It is hard to believe that football season is less than 12 weeks away, especially since it doesn’t feel THAT long ago that we were on the magical ride that was the 2023-24 basketball season. In just 81 days, however year two of the Ryan Walters era will begin. It will also begin against a familiar foe in the Indiana State Sycamores.

For a brief time Big Ten teams were discouraged from playing FCS foes. That lasted approximately .03 seconds, as now they are a regular fixture for most teams. The purpose? A near certain home win with a mostly full stadium and an afternoon where everyone can feel good about the program. The benefit the FCS program gets is a large check and a wealth of highlights on Sportscenter if they do pull off a monumental upset.

And an FCS team beating a Big Ten team is a monumental upset. With each year that passes the gap in talent, resources, and finances only grows. Scheduling games against the Indiana States of the world is a way to give a little of that money back. The Sycamores signed a three game deal wo play Purdue in 2022, 2024, and 2026, netting themselves at least half a million dollars for each game. That is a pittance considering that Purdue paid Fresno State $1.4 million last season (and the Bulldogs got a nice win to boot). The Trees are Purdue’s only “guarantee” game this coming season, and it feels like a bargain compared to last year.

It also should be an automatic win. I have long held the view that there is no valid excuse for a Big Ten team to lose to an FCS team. That has changed slightly in the last decade to have a separate “Dakota Clause” in that, if you’re dumb enough to schedule North Dakota State or South Dakota State, you know what you’re getting into since they regularly beat Power conference opponents. Indiana State is a different story. Aside from a blip where they made the FCS playoffs in 2014 they have been mostly bad. They have played Purdue six times and lost all six games, often by very large margins. The lone exception was the 2013 game where Darrell Hazell’s squad eeked out a 20-14 win over a team that eventually finished 1-11.

This is the type of game Purdue schedule simply to get a win. A loss would be considered an absolute disaster.