Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports
Loads of money.
We previously reported that Northwestern and Nevada were scheduled for September 16th of 2017. Of course, the real story was that Northwestern was paying the eye-watering sum of $1.2 million to Nevada in order to get them to Evanston.
Today, the Reno Gazette Journal reported that the game has been rescheduled, moving from September 16th to September 2nd, which will make Northwestern vs Nevada the curtain raiser for both team’s 2017 season. Also of note, Nevada’s price has gone up. It will cost Northwestern an extra $100,000, bringing the total money being shelled out to $1.3 million.
As written earlier, the incredible amount of money Northwestern is willing to pay shows both how rich Big Ten teams are becoming with new television deals getting signed as well as the lack of leverage Big Ten teams have in scheduling thanks to the 9-game conference slate and the ban on scheduling FCS teams.
Northwestern lost to Nevada 31-21 the last time the teams met back in 2007.
Northwestern also will play Duke in 2017. Here is the full conference slate:
Sept. 30 —€” at Wisconsin
Oct. 7 — vs. Penn State
Oct. 14 —€” at Maryland
Oct. 21 — vs. Iowa
Oct. 28 —€” vs. Michigan State
Nov. 4 — at Nebraska
Nov. 11 —€” vs. Purdue
Nov. 18 —€” vs. Minnesota
Nov. 25 — at Illinois