Posts Tagged ‘Big Ten’
The Year in Review: Michigan St. (11-3, 7-1)
By Paul Myerberg // Mar 6, 2012
Last fall, Michigan State beat Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan and a team from the SEC in one season for the first time in program history. This isn’t surprising: Michigan State has won only six games against SEC competition in its history, with four of those wins coming from 1929-1947. What is surprising, however, is the fact that the Spartans beat the Buckeyes, Badgers and Wolverines in the same season for only the second time in program history; the first, in 1987, came during the Spartans’ last outright Big Ten title. Rare? Heck, beating Ohio State and Michigan in the same season is rare enough for Michigan State.
Tags: B.J. Cunningham, Big Ten, Brady Hoke, Iowa, Jerel Worthy, Joel Foreman, Kirk Cousins, Mark Dantonio, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Ohio State, Urban Meyer, Wisconsin
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The Big Ten’s 2012 Non-Conference Schedule
By Paul Myerberg // Feb 22, 2012
After looking at the non-conference schedules found in the SEC, let’s turn our attention to the Big Ten, where every school but one, Nebraska, has filled out its dance card for the coming season. The Cornhuskers are close: three games down, one to go. And considering how Nebraska’s scheduled trio of games look, there’s little doubt that the program will look to fill that open date with the easiest, most cupcake-like opponent available on that particular Saturday — that would be Sept. 22, by the way, if you’re a lower-level program looking to plop a six-figure check in the school coffers. And the F.C.S. is certainly in the conversation: Nebraska has played one such school in each of the last two years after not doing so from 2007-9.
Tags: Big Ten, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, MAC, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, SEC, Wisconsin
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The Year in Review: Northwestern (6-7, 3-5)
By Paul Myerberg // Feb 10, 2012
I have great news. I’m a finalist for the position of athletic director at [insert university here]. Qualifications? None. Don’t tell anyone; my resume contained quite a few inaccuracies, including one reference to my turn as a three-time all-conference pick at [insert invented New England liberal arts college here]. But I aced the first round of the interview process with [insert university president here] and [insert deep-pocketed booster here], thanks to a flashy new suit, a strong presentation and pure, old-fashioned confidence. Not to mention my prime selling point: I can make the football program at [university] a national power.
Tags: Big Ten, Brian Peters, Dan Persa, Ibraheim Campbell, Jeremy Ebert, Kain Colter, Northwestern, Pat Fitzgerald
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Big Ten Discusses Merits of a Plus-One
By Paul Myerberg // Feb 7, 2012
It’s a start. As first reported by Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune, Big Ten leaders — and legends, I assume — have discussed the basic parameters surrounding a plus-one playoff model, one that would theoretically be adopted once the B.C.S. system is overhauled following the 2013 season. In short, the Big Ten’s model takes the top four teams in the final B.C.S. poll and creates a national semifinal, with the round of four played at the home field of the higher-ranked seed and the national final played at a rotating, Super Bowl-like neutral site. The Big Ten is not the first conference to offer up such a plan, but the conference is the first to discuss one publicly since the outcry against the B.C.S. reached its current fever pitch. Sometimes, being first can yield significant dividends.
Tags: B.C.S., Big Ten, College football playoff, Jim Delany, Mike Slive, SEC
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Indiana’s Search Takes the JUCO Route
By Paul Myerberg // Jan 17, 2012
The search is on for Big Ten-caliber talent, and no one understands the value and importance of this endeavor more than Indiana’s Kevin Wilson, he of the one-win debut campaign. There was a time, if you recall, when Indiana was the talk of the recruiting trail: Gunner Kiel, before committing to L.S.U. and before committing to Notre Dame – the latter is now official – was once a verbal lock for Bloomington, where he’d marry his sizable skills with Wilson’s history of turning his quarterbacks into Heisman-worthy stars. Kiel has long been off of Indiana’s radar, even if still on the Hoosiers’ minds, which has Wilson looking elsewhere for his quarterback of the future.
Tags: Big Ten, Carson Coffman, Dusty Kiel, Edward Wright-Baker, Gunner Kiel, Indiana, Kevin Wilson, Tre Roberson
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How the Conferences Rank, 1-12: Final
By Paul Myerberg // Jan 11, 2012
The rankings are in the books, for better or worse, so all that’s left is to tally the numbers. What follows is the F.B.S. conference breakdown in terms of average final re-ranking; included in this list are our four Independents, even if that quartet, by design, holds no conference affiliation. The listings include the average ranking, highest team ranking and numbers of teams in the final top 25 in parentheses. The SEC again rules the roost — even if the conference finally lost a B.C.S. National Championship Game, in a way — but the league was challenged all year for the title of deepest conference, top to bottom. One conference in particular made a strong case for being the best in college football.
Tags: A.C.C., Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Conference USA, Independents, Louisiana Tech, MAC, Mountain West, Oklahoma, Pac-12, SEC, Sun Belt, WAC
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Ohio State’s Foolproof Plan: Hire Meyer
By Paul Myerberg // Nov 29, 2011
There’s a splash of Earle Bruce, a dash of Sonny Lubick and a spoonful of Lou Holtz in Urban Meyer’s coaching D.N.A., but the coach who stepped to the podium at yesterday’s announcement in Columbus is all Meyer: gifted, often brilliant and always striving for perfection, Meyer is sort of coach who can turn pretenders into contenders and winners into the best team in college football. Such as he did at Bowling Green and Utah, two non-B.C.S. conferences programs who experienced nearly unparalleled heights during Meyer’s comet-like stay at each stop. And such as he did at Florida, where Meyer may have achieved the impossible: he took what Steve Spurrier had achieved at Gainesville and, perhaps, improved upon it.
Tags: Big Ten, Brady Hoke, Luke Fickell, Michigan, Ohio State, Urban Meyer
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End the Season Today, Not in January
By Paul Myerberg // Nov 9, 2011
Of all the comments, statements and releases being issued in regards to the developments in Happy Valley, it’s striking to see that the Big Ten’s lone foray into this massive issue involved nine words and kid gloves: “Because it’s an ongoing criminal investigation, we have no comment,” said the conference, via Big Ten spokesman Scott Chipman. You can call this being calm in the eye of the storm, but that’s off base. You can call it being honest, but you’d be only partially correct; while N.C.A.A. president Scott Emmert echoed the Big Ten’s point — “This is a criminal matter…” — even the sport’s governing body deplored the unmistakable horror and “despicable” nature of Jerry Sandusky’s alleged crimes.
Tags: Big Ten, Jerry Sandusky, Jim Delany, Joe Paterno, Penn State
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