On Monday, the Big Ten announced the conference football schedules for 2015 and 2016. The big news is that besides designated-rival Penn State, Nebraska will face Indiana and Wisconsin as the three games from the Big Ten's Eastern Division. (No, we're still not using "Leaders"; they are generally the eastern teams, so they are the Eastern Division.) Purdue and Illinois fall off the schedule, and Ohio State won't be seen again in a regular season game until 2017. Of course, conference realignment may make all of this a moot point, so don't make any travel plans based on this.

Looking that far in advance, it's really an exercise in futility to try and gauge schedule strength; the seniors on these teams either just signed their letter of intent or are still being recruited. A lot can change, and it's likely that many teams will have new coaching staffs by then. But gauging by past history, the cross-division games for the Western Division teams appear fairly balanced. Michigan draws Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio State; that has the potential to be tougher than Nebraska's draw. Michigan State draws Ohio State, Indiana, and Penn State; will Ohio State be better than Wisconsin by then? Buckeye fans hope so, but that's probably a wash. Iowa may get a bit of a break with Purdue, Illinois, and Penn State. Minnesota gets Purdue and both Ohio State and Wisconsin; that's probably a tough draw for the Gophers. On the basis of history, Northwestern looks to catch a break by drawing Purdue, Indiana, and Illinois.

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Good news for those of you who are waiting in line for Nebraska season tickets! You can pick up four Nebraska Cornhuskers football season tickets right now on eBay!

All yours for the price of $13,215!!!!

Now, I'm not a Nebraska season ticket holder, but it seems to me that if I were paying just over $3,300 apiece for a season ticket to anything, they'd better be damned good seats.

Fear not! They're great! Best in the stadium!

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Purdue won the regular season outright this week, but frankly, in pretty lousy fashion. They only needed to win a game, and that's what they did - one game against a pretty mediocre (being nice) Iowa squad - a pretty disappointing ending to a great regular season.

Maybe I'm being harsh on Purdue. And then again, maybe not.

Indiana, though, wow! Way to come out of nowhere to finish second when you weren't even on the radar at the beginning of the season.

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The SEC and Big XII stunned the college football world on Friday by announcing that they've reached an agreement to pair up their conference champions in a bowl game starting in 2014. Paired with the Rose Bowl and their agreement with the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences, these four conferences have now separated themselves from the ACC and Big East. Conference expansion may be ready to enter round three as Florida State is now considering jumping from the ACC to the Big 12. Suddenly the conference that everybody couldn't wait to abandon now is now the conference that everybody wants to join. That's the wacky world of conference realignment.

No doubt about it that this agreement raises the viability and visibility of the Big XII. Matching up the conference champions in a bowl game brings the Big XII prestige and a huge payday. The SEC is currently on top of the college football world, and when this bowl game goes out to bid, it'll command rights fees that will undoubtedly dwarf what the Rose Bowl pays. Yeah, there won't be the tradition of the Tournament of Roses parade, but the potential of matching up Oklahoma with LSU or Alabama in a bowl game automatically trumps what the Rose Bowl usually provides.

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via AP

A month or so has passed since the Spring Game that wasn’t came and went. At the time all anybody could talk about was the incredible recruiting weekend that it was for new Nebraska basketball coach Tim Miles, and it was. Never before had a coach brought in a collection of talent to visit our fair campus. Within a few days the fervor died down, but that doesn’t mean coach Miles did. Here’s a rundown of what’s happened since then:

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The Big Ten conference has released the bracket for the 2012 Big Ten baseball tournament. The tournament is a double elimination format featuring the top six teams of the conference and is being played at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio. (Warning: clicking on the Huntington Park link at this time will bring up a photo of REO Speedwagon trying to masquerade as twenty-somethings.)

Purdue earned the #1 seed after winning their first Ben Ten title since 1909. The Boilermakers finished with a 17-7 record and this is the first time in the history of the tournament that Purdue is the top seed. Indiana earned the #2 seed with a 16-8 record. Those two teams will earn a bye in the first round.

The next seeds in order are Penn State (15-9), Nebraska (14-10), Michigan State (13-11) and Ohio State (11-13). Ohio State tied with Minnesota and Illinois, but won the three-team tiebreaker.

The tourney will start Wednesday at 11:05 AM Central when Nebraska takes on Michigan State. The next game will start at approximately 2:35 PM Central as Ohio State takes on Penn State.

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The Big Ten Conference announced that the 2013 Big Ten Baseball Tournament will be held at Minneapolis' Target Field and the 2014 tournament will be held at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha. Both sites raised eyebrows from people who feel that both parks are too big for the Big Ten tournament. Based on past history, those critics may have a point. But I think those critics may be missing a signal from the Big Ten that baseball needs to be B1G-ger.

When Nebraska joined the Big Ten, baseball experts told us that irregardless of how much the move makes sense for football, it was a bad move for baseball. The Big Ten's track record in baseball has been horrid in recent years; it's tough for northern schools to compete when the southern schools don't have to wait for the ground to thaw to play home games. Other than the automatic bid the tournament champion receives, the Big Ten is a non-factor in the regionals. Only four Big Ten teams have advanced to the Super Regionals since 1999. And the College World Series? Not since 1984.

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Nebraska travels to Ann Arbor to take on the Michigan Wolverines in the Big Ten last conference series of the 2012 season. The Huskers will fight to see what seed they'll earn in the Big Ten tournament next week. That's assuming they don't get swept, of course.

The series will run from Thursday through Saturday this week, with the Thursday and Friday games starting at 5:05 pm, and the Saturday game starting at 12:05 pm. None of the games are televised, but will be streamed live on the Big Ten Digital Network (subscription required).

The Huskers are one game behind second place teams Indiana and Penn State, with a one-game lead over Ohio State and a two-game lead over Minnesota. Nebraska is currently tied with Michigan State.

Nebraska needs to win one game to secure a spot in the tourney.

Nebraska (32-20, 12-9 Big Ten) at Michigan (21-32, 7-14 Big Ten)

Thursday - 5:05 PM
Kyle Kubat, Fr., LHP (4-0) vs. Matt Ogden, Fr., RHP (3-3)

Friday - 5:05 PM
Ryan Hander, Jr. RHP (2-0) vs. Brandon Sinnery, Sr., RHP (4-5)

Saturday - 12:05 PM
TBA vs. Ben Ballantine, Jr., RHP (2-3)

This isn't much of a preview, but it is a spot for a game thread. NOW!