As everyone gets more excited about talking about the possibility of an upcoming season, it is time to look ahead to what this season may look like.

The Big Ten is ahead of the curve compared to many of the Power Five leagues in its scheduling principles, granted you may also think that the Big Ten is putting its member schools at a disadvantage with these moves.

Nine league games, no Division I-FCS opponents (though there have been a few outliers due to some unforeseen circumstances) all allow Big Ten teams to have just three non-conference games with the majority of the slots during the season already spoken for.

The Big Ten went 34-8 in its non-conference regular season schedule in 2019 with only one team losing more non-conference games than it won, with Purdue dropping games to Nevada and TCU in the first three weeks of the season.

Seven Big Ten teams went a perfect 3-0 in their non-conference schedules, but not all non-conference schedules are built the same way.

Fast forward to this year and the same could be said as there are varying levels of non-conference opponents on each of the Big Ten schedules.

We are focusing now on three games that we can’t wait to see in the non-conference for the Big Ten and three games that we wish we could just fast-forward through.

Ohio State at Oregon – Obviously this one tops our list for a lot of reasons. The Buckeyes are a perfect 9-0 against the Oregon Ducks and have only played the one time in Eugene (Ore.), and for those historians out there, that game was in 1967.

We will believe that this game will take place, once it takes place. Things are trending in the right direction, but we are taking nothing for granted.

How will a second year starting Justin Fields fare against a really good Oregon defense? How will Oregon bounce back after losing Justin Herbert at quarterback, and where will the offense come from?

Autzen Stadium is supposed to be one of the loudest stadiums in America but there really is not a scenario that we see where the stadium is full, so the homefield advantage takes a bit of a hit with few to no fans likely in attendance, if this game goes off as planned.

But it does not change the fact that the Buckeyes will have to fly across the country, stay in hotels that they have never been in before, be in a locker room that is unfamiliar with them, and really make the first road trip of the season under different “rules” when it comes to how mass gatherings and football in general will operate.

Throw in that Oregon is a top-10 caliber team and this game should present a strong challenge to the Buckeyes. Ohio State ‘should’ win this game, but we know that is not always how things work out, so this is far and away the non-conference game in the B1G that will draw the most attention.

Michigan at Washington – The Wolverines will face a lot of the same challenges that the Buckeyes will when it comes to having to fly cross country, deal with the challenges of a road game, but this one is even earlier as a week one game. Michigan won’t have the benefit of a tune-up game before this to see what they have with a lot of key players moving on, including quarterback Shea Patterson.

These teams have played 12 times in the past and Michigan holds a 7-5 edge in the series with Michigan winning the most recent match-up in Ann Arbor (Mich.) in 2002, 31-29. These two teams have played in Seattle a total of four times and the series has been split 2-2 but the Huskies have won the last two.

The Wolverines have had all offseason to think about the 56 points they gave up to Ohio State and the 35 that were given up to Alabama in the Citrus Bowl. It will be a second year under OC Josh Gattis, but there will be a lot of new pieces to work with. The Michigan running game should get a shot in the arm in welcoming back Chris Evans at running back. The Michigan running game rushed for fewer yards than JK Dobbins did on an individual basis for the Buckeyes over the 2019 season. A one-two punch of Evans and Zach Charbonnet should help the Wolverines find a little more success on the ground.

Washington is coming off of an 8-5 season but will have to deal with a change at the head coaching position as Chris Petersen stepped down after last season and was replaced by an internal hire of Jimmy Lake.

Washington will also have to worry about replacing a starting quarterback with Jacob Eason moving on and with leading rusher Salvon Ahmed now off to the NFL, the Huskies have more questions to answer than Michigan does.

Wisconsin vs Notre Dame – Despite having zero desire to join the Big Ten, Notre Dame will always play at least one team from the conference and this season it will be Wisconsin in an early-October game.

These two teams have played 16 times already with the Fighting Irish holding an 8-6-2 edge in the series. These teams have not played since 1964, a 31-7 Notre Dame win in Madison (Wis.). 10 of the previous games in this series took place before World War II, meaning that what was once a semi-regular series went away a very long time ago.

It is blatantly obvious that the biggest loss for the Badgers will be running back Jonathan Taylor and his 2,003 yards. Granted, Wisconsin seems to just churn out 1,800-yard backs and will be interesting to see who steps into that role this year or if the Badgers look to go to the air a little bit more with Jack Coan and Graham Mertz both vying for that starting quarterback position.

Both teams will be well thought of going into this game, both should be top-15 type of teams going into the preseason and this game will have the big game feel that everyone has been craving.

Ian Book will be back for the Fighting Irish at quarterback, good or bad news depending on how you view Book, a player that has a bit of a polarizing force around him. He will be protected by an intact offensive line and there is no disputing that the Fighting Irish do a good job of developing linemen in front of them.

Wisconsin will travel to Michigan the week before this game, so this is a big ask in back-to-back games. Notre Dame on the other hand will play a very manageable schedule in advance of this and will have Wake Forest at home the week before.

Rutgers vs. Monmouth – Okay, Monmouth (the Hawks for those who are asking) took first place in the Big South last season, but we are not talking about a Division 1-FBS opponent here. With Rutgers, you just never know what you are going to get and this is going to be the day that new/old coach Greg Schiano finds out what he has to work with.

Rutgers has to win this game, the Scarlet Knights can’t screw around in this one the way that they did against Liberty last season. Sure, Rutgers did win the game by 10 points and Liberty is a Division 1-FBS team, but the point still stands, if Schiano is going to get any buy-in both from his team and from area recruits, this is a critical game for this program.

For the rest of us?

I won’t be seeking out highlights of this one.

Minnesota vs. Tennessee Tech – When I tried to click on the Tennessee Tech page on ESPN I was given a “Page not found.” message, and I am not even kidding.

The Golden Eagles (since we know you are asking who they are) are part of the Ohio Valley Conference and also participate in Division I-FCS (where are these teams getting these lower classification teams from?). Last season the Golden Eagles were 6-6 overall and 3-5 in the OVC, hardly a world-beater in a league where Austin Peay put up 11 wins.

As for the Gophers, this game will come off the heels of an opener against Florida Atlantic, but Lane Kiffin won’t be on the sidelines as he has taken the Ole Miss job and FAU loses a couple of its top players. This game really has the chance of being a snoozer and should be relegated to BTN-7.

Illinois vs. Illinois State – Look, Illinois bouncing back to 6-7 last season with a big win over Wisconsin was a pretty big deal. People were ready to write of Lovie Smith in the major way, and the beard of knowledge got his team to a bowl game and while they were unable to beat Cal in the Redbox Bowl, it was still a tremendous story.

The Redbirds (might as well name them all) took 3rd in the Missouri Valley last season and are a pretty good team. Illinois State made it into the 3rd round of the playoffs in Division I-FCS before falling to North Dakota State, the No. 1 seed of the whole thing, in a 9-3 contest. North Dakota State would go on to win the whole thing.

So, is Illinois going to be better or worse than last year? Time will tell. This game won’t tell us much, no matter how good Illinois State is for an FCS team.