Tag / IU

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2023 Final Standings

The 2023 college football season, and Danny’s marching band career, came to an end yesterday, after Purdue squeaked past the Hoosiers 35-31.  After winning the Big Ten West last season and making a New Year’s Day bowl game, this year’s 4-8 finish was a bit of a disappointment.  Yesterday’s game brought my total for the year to six games, a new high point.

2023 Team Records

University Won Loss Winning Pctg
Wisconsin Badgers 1 0 1.000
Syracuse Orange 1 0 1.000
Purdue Boilermakers 3 2 0.600
Minnesota Golden Gophers 0 1 0.000
Indiana Hoosiers 0 1 0.000
Illinois Fighting Illini 0 1 0.000
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College Basketball Tipoff

The men’s Purdue Boilermakers kicked off the 2023-2024 season last night, the 126th in school history, so let’s take a look at the results of the now 20 men’s college basketball games I have attended in my lifetime. You’d think it would be more, since I was a big fan and we had a great team while I was in school, but for some reason I only made it to two games while enrolled in college. The other 18 have been post-graduation, with the latest three coming last season thanks to a trip to Bloomington and the Big Ten Tournament being at the United Center.  Anyway, without further ado, here are the standings for those 20 games.

All-Time Team Records – Men

Team Won Loss Winning Pctg
Virginia Commonwealth Rams 1 0 1.000
North Texas Mean Green 1 0 1.000
Indiana Hoosiers 1 0 1.000
Butler Bulldogs 1 0 1.000
Purdue Boilermakers 12 7 0.631578947368421
Northwestern Wildcats 2 3 0.400
Illinois Fighting Illini 2 3 0.400
Vermont Catamounts 0 1 0.000
Penn State Nittany Lions 0 1 0.000
Ohio State Buckeyes 0 1 0.000
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders 0 1 0.000
Long Beach State 49ers 0 1 0.000
Iowa State Cyclones 0 1 0.000
Houston Cougars 0 1 0.000
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Let’s Try This Again

This past June, the Big Ten introduced their “Flex Protect Plus” model, integrating USC and UCLA into the football schedule and having each school play nine conference games each season, facing every other conference opponent at least twice, home and away, in a four-year period.  That lasted about two months before it was announced that Washington and Oregon would also be joining the conference, sending planners back to the drawing board.

Last week, the conference announced their updated “Flex Protect XVIII” model, which, again, features protected rivalry opponents that will be played on an annual basis while ensuring schools will play every other conference school at least twice, home and away, but no more than three times in a five-year period.  The Big Ten Championship game will feature the top two teams in the conference standings, with tie breakers still to be determined.

So, once again, what does this mean for Purdue?  First off, they will continue to have two protected rivalries to be played every season: Illinois and, of course, Indiana.  The revised schedule now has them hosting Oregon in 2024, facing USC at home and Washington on the road in 2025, hosting Washington and travelling to UCLA in 2026, their first appearance in Pasadena since the 2001 Rose Bowl, facing UCLA at home and Oregon on the road in 2027, and, finally, travelling to Los Angeles to face USC in 2028.

Will we actually get through all five seasons before the next round of conference musical chairs takes place?  It seems unlikely, but this is the plan in place for now.  With Danny poised to graduate this spring, this will give me some motivation to continue going to the occasional game to see new opponents.

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2023 College Football Kickoff

My alma mater, the Purdue Boilermakers, kick off their 2023 gridiron campaign today, starting a new era with new coach Ryan Walters hoping to continue the momentum that led the team to the Big Ten Championship game last December.  With Danny entering his final year in the marching band and the family having season tickets for the first time, I’m sure to make it back to campus for more than my usual allotment of games this year after tying my career high with three games last year.  With that, it’s time to take a look at the results of the now 27 college football games I have attended since the 1993 season, covering six different stadiums in a whopping three states, including one bowl game.

All-Time Team Records

Expr1000 Won Loss Winning Pctg
Penn State Nittany Lions 2 0 1.000
Ohio State Buckeyes 1 0 1.000
Louisiana State Tigers 1 0 1.000
Notre Dame Fighting Irish 4 1 0.800
Purdue Boilermakers 16 9 0.640
Northern Illinois Huskies 1 1 0.500
Illinois Fighting Illini 2 6 0.250
Western Michigan Broncos 0 1 0.000
Northwestern Wildcats 0 3 0.000
North Carolina State Wolfpack 0 1 0.000
Michigan State Spartans 0 1 0.000
Michigan Wolverines 0 1 0.000
Indiana Hoosiers 0 2 0.000
Florida Atlantic Owls 0 1 0.000
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Future Football On The West Coast

The Big Ten dropped their 2024 and 2025 football schedules yesterday, the first to include UCLA and USC.  With sixteen teams, the conference is abandoning its divisional format and moving to a “Flex Protect Plus” model, where each school will play nine conference games each season and will play every other conference opponent at least twice, home and away, in a four-year period.  In addition, there are eleven protected matchups that will be played annually, featuring a combination of historic and geographic rivalries along with trophy games.  The Big Ten Championship game will feature the top two teams in the conference standings, with tie breakers to be determined.

So, what does this mean for Purdue?  First off, they will have two protected rivalries to be played every season: Illinois and, of course, Indiana.  They will face USC at home in 2024, their first visit to West Lafayette since 1976.  UCLA makes their first appearance on the schedule in 2025, where Purdue will make their first appearance in Los Angeles since the 2001 Rose Bowl.  Over the course of the two seasons, Purdue will play every other Big Ten team at least once.

Unfortunately, Danny will be out of school before any of this takes effect.  Maybe we can look at that 2025 UCLA trip as a chance to meet up.  I know of a pretty good breakfast place that I think he would like.

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Running It Back

Last month, after winning nearly every accolade available this past season, Zach Edey announced that he was entering the NBA draft while maintaining his college eligibility.  Tonight, he announced he was returning to Purdue for his senior year.  The 7’4″ center has very little left to prove in college basketball, at least in the regular season.  I assume avenging March’s loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, not to mention dropping both meetings with IU, will fuel his game for the upcoming campaign.

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How Sweet It Is

The Sweet Sixteen kicks off today following an opening weekend with upsets galore, completely wrecking my bracket.  Half of my Final Four was wiped out, including my champion.  Ugh.

This region is a wreck, with only one team remaining in the Sweet Sixteen, and that team I had losing in this round, so this one was a dud.

Things look much better on this side of the bracket, as the only Sweet Sixteen team I had that didn’t make it is IU and, honestly, I’m ok with that.

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2022-2023 Final Standings

Purdue’s season came to an unexpected early end last night, as they became just the second #1 seed in the history of the men’s NCAA Tournament to lose to a #16 seed.  Thanks to last week’s Big Ten Tournament, I made it to three men’s basketball games this season and one women’s game.

2022-2023 Team Records – Men

TeamName Won Loss Winning Pctg
Indiana Hoosiers 1 0 1.000
Purdue Boilermakers 2 1 0.667
Penn State Nittany Lions 0 1 0.000
Ohio State Buckeyes 0 1 0.000

2022-2023 Team Records – Women

TeamName Won Loss Winning Pctg
Indiana Hoosiers 1 0 1.000
Purdue Boilermakers 0 1 0.000
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It’s Time To Go Dancing

The nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next few weeks as the NCAA tournament kicks off later today.  I’m not in any pools this year, so most of these selections have no ultimate bearing on my life, aside from personal pride.  I do happen to have a hotel room booked for Houston for Final Four weekend just in case, so fingers crossed.  So, without further ado, let’s take a look at this year’s selections.

Alabama enters the tournament under a cloud of scandal, as their star player was recently involved in the murder of a young woman.  Because of that, I have second seed Arizona going to the Final Four.

Fun fact: the first college basketball game I ever attended was Purdue versus Houston at Market Square Arena back in 1993.  Both teams are top seeds in this tournament.  It pains me to have Indiana going as far as I do, but they were a formidable opponent this year, so I see them giving the field a run for their money.  In the end, though, I have Xavier going on to Houston.

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25 Rings

What was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Purdue men’s basketball team, following the loss of Jaden Ivey, Trevion Williams, Eric Hunter, Sasha Stefanovic, and Isaiah Thompson, turned into the program’s 25th Big Ten Conference championship.  Matt Painter and company last won a share of the conference title in 2019 and last won it outright in 2017.

Their 25 titles are the most amongst all Big Ten schools.  Indiana, of course, is second with 22 championships.  After closing out the regular season against Illinois tomorrow in West Lafayette, Purdue comes to Chicago next week as the #1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament at the United Center.  A deep run should guarantee them a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament as they try to reach the Final Four for the first time since 1980.