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.

At its spring meetings in Chicago, the Big Ten may discuss if it should have divisional play in basketball, as Rutgers and Maryland are set to join the league in 2014 to make the conference a 14-team entity. My advice: The Big Ten should take a lead from the other major conferences—ACC (12 teams), SEC (14), Pac-12 (12), old Big East (15), Atlantic 10 (16)–and not have divisional play.

The schedule is pretty kind to a Michigan State program coming off a disappointing 7-6 season that saw MSU lose five games by a combined 13 points. If the Spartans can win at Notre Dame on Sept. 21, they could be 8-0 when they welcome Michigan on Nov. 2.

It’s Monday, and that means it’s time to take a look at BTN.com’s top 10 most-read stories and most-watched videos from the past week. See both lists in this post.

A quartet of Big Ten softball teams were selected to the NCAA tourney, it was announced late Sunday night. Big Ten regular-season champ Michigan earned the No. 8 national seed and Nebraska the No. 14, while Minnesota and Big Ten tourney champ Wisconsin also made the field.

Zach Mezger is not your typical Indiana baseball fan. The Bloomington High School North student is known as the “No. 1 IU baseball fan,” is a close friend with head coach Tracy Smith’s family, and has delivered a couple postgame speeches. Sunday, he had the honor of throwing out the first pitch in the Hoosiers’ inaugural home finale at Bart Kaufman Field.