Purdue Baseball Releases 2016 Schedule

Purdue baseball finished up its fall series this past weekend and quietly released most of the 2016 schedule too. As usual, the first few weeks of the year are entirely on the road since Indiana in February is not often conducive to baseball, but after the Big Ten put a record five teams into the NCAA Tournament in 2015 the hope for a turnaround provided by tough competition is there. Here is the schedules as of now:

Date	Opponent / Event	Location	Time / Result
Atlanta Invitational
02/19/16	at Georgia Tech	Atlanta, Ga.	4:00 p.m. ET
02/20/16	at Kennesaw State	Kennesaw, Ga.	2:00 p.m. ET
02/21/16	at Georgia State	Atlanta, Ga.	1:00 p.m. ET
02/26/16	at California	Berkley, Calif.	10:00 p.m. ET
02/27/16	at California	Berkley, Calif.	9:00 p.m. ET
02/28/16	at California	Berkley, Calif.	3:00 p.m. ET
LakePoint Sporting Community Tournament
03/04/16	vs. East Tennessee State	Emerson, Ga.	TBA
03/05/16	vs. Illinois-Chicago	Emerson, Ga.	TBA
	TBA	Emerson, Ga.	TBA
03/06/16	TBA	Emerson, Ga.	TBA
Millard Management Classic
03/11/16	vs. Saint Louis	Lawrence, Kan.	12:00 p.m. ET
03/12/16	vs. North Dakota	Lawrence, Kan.	12:00 p.m. ET
03/13/16	at Kansas	Lawrence, Kan.	4:00 p.m. ET
03/18/16	vs. Ohio	Kokomo, Ind.	TBA
03/19/16	vs. Ohio	Kokomo, Ind.	TBA
03/20/16	vs. Ohio	Kokomo, Ind.	TBA
03/22/16	at Ball State	Muncie, Ind.	3:00 p.m. ET
03/23/16	vs. Louisville	West Lafayette, Ind.	6:00 p.m. ET
03/25/16	vs. Nebraska *	West Lafayette, Ind.	6:30 p.m. ET
03/26/16	vs. Nebraska *	West Lafayette, Ind.	2:00 p.m. ET
03/27/16	vs. Nebraska *	West Lafayette, Ind.	1:00 p.m. ET
03/30/16	vs. Valparaiso	West Lafayette, Ind.	6:00 p.m. ET
04/01/16	at Penn State *	University Park, Pa.	6:30 p.m. ET
04/02/16	at Penn State *	University Park, Pa.	2:00 p.m. ET
04/03/16	at Penn State *	University Park, Pa.	12:00 p.m. ET
04/05/16	at Indiana State	Terre Haute, Ind.	6:30 p.m. ET
04/08/16	at Indiana *	Bloomington, Ind.	6:00 p.m. ET
04/09/16	at Indiana *	Bloomington, Ind.	2:00 p.m. ET
04/10/16	at Indiana *	Bloomington, Ind.	3:00 p.m. ET
04/12/16	vs. Eastern Michigan	West Lafayette, Ind.	4:00 p.m. ET
04/15/16	vs. Michigan State *	West Lafayette, Ind.	6:30 p.m. ET
04/16/16	vs. Michigan State *	West Lafayette, Ind.	2:00 p.m. ET
04/17/16	vs. Michigan State *	West Lafayette, Ind.	1:00 p.m. ET
04/19/16	vs. Ball State	West Lafayette, Ind.	6:00 p.m. ET
04/20/16	vs. Indiana State	West Lafayette, Ind.	6:00 p.m. ET
04/22/16	at Maryland *	College Park, Md.	6:00 p.m. ET
04/23/16	at Maryland *	College Park, Md.	2:00 p.m. ET
04/24/16	at Maryland *	College Park, Md.	1:00 p.m. ET
04/26/16	at Illinois State	Normal, Ill.	7:00 p.m. ET
04/29/16	vs. Ohio State *	West Lafayette, Ind.	6:30 p.m. ET
04/30/16	vs. Ohio State *	West Lafayette, Ind.	2:00 p.m. ET
05/01/16	vs. Ohio State *	West Lafayette, Ind.	1:00 p.m. ET
05/06/16	at Northwestern *	Evanston, Ill.	4:00 p.m. ET
05/07/16	at Northwestern *	Evanston, Ill.	3:00 p.m. ET
05/08/16	at Northwestern *	Evanston, Ill.	2:00 p.m. ET
05/10/16	vs. IPFW	West Lafayette, Ind.	6:30 p.m. ET
05/11/16	at Valparaiso	Valparaiso, Ind.	4:00 p.m. ET
05/13/16	vs. Minnesota *	West Lafayette, Ind.	7:00 p.m. ET
05/14/16	vs. Minnesota *	West Lafayette, Ind.	2:00 p.m. ET
05/15/16	vs. Minnesota *	West Lafayette, Ind.	1:00 p.m. ET
05/17/16	at IPFW	Fort Wayne, Ind.	6:00 p.m. ET
05/19/16	vs. Cal State Northridge	West Lafayette, Ind.	7:00 p.m. ET
05/20/16	vs. Cal State Northridge	West Lafayette, Ind.	7:00 p.m. ET
05/21/16	vs. Cal State Northridge	West Lafayette, Ind.	2:00 p.m. ET
05/22/16	vs. Cal State Northridge	West Lafayette, Ind.	12:00 p.m. ET
Big Ten Tournament (TD Ameritrade Park Omaha)
05/25/16	First Round	Omaha, Neb.	TBA
05/26/16	Second Round	Omaha, Neb.	TBA
05/27/16	If Necessary	Omaha, Neb.	TBA
05/28/16	Bracket Final	Omaha, Neb.	TBA
05/29/16	Championship Game	Omaha, Neb.	TBA

Some notes:

• Purdue plays several NCAA Tournament teams from 2015. California, Louisville, Ohio, Indiana, and Maryland were all in the NCAA Tournament. Purdue could also play Michigan, Illinois, or Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament. Maryland and Louisville both even won a regional, with Maryland upsetting No. 1 overall seed UCLA on their home field.
  
• Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State, Nebraska, Michigan State, and Valparaiso have all made recent NCAA Tournaments.
  
• The Ohio series in mid-March will be a pseudo home series at the new Kokomo Municipal Stadium, which opened this past summer and hosts a Prospect League team for summer college baseball. Purdue's Big Ten bye (since the Big Ten only has 13 baseball playing schools) comes the last week of the season, so Purdue got Cal State Northridge to come in for a decent home four-game set.
  
• The Big Ten Tournament now takes the top 8 teams int he league standings, and last year 7 of the 8 teams had a legitimate shot to be an at large team in the NCAA field. Naturally the 8th team, Michigan, stole the automatic bid.
  
• For the first time ever last season the Big Ten had TWO regional hosts, as both Iowa and Illinois hosted.
  
• Indiana, who has been the class of the Big Ten for three seasons, will host Purdue for the first time in Two years. Purdue has not hosted Indiana since 2011.