Among the highlights of Northwestern's 2015 and 2016 football schedules, which were released Tuesday, are home-and-home series with Duke and Stanford and seven home games at Ryan Field in '15 and '16.

            The Wildcats will play the Blue Devils and the Cardinal in both years, and will also host Eastern Illinois and Ball State in 2015. TheWildcats open the season in 2015 with a home date against Stanford on Sept. 5 and then travel to Duke on Sept. 19.

            NU opens the 2016 campaign at home Sept. 3 against Western Michigan and then faces Illinois State for another home date a week later.

            In 2016, the Wildcats host Duke Sept. 17 and travel to Stanford Sept. 24.

            Among Big Ten contests, the Wildcats bypass Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin.

            Here are the 2015 and 2016 NU schedules:

2015


Sept. 5 vs. Stanford


Sept. 12 vs. Eastern Illinois


Sept. 19 at Duke


Sept. 26 vs. Ball State


Oct. 3 at Iowa


Oct. 10 vs. Minnesota


Oct. 17 at Nebraska


Oct. 24 Open Date


Oct. 31 vs. Purdue


Nov. 7 at Indiana


Nov. 14 vs. Michigan


Nov. 21 vs. Michigan State


Nov. 28 at Illinois 

2016

Sept. 3 vs. Western Michigan


Sept. 10 vs. Illinois State


Sept. 17 vs. Duke


Sept. 24 at Stanford


Oct. 1 vs. Nebraska


Oct. 8 at Purdue


Oct. 15 at Michigan 


Oct. 22 vs. Iowa


Oct. 29 at Minnesota


Nov. 5 Open Date


Nov. 12 vs. Indiana


Nov. 19 at Michigan State


Nov. 26 vs. Illinois

            Northwestern will open the 2015 Big Ten football season at Iowa and will not play Penn State, Ohio State or Wisconsin in either 2015 or 2016.

            The Big Ten released its conference football schedules for 2015 and 2016 Monday, and the Wildcats seem to have drawn the favorable stick.

            In 2015, NU hosts Minnesota, Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State while going on the road to face Nebraska, Indiana and Illinois.

            In 2016, the Wildcats open Big Ten season at Ryan Field against Nebraska and end the season with a home game against Illinois -- which could be somewhere other than Evanston, like Soldier Field. NU's other home games for 2016 include Iowa and Indiana, with road trips to Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State and Minnesota.

            After beating No. 6 Texas in the first round of the NCAA tournament and then topping Houston 13-9 Saturday, Northwestern's softball team moves on to the regional finals Sunday in Austin, Texas. It is the fifth regional championship appearance for NU in the last eight years.

            The Wildcats' 17 base hits tied a single-game school record that was last accomplished on March 3, 2007 against Stanford.

            Mari Majam led the Wildcats and went 4-for-5 with three runs. Marisa Bast had three hits and four RBIs to reach 68 for the year, two shy of the school record, and Adrienne Monka drove in four runs which gave her 198 for her career.



            Amy Letourneau (13-9) earned the win in relief, allowing four unearned runs in 5.2 innings of work. She gave up three hits and seven walks with two strikeouts.

            Northwestern's softball team found out at the last minute Sunday night that they are headed to the NCAA tournament after receiving an at-large bid.

            The Wildcats ended the regular season on a six-game winning streak, no doubt propelling them to their at-large bid. NU also won eight of their last nine games to finish 27-27. By finishing at .500, the Wildcats got the "bare minimum" of wins to get invited into the tournament.

            What else helped the Wildcats? Having the country's No. 1 ranked nonconference strength of schedule.

            The Wildcats return to the tournament after a two-year absense. NU had made seven consecutive NCAA tournament appearances from 2003-09 and advanced to the women's College World Series twice.

            Notre Dame keyed in on Northwestern's Shannon Smith -- limiting the Wildcats' lacrosse star to only one goal and one assist -- but the Fighting Irish didn't have enough firepower to take down the defending NCAA champions, and NU won its opening round NCAA tournament game 12-7 Saturday at Lakeside Field.

            The No. 2-seeded Wildcats (18-2) advance to the quarterfinals next weekend, where they will play either Duke or Virginia at Lakeside Field. Duke and Virginia play Sunday.

            Smith now needs only one goal to tie the school's all-time career scoring record of 250 goals.

            But because Notre Dame (13-5) nearly shut out Smith, Erin Fitzgerald was able to record a hat trick, and Lacey Vigmostad notched two goals in about a minute late in the second half.

            "Shannon was getting a lot of pressure and had her head up a lot," Fitzgerald said. "I happened to be the open girl."

            The Wildcats led only 5-3 at halftime before exploding for seven second-half goals. Notre Dame got as close as 10-7 with 5:18 to play on Betsy Mastropieri's goal, which quieted the 600 fans who braved the drizzle and wind.

            But then Vigmostad scored two unassisted goals, one at the 3:41 mark and another at 2:18 to put the game away.

            "You're going to have to wear people down," NU coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said of the postseason.

            A day after the Bulls' playoff run ended against the Philadelphia 76ers, owner and team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf was the featured speaker at Northwestern's College of Law graduation Friday afternoon at the Chicago Theater.

            Reinsdorf, NU Law class of 1960 and White Sox owner and chairman, started the 10-minute speech by ribbing the Sox and Bulls for not playing as well as people had hoped. The Bulls lost their playoff series four games to two and the Sox are 15-17 and in third place in the AL Central.

            "I'm even more pleased that the invitation wasn't reovked the way the Sox and Bulls have been playing," Reinsdorf said. "I've had a lot of people cancel appointments on me. The other night, I drove up to a Motel 6 and they turned the light off."

            Reinsdorf was given 10 minutes to give his speech and "my wife said it was two minutes more than I needed."

            Among the bits of advice he gave to the graduating class:

            "I found out that as you get older, you don't get smarter, you just find fewer things you haven't seen before."

            "When somebody asks you a question, the answer you have to give is 'Why do you want to know?' "

            "You compete against yourself, not against anybody else."

            "The top 10 percent of the people you encounter are not that smart. They're just not as dumb as the other 90 percent."

            "Never ever lie unless its to your spouse -- but even then it's only to be kind."

            "When you're making a deal, leave something on the table for the adversary. Don't take away your adverary's dignity."

            "You canot buy a good reputation, you have to earn it. And you can't sell a bad reputation, because it's yours forever."

            "Clients fire lawyers who seek problems. They never fire lawyers who find solutions."

            Northwestern's lacrosse team begins its national title defense Saturday when the Wildcats host Notre Dame at Lakeside Field in their first NCAA tournament game.

            The No. 2-seeded Wildcats (17-2) are coming off their second loss to Florida this season, a 14-7 defeat. It was the second time NU lost to Florida this season, the first being an 8-7 loss.

            And that 14-7 loss was NU's worst since 2003.

            The Wildcats beat Notre Dame 17-7 about two weeks ago in Evanston, probably a good omen according to Taylor Thornton. It was NU's first game back after the Florida loss and the second time the Wildcats faced the Fighting Irish after losing to the No. 1-seeded Gators.

            "Notre Dame is always a great opponent," Thornton said. "I think it definitely does [help that NU has played the Irish recently], because we know their actions and their tendencies. We feel no pressure at all."

            Thornton, the American Lacrosse Conference Player of the Year, was named a finalist Thursday for the Tewaaraton Award given to the most outstanding player in men's and women's lacrosse. The junior defender from Dallas is among five finalists for the award, which will be announced May 31.

            Thornton was named the 2011 National Defender of the Year and has scored 27 goals in 19 games for the Wildcats.

            If the Wildcats beat Notre Dame, they will advance to the quarterfinals and play either Duke or Virginia at Lakeside Field.

            Louisville transfer Jared Swopshire and Romanian native Alex Olah of Traders Point Christian Academy in Zionsville, Ind. signed with Northwestern Wednesday.

            The 7-foot Olah averaged 18 points and 13 rebounds for Traders Point and also played in the 2011 FIBA U18 European Championships for Romania.

            Swopshire saw limited action this season for the national semifinalist Cardinals. Swopshire sat out his entire junior year with a groin injury that required surgery. Swopshire, who will graduate from Louisville in May, will be eligible to play for the Wildcats because of the NCAA's new transfer rule. A player does not have to sit out a year if they have graduated and they are working toward a graduate degree in a field that their original school does not offer.

Northwestern announced its first start time for the 2012 football season.

The Wildcats' home opener against Vanderbilt at Ryan Field on Sept. 8 will kick off at 7 p.m. and will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

Both teams opened the 2010 season against each other in Nashville, with NU beating the Commodores 23-21.

The Wildcats played three night games last season, two of which were at Ryan Field.