The Big Ten has only had five commissioners since 1922. That’s an amazing number and a testament to the loyalty shown by these five individuals. One of those elite is none other than Jim Delaney, who has captained the conference for almost 20 years. He has undergone several changes in several different arenas, and one of his chief responsibilities at the current time is amongst other commissioners on the Bowl Championship Series “team”. Read the rest of this entry »

The Outland Trophy awards the nation’s top interior lineman, and the award has been garnered by a Big Ten player 3 of the last five years–Iowa’s Robert Gallery won in 2003, while Minnesota’s Greg Eslinger and Wisconsin’s Joe Thomas claimed the honored in 2005 and 2006. They might as well call it the Big Ten interior lineman award Read the rest of this entry »

It seems that every year the Big 10 has a big name in the finals or even a winner of the Bronco Nagurski Trophy, which awards the National Defensive player of the year award. James Laurinaitis, who won the award in 2006 and was a finalist in 2007, returns for another year of contention and should be a shoo-in for another finals. Other than the Ohio State standout, nine other Big 10 players were announced as being considered for the trophy. They are: Illinois’ Vontae Davis, Indiana’s Greg Middleton, Iowa’s Mitch King, Michigan’s Terrance Taylor, Northwestern’s John Gill, Ohio State’s Marcus Freeman and Malcolm Jenkins, Penn State’s Maurice Evans, and Wisconsin’s Matt Shaughnessy. Read the rest of this entry »

I still remember back in the day watching football and baseball on astroturf. It was the rule rather than the exception, but to see players diving and cringe as they hit the all-weather turf as if they were bouncing off of concrete and how this surface created such injuries as “turf toe”, it was apparent that this was not the end-all be-all for playing surfaces. Read the rest of this entry »

In 2008 and 2009, the schedules for the Big Ten football teams will have 12 weeks, giving the teams a game week in and week out. But in 2010, the schedules will revert back to a typical 13 week schedule and add in a bye week for every team, meaning that all teams will be finishing their season basically on Thanksgiving weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

In an article by ESPN that was done a few days ago, columnist Mark Schlabach likes the Big 10 to have as many as eight teams in bowl games for the upcoming college football season, and even has Ohio State back in the national championship against Georgia. While the Big 10 typically boasts a strong number of teams every year in the postseason, I personally was surprised to see that many teams named, much less that the conference would be the leader of the pack–well, at least the co-leader (he thinks the SEC will have 8 teams as well). Read the rest of this entry »

While Kansas was off making most of the college football world drop their jaws in adoration last season, something special was also happening in Champaign, Illinois, as the Illinois Fighting Illini quietly were winning game after game behind the bull running of Rashard Mendenhall and a stingy defense. But they were squarely put on the map after they upended number 1 Ohio State–in the horseshoe no less–and propelled them to a BCS game versus big bad USC. Illinois quickly learned what it meant to play in a BCS game against a team that probably should have been playing in the national championship, getting trounced in the Rose Bowl in almost humiliating fashion. Read the rest of this entry »

Last season was a special one for the Indiana Hoosiers. Losing coach Terry Hoeppner prior to the season to brain cancer, the team rallied around new coach Bill Lynch and lived by Hoeppner’s motto of “Play 13″, as the Hoosiers had endured a drought in terms of making a bowl game. In grand fashion, Indiana did in fact make it into the postseason at the Insight Bowl, even though they were trounced by Oklahoma State. With the bowl game under their belt, the Hoosiers should be thinking bigger and better, right?

Well, sure–in theory. But that may all rest on the fate of one player–that of dual threat Kellen Lewis, who even without star receiver this year was primed to really do some damage to Big Ten defenses. The issue lies in whether Lewis will in fact be with Indiana, as he has been indefinitely suspended for unspecified team rule breaking since early spring, and it’s unclear as to the direction his situation will take. Read the rest of this entry »

Mark this down: the Iowa Hawkeyes may take the Big Ten by storm this year. Or they may fall completely apart. Coach Kirk Ferentz had his team finish 6-6 last year and lost some key players going into this season, but he also returns some decent stock and with some breaks here and there, you may be seeing the surprise team of the year. Read the rest of this entry »

Ohhh, the drama. I think it’s safe to say that wherever Rich Rodriguez goes, there’s no shortage of news and entertainment (for some). After his much-heralded departure from West Virginia and all of the problems that have followed him in terms of some questionable integrity issues he has had, along with some exodus of quality players from the Michigan program, it’s also safe to say that this could be a very rough season for Wolverine fans that are used to near perfection.

Read the rest of this entry »