Big Ten Football at Marshall?

Last Week Chuck Landon of the Herald Dispatch reported that athletic director Mike Hamrick was on the verge or inking a 1 for 1 football contract with a Big Ten Conference team. “Hamrick also has completed a home-and-home football deal with a Big Ten school, according to sources.” Landon also reported that the Big Ten opponent was in driving distance from Huntington “And here's the best part. These non-conference games are all within driving range for Herd fans.” (http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/x300700424/Hamrick-is-swinging-for-the-fences)

So who can the opponent be? Through the process of elimination I think we can get a pretty good idea who the school is. The Big Ten has eleven football schools, Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Michigan State, Purdue, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. Landon said the opponent was in driving distance to Huntington so lets eliminate any school that is more than a nine hour car ride from Marshall. With that we are left with seven schools, Penn State (6 ½ hours), Ohio State (3 hours), Michigan State (8 ½ hours), Purdue (6 hours), Michigan (6 ½ hours), Illinois (7 hours), and Indiana (5 hours).

We can eliminate a few of those schools with simple logic. Penn State does not visit non-BCS conference teams. They hardly ever play away games against non-Big Ten opponents so you can eliminate the nittany lions. During the 2010 season we are visiting Ohio State for the second time on a one and done contract. I doubt the Buckeyes would be willing to visit Huntington after our previous two contracts so they are off the list. Much like Penn Sate Michigan does not play non-BCS schools on the road. Not to mention Rich Rodriguez never liked the idea of visiting Huntington so they are eliminated.

So now we are left with Michigan State, Purdue, Illinois and Indiana. Out of those four schools only three, Michigan State, Purdue, and Indiana have future away games against non-BCS schools so lets go ahead and rule out Illinois. Michigan State has all their future away non-BCS games scheduled against MAC Michigan teams so they can be taken off the list too.

Now we are left with two, Indiana and Purdue. Both these schools make a lot of sense and I can almost guarantee one of them will be visiting Huntington this decade. Indiana has proven to be creative when scheduling. They are playing at Navy in 2012 and recently moved next seasons home game against Penn State to FedEx Field in Washington D.C. Purdue is already playing fellow C-USA school Rice on the road in 2011 so they have shown a willingness to play our conference on the road.

I can’t decipher which of the two Indiana schools will wind up in Huntington but hopefully Landon is right and we have an announcement soon.