Non-conference dates were announced today. For an odd year, this is shaping up to be a pretty exciting home slate!

August 31st: Northwestern

September 7th: Portland State

September 14th: Ohio State

Pac-12 home games: Arizona, Oregon State, Washington State, USC

Pac-12 road games: Colorado, Oregon, Washington, UCLA, Big Game

Not bad at all. I like the fact that we get seven home games, and we start off the season right off the bat playing three of them right at Memorial. Seems like the renovations are paying dividends with teams lining up to play us now. At the very least, we have a great shot to build positive momentum for the season.

Another nice thing is next year's schedule will feature two bye weeks instead of zero. This I approve of wholeheartedly.

The conference schedule has yet to be announced. But I imagine the Big Game is right back where it belongs this season (the week before Thanksgiving). So either we have a bye week on Thanksgiving again (kind of lame) or we have some sort of home or road game to finish up the season.

Rivalries kind of preclude any sort of Pac-12 arrangement for the last week of the season. If Sandy can arrange it and get the waiver from Scott and the Pac-12 office, I think it'd be cool to get Portland State moved to the final week of the season so we can get a bye week between Northwestern and Ohio State. That's a pretty challenging home schedule and it'd be nice to get that early buffer. Plus we finish the season with a smooth Senior Day contest after what figures to be a bruising rivalry matchup in the Farm. What do you think?