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Although I wouldn't mind seeing us branch out from the PU/MSU rut to schedule teams like Iowa and Wisconsin, Minnesota is attractive because they could provide the sort of scheduling backfill that would be more palatable than, say, Temple. Additionally, they have the new stadium as an added perk, not to mention a rather fruitful pipeline in recent years (Floyd, Harris, Carlson, etc) that might be rewarded and further enhanced by an ND visit.

I would be really pissed if Kevin White's blunders were held against us for too long.

I'd also be perfectly fine with a 1-1 series with Minnesota. You're right -- they're not the most suitable opponent for a neutral site game. In fact, the Big Ten teams that best fit that description are the two newbies -- Nebraska and Penn State. I could also see playing Ohio State somewhere like the Meadowlands or Florida, and Wisconsin in some warm weather locale (Wisconsin typically picks at least one road game per year as a travel destination for fans, ranging from Vegas to Fresno -- yes, Fresno).

Plus, a 1-1-1 is challenging to find a third site with some sort of geographic sense:

Chicago is fine relative to the two schools, but I hate the idea of off-site games in Chicago because we'd be playing 90 miles from campus in a smaller stadium for no good reason.

Milwaukee probably doesn't have an appropriate venue since County Stadium has been demolished.

Green Bay is tiny and in the middle of nowhere, although there is good history with ND and the Packers to tie in if we wanted to do that.

I can't even imagine UW letting Minnesota and ND come play at Camp Randall, though the fans might love to pack it just as an excuse to drink and to root against the Gophers (or both teams, really).

Winnipeg might be interesting, but if we're looking to play in Canada, I think Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, and Calgary would all be better options. The Blue Bombers stadium has seated ~50K for Grey Cups, but I don't think it really could hold that many any more.

1-1-1?

I think that's a bar in the West Village.

I thought that being part of the BTN was all rainbows and blowjobs. Never would have imagined that the affiliation might create entanglements where the desires of the individual take a backseat to "the greater good".

A two-game series between the Longhorns and Gophers has been scrapped due to TV rights issues. "The Texas game is no longer on our schedule due to a contract impasse concerning video rights," Maturi, who negotiated with the Longhorns "for months," said Tuesday via e-mail. "... We had an agreement. Unfortunately, with our commitments to the BTN [Big Ten Network], there were issues we could not come to agreement on."

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/99435274.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUo8cyaiUiD3aPc:_...