Pat Fitzgerald is a realist in many ways. He understands that Northwestern, the lone private school in the Big Ten and one of the most academically prestigious schools in the country, is on a different level when it comes to competing with his conference compatriots.

But he's looking for things similar to what he's working with in Evanston when he picks his future non-conference schedules.

"I want to play teams that are academically comparable in the non-conference," Fitzgerald said. "That makes sense to me. We've got Vanderbilt and Stanford and Cal and BC and Duke and Rice coming on the schedule down the road here.

"We typically always play at least one Mid-American Conference team, that's the long-standing tradition that the Big Ten and the MAC have. Then, for us to have a seventh home game, it is typically going to have a Football Championship Subdivision team. Our thinking is that, yeah, we want to play academic comparables and, yeah, we want to play seven home football games and keep some of our traditions alive."

In 2010, Northwestern has Vanderbilt at home and goes to Rice. The next year, the Wildcats go to Boston College and Rice goes to Evanston.

Northwestern and Vandy also play in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Nationalchamps.net also has the Wildcats in a home-and-home with Stanford in 2014 and 2015.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for annarbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558 or by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com.