Big Ten announces 2014-15 women's basketball schedule

Just as they did for the men’s team, the B1G and Maryland announced their 2014-2015 basketball schedule on Friday. And just as it is for the men’s squad, this will be  Terps' first as a member of the Big Ten conference.

Maryland’s home only games are: Illinois, Iowa, Ohio State, and Purdue. The four teams the will face only on the road are: Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Wisconsin. By default, this puts the home and home matchups with Indiana, Michigan State, Nebraska, Penn State, and Rutgers to round out the eighteen game schedule.

Believe it or not, Indiana and Northwestern are the only teams Maryland hasn’t played at least once. True, some of the games are ancient history in the rapidly changing view of sports such as the 1982 clash against Wisconsin. Of the seventy-three games (44-29) between the Terps and their new conference foes, 22 have come against Penn State (8-14 but the teams haven’t played since the 2003) and they have played Rutgers thirty times amassing a 19-11 all-time record. These teams last split a home and home series in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons.  Of course, most of the other contests have come in the ACC-B1G challenge. Maryland is undefeated in this series winning all seven games most recently taking down Ohio State earlier this season.

Of course, Coach Frese has some history of her own in the Big Ten. She coached one season at Minnesota taking the Gophers to the second round of the NCAA Tournament where she dropped a three point loss at North Carolina while winning the AP National Coach of the Year Award. That season, Minnesota finished 22-8 overall and 11-5 in conference play.

All five Big Ten teams (including Rutgers) currently ranked in the AP top twenty-five will visit College Park and the Terps will visit four of those teams. Perhaps in an acknowledgement that the last time Maryland played Purdue, the Terps traveled to Lafayette in the 2010-11 Challenge, the Boilermakers will visit College Park.

So there you have it.  Currently the highest ranked team in the B1G is Penn State who sit at number eight/twelve. Is the scheduling fair? Will the Terps immediately rise to the top of the conference? Will Maryland fans now refer to it as the B1G-ACC Challenge?Here’s your chance to share your opinion.