS schools and I think they only play nine game schedules. It's a different brand of football. They still have SOME really good players, but not enough to be competitive any more with FBS teams.
Agreed. Except for a few rare individuals, the talent gap between P5 and the Ivy League is immense. I can think of two guys who transferred from NU to the Ivies and became instant stars there - Gavin Hoffman (Penn) and Clifton Dawson (Harvard). Both set records at their respective schools, if I recall correctly.
On the field, we should aspire for dOSU to be our chief rival. We should red letter dOSU like we did Iowa. Once we start beating them consistently, we will know we have arrived. Reached the next level for the program. If only they were on our schedule every year. Well, we can only do our part and get to Indianapolis and hope they get there too.
I can't hear Princeton without thinking of this.
Flintstone of Prinstone
"Flintstone of Prinstone" is the eighth episode of the second season and the thirty-sixth overall episode of the original series, The Flintstones. It aired on November 3, 1961. Fred decides to go to night school to enhance his job prospects, but he is forced into the school's American football...
Same as how I hear Toreador or Habañera and think of Gilligan's island
NU? Since when did Nebraska become Nebraska University??? Especially on this Board!
By that standard, no one in the Big Ten "has arrived" for quite some time.
Denny Green did not leave NU to coach at Stanford. He left to be a position coach under Walsh for the 49ers. That's how crappy a job NU was back then. He became Stanford HC in '89.
Brate is from the Chicago area. Looks like a 2-star that we never recruited.
Details.....GCG is really on top of his hoops! He is only off by one year.....
Unless NCAA rules have changed recently, even if the Ivies changed their rules back it would be pointless and dumb. The Ivies don't compete in the FCS playoffs, and that means a game against them wouldn't count toward bowl eligibility for us.
We would play them nearly every year if we played even more conf games and fewer games against FCS and Duke. I used to enjoy the non-con games but am mostly over it.
