Game time and TV information for Western Michigan, Illinois State and Duke games released

Game times and television information for the first three weeks of the 2016 season have been released for the Big Ten. Here is what the slate will look like for the Wildcats:

Sep. 3 vs. Western Michigan
Game time: 11 a.m. CT
TV: ESPNU

Sep. 10 vs. Illinois St.
Game time: 2:30 p.m. CT
TV: BTN

Sep. 17 vs. Duke
Game time: 7 p.m. CT
TV: BTN

GAME TIME NEWS:

9/3 vs. WMU - 11am CT, ESPNU
9/10 vs. ISU - 2:30pm CT, BTNhttps://t.co/1yRfc26OFo#B1GCats pic.twitter.com/dm8OUwxmrv

— #B1GCats Football (@NUFBFamily) June 13, 2016

All three games are at Ryan Field. This is the first year of the Big Ten's move to a three-game non-conference schedule and a nine-game conference schedule.

Last year Northwestern had a wildly successful non-conference slate, upsetting Stanford in Week 1, then trouncing Eastern Illinois. The Wildcats then went down to Durham and beat Duke, which is coming to Northwestern this year for the home-and-home series. Duke is the first of back-to-back night games; Northwestern hosts Nebraska in primetime the following week. The Wildcats concluded their 2015 non-conference slate with a come-from-behind victory over Ball State.

We now know the starting times for a significant portion of Northwestern's 2016 schedule. All times are Central.

9/3 -- vs. Western Michigan, 11 a.m.

9/10 -- vs. Illinois St., 2:30 p.m.

9/17 -- vs. Duke, 7 p.m.

9/24 -- vs. Nebraska, 6:30 p.m.

10/1 -- @ Iowa, 11 a.m.

10/15 -- @ Michigan St., 2:30 p.m.

10/22 -- vs. Indiana, 11 a.m.

10/29 -- @ Ohio St., 4:30 p.m.

(NOTE: Wisconsin, Purdue, Minnesota and Illinois starting times are all TBD)