In the coming two years, Nebraska will face Big Ten foes Illinois and Purdue for the first time as conference opponents. While Nebraska has gone 12-5 against the Big Ten the last year, I thought it would be worth a look to see how these two ‘new’ opponents have done.

We begin with the Fighting Illini who have struggled to say the absolute least. In sixteen games, Illinois has won a measly two. The first came against a Northwestern group that finished 6-7, the second against the notable Indiana team that squeezed out one win to finish 1-11.

In two years, the Illinois have been outscored by the Big Ten a whopping 470-239 for an average score of 29-15. By taking out the two wins, the Illini have lost 29-11 on average.

Here’s their breakdown from Stassen:

Moving on to a marginally better team, the Purdue Boilermakers have gone 7-9 in their sixteen games against the Big Ten. In their two year stretch, Purdue has been outscored 496-384. In their losses, the average score is 38-17 while their average score in a win is 33-22. It’s worth noting their only win over a team that finished above .500 was Illinois in 2011 (finished 7-6). Here’s their breakdown from Stassen:

As though that’s not enough to emphasize the softness of the schedule, these teams have gone a combined 9-23 in two years against conference opponents replacing a pair (Wisconsin and Ohio State) who went 12-6 and 11-5 respectively.

If this isn’t a chance to run through the conference schedule unscathed, I don’t know what is.