This schedule is built for success – at least the first half of it. It opens with four of the first five games coming at home. And Minnesota should be favored in each one. Could the Golden Gophers be 5-0 when they travel to Michigan on Oct. 5? Hmm. And—don’t look now—but Minnesota has a good chance to be 5-3 when it plays at Indiana on Nov. 2. But a loss to the improving Hoosiers would make getting a sixth win very difficult with a challenging last few games.

The Big Ten spring meetings have hit Chicago, and there are plenty of topics on the table. For example, further conference expansion, football schedules, bowl games and basketball divisions, among others. Get some of the best tweets from the meetings in this post.

There was a time when Minnesota offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover weighed more than 400 pounds. To be exact, he was 403 pounds in January 2012. Failed diet after diet, Limegrover opted for gastric bypass surgery last May. Fast forward one year, and the offensive coordinator tips the scales at 235 pounds. Having shed nearly 170 pounds from his frame, Limegrover looks and feels like a new person. See the before and after photos in this post.

Spring football is over and the offseason is officially here. Let’s all let loose with a collective sigh. Now we have to wait until the night of Thursday, August 29, for the first Big Ten game when UNLV plays at Minnesota. There are lots of barbecues, cannon balls into the swimming pool, croquet, Wiffle Ball and Jarts between now and then.

BTN will televise 12 primetime games during the 2013 college football season, the most in network history. Five games feature a pre-season top-25 Big Ten team, while three of the 12 matchups feature games versus teams from the SEC, ACC and Pac-12 conferences. Eight Big Ten schools in all will be featured in primetime.