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NIU has announced a flurry of future scheduling updates this week call "Schedulepalooza." I thought it was a great idea because as a fan, I am always interested in future schedules. This helps keep fans informed of future series and certainly creates some excitement. Just this week alone NIU has announced home-and-home series with Maryland, Utah, BYU and San Diego State. Hats off to NIU! Those are all great series to get home-and-homes with IMO.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... ome-series" target="_blank

Maryland and Northern Illinois have scheduled a home-and-home series in 2020 and 2021, a source told ESPN's Brett McMurphy.

The 2020 game will be at Maryland, the 2021 game at NIU. The 2021 contest will mark the first time the Huskies have hosted a Big Ten opponent in DeKalb, Illinois.

The addition of a home-and-home series with Maryland is the latest in recent scheduling upgrades by NIU.

Earlier this week, NIU announced home-and-home series with San Diego State (2016-17), Utah (2018-19) and BYU (2018 and 2020).

Maryland and NIU have met three times. The Huskies' only win in the series was one of the biggest victories in school history: a 20-13 upset of No. 15-ranked Maryland in 2003. Three weeks later, NIU beat Alabama 19-16 in Tuscaloosa, earning the Huskies' first Associated Press ranking in school history.

IMO all MAC schools should be trying to schedule as many of these games as they possibly can right now.

NIU doing this has me itching for some BG scheduling news, especially since we have one home game (sadly expect an FCS) to fill for next year and two for 2017

It'll be interesting to see how future scheduling shakes out after a couple years of the playoff format. I have a feeling that the higher regarded G5 schools should be able to draw some decent P5 schools as strength of schedule will be a factor. If BG can continue their success I imagine some well-respected P5 schools will come calling.

Good that they could swing home-and-homes but Maryland, Utah, BYU and SDSU seem pretty dull and not exactly thrilling for the fan base.

Somehow Buffalo managed to get Baylor at home this year which was huge for them. Of course, they cancelled it out by playing not one but 2 low-level 1-AA schools.

CMU has Oklahoma State coming to Mt. Pleasant next season as a part of a 2 for 1 that sees CMU travel to Okie State in 2016 and 2018

I'm guessing Buffalo got that home and home scheduled when Baylor was no where near as good as they now are, was trying to find a story on the series being set up but couldn't

mscarn wrote:Good that they could swing home-and-homes but Maryland, Utah, BYU and SDSU seem pretty dull and not exactly thrilling for the fan base.

I will respectfully disagree. Maryland is a big whatever school now, Utah is PAC 12 and BYU has a very solid history and program on the national level. SDSU is a solid name even if they aren't a powerhouse. Everyone who follows college ball knows about Utah's success in the last decade as well. These are excellent games for NIU to get in DeKalb. The one thing I wish BG could do is get bigger names at the Doyt. Boise State was big and Minnesota and Indiana are big whatever teams. But we haven't been able to get more games like these at home. There are some schools who will never come to BG and we know who they are. Our future home schedules need upgraded for non conf opponents in my opinion....

2015
Sept. 12 at Maryland
Sept. 19 MEMPHIS
Sept. 26 at Purdue

2016
Sept. 3 at Ohio State
Sept. 10 NORTH DAKOTA
Sept. 17 MIDDLE TENNESSEE
Sept. 24 at Memphis

2017
Sept. 9 at Indiana
Sept. 23 at Middle Tennessee

2018
Sept. 1 at Oregon
Sept. 8 MARYLAND
Sept. 22 at Louisiana Tech

2019
Aug. 31 at Maryland
Sept. 7 at Kansas State
Sept. 14 LOUISIANA TECH