A Decent Travel Schedule For A Change

Spent the day today making reservations for fall away games. It's nice to think that we will connect through Detroit Airport only four times: twice for the Iowa game and twice again for Minnesota. For Alabama, we will be on a charter out of Harrisburg. The rest of the games - Ohio State and Indiana (at FedEx field near Washington D.C.) will be road trips. I didn't even get a call from the credit card company! Usually when I book all our trips for the fall in one day I get a notice asking me to confirm if the charges are legitimate. But I guess just two round-trip flights are under their radar for illegitimate purchases.

Makes me even more excited about the possibility of Big Ten Expansion. The more games within driving distance, the happier we will be. There's nothing fun about airline travel these days.

Speaking of Big Ten expansion, Pete Fiutak of CollegeFootballNews.com (http://cfn.scout.com/2/968955.html) makes the following predictions for Big Ten expansion:

 "Your Big Ten, if it goes to 16, will probably end up being (with the new schools in bold) …

EAST: Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Syracuse
WEST: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin

If it goes to 14, the Big Ten will probably end up being …

EAST: Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers
WEST: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin"

He does not see Notre Dame joining the Big Ten. He sees Syracuse and Connecticut due to basketball.

Penn State-Pitt is not part of this scenario. He predicts Pitt will join the ACC. That doesn't mean we can't play them as a non-conference rival. But will Penn State be willing to do a home and home with Pitt? I'm not sure.

In any case, if this scenario comes to pass (who knows??) then it looks like air travel will basically be for Indiana and Michigan State. The rest will be road trips. Sounds good to me...although some of my favorite away game Big Ten trips (Iowa, Wisconsin) might be a thing of the past or at least a rare occurrence.

What do you think?