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 »

The Northwestern Wildcat football program has been something of an enigma over the past decade or so, with teams that have sometimes been ultra-competitive and world beaters and then ones that look like they have no idea even how to spell football. (Attention Northwestern fans and alum: I understand that you have to be very intelligent to get into the university and probably all of the football players know how to spell football in 10 different languages, it is merely a joke, ok?). So, this begs the question—which team will show up this year?

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If you watch the Big Ten Network for just random games, or just love to watch the Big Ten in general, the network certainly loves you! However, for those of you that are rock-chalk solid as just watching one team and one team only (and of course the other team that plays), the BTN is putting together 24 hours of highlight for each school in the Big Ten set to start airing next week. It’s a good way to celebrate all of the 2007-08 things that happened to your school’s team in a very condensed way! Read the rest of this entry »

Northwestern and Michigan have pretty much been the class of the Big 10 in terms of softball for the entire 2008 year. Sure, Iowa looked pretty good at times, but the Wildcats and Wolverines certainly dominated when it came down to it. So it really wasn’t a huge surprise when the two players that got individual honors as first team All-Americans from the Big Ten were from these two respective teams. I am frankly surprised there wasn’t more… Read the rest of this entry »

The Northwestern Wildcats Women’s Tennis team marched into the NCAA Championship bracket in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with swagger and a top seed. They breezed through the first two rounds with little difficulty, dispatching Illinois-Chicago, Indiana, and Fresno St. in pretty easy fashion. But then they ran into the 19-5 California Bears, and the wheels fell off the cart. Read the rest of this entry »

We all knew that the Big 10 was strong in softball, but how’s this for a number: 13. That’s how many players were selected by the NFCA (National Fastpitch Coaches Association) to the All-Region teams that are broken down into nine regions across the country. This once again gives credibility to the strength that the conference has in terms of having quality players and teams not only top to bottom, but also on a national level. Read the rest of this entry »

The first for the last. That’s what the summation of the Big 10 Women’s softball tournament really breaks down to; Northwestern beat Iowa 1-0 to win its first conference tournament crown, but it will be its only one for the immediate future, as the conference tournament is being disbanded as voted on by Big 10 coaches to extend the regular season, thus giving more of a chance to teams for NCAA seeding and placement. Read the rest of this entry »

Purdue and Maryland have not met for over 11 years in women’s basketball, but throughout that course of time, both programs have remained strong and in the national spotlights. With the 2008 ACC/Big 10 challenge match ups released today, they will get a chance to see who’s program has come along the most as they square off in one of the marquee matchups of the annual head-to-head competition. Both teams figure to finish in the top three of their conference and preseason wise should be pretty high up there in the national rankings as well, so if you get a chance, don’t miss this game. Read the rest of this entry »

This just in: Samantha Findlay is good. The Michigan Wolverine sophomore, who went 6 for 10 over the weekend against Michigan State and Northwestern, not only got timely hits for her team, but she also extended her hitting streak to seven games. For her efforts, she has nabbed her second Big 10 player of the week honor for women’s softball, and it’s her third time winning the award overall.

Out of the six hits, one of them was a monstrous grand slam against the Spartans (it was one of two against MSU). Although her hits this weekend were probably the biggest showing offensively for Michigan, it’s not as if she’s the only star on this team, which has a gaudy 44-5 record and 16-2 in conference play. They are really playing great ball and should be a tough opponent to anyone they face come NCAA tourney time.