The Big Ten Report

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, left, congratulates basketball coach Ed DeChellis after the NIT championship game. (msnbc.com) 

Penn State just won the NIT! Yayyyy!

In case you missed it, the Nittany Lions of Pennsylvania State rallied in the second half of the NIT Championship game against the Baylor Bears Thursday night to claim the title. Amongst the Penn State fans that showed up at Madison Square Garden was Joe Pa, who was able to make the 200 mile journey from Happy Valley to Manhattan.  

The sad thing is… you probably did miss it. I had forgotten all about this game until I was scrolling through the channels at around 6:30 and saw “NCAA Basketball” on the ESPN guide.

Let’s be honest though, who the hell cares about the NIT? Penn State’s championship win technically means they are the 66th best team in college basketball. I can probably name the past 20 college basketball champions but I honestly couldn’t tell you who won the NIT last year (I just looked it up and it was Ohio State, the Big Ten is clearly dominating the NIT right now). I could probably name more AVN Award winners than NIT champions.

This is sad because I love college basketball and all of its postseason games should matter to me. Someone like me should be interested in something like the NIT. If a hardcore sports fan can’t enjoy a postseason tournament in one of his favorite sports, there’s got to be a serious flaw in the system.

So, as I tend to do because I’m a sports progressive, I thought of a way to fix the NIT and make it much more interesting.

All the teams that lost in the 1st round of the NCAA tournament should automatically be entered into the NIT.

Since the NIT already has 32 teams, the committee could just select the teams it normally would have, and add in the other 33 teams after the first weekend of NCAAs have taken place and make their own version of a 65-team tournament. Only this time, the play-in game would be between the two best teams to lose in the first round of the NCAAs.

Had this system been in place this year, teams like Morehead State, Alabama State, North Dakota State, Robert Morris, Chattanooga, Northern Iowa, Utah State, Cornell, CS Northridge, East Tennessee State, Portland State, VCU, American, Binghamton, Radford, Butler, Akron, Temple, Stephen F. Austin and Morgan State all would have had a chance to actually compete in the postseason. They still get rewarded for winning their conferences by entering into the Big Dance and taking a shot at Goliath, but they are also allowed to participate in a tournament that they have a much better chance of being successful in.

Since the casual fan isn’t watching the NIT anyway, they might as well gear it towards schools that are not used to having postseason sporting events to root for. Cornell making the tournament is a big deal for me and my friends who went there, and if I knew their season wouldn’t always have to end with them getting trounced in the first round of the tourney, I would have been much more excited about the NIT. I’m sure many alums and fans of smaller schools feel the same way. I’m sure the players would also welcome this change. I think that it’s unfair that the reward for most of these teams who busted their asses all year to win their conference is to be a sacrificial lamb for UConn or UNC.

This would be like slaving away at acting school to graduate at the top of your class, and having to play an extra in a blockbuster “The Dark Knight” when you could have been the lead role in a small film like “The Hammer” or an indie film like “Chop Shop.”

And as for the 64 v. 65 play-in game, that should be between the two highest seeds who got upset in NCAAs since they have no business being in the NIT in the first place. This year’s honors would have gone to Wake Forest and Utah. I would love this game every year because the loser of this game is the unanimous winner of the “Underachiever of the Year” award.

This new NIT format will allow teams that actually give a crap a chance to play a few extra games. I wouldn’t even be opposed to barring BCS conference teams and just making the NIT the mid-major national championship. That way the players will be into it, the fans will be into it, and we’ll give small schools something to look forward to.

No offense Penn State, but schools with National Championships and Rose Bowl victories should not be also hanging up NIT banners.

-Tom Izzo's Michigan State team has the best chance of all the Big Ten teams to win the title, but it's not going to be easy.

For the past two months, I have been on an inexplicablly long hiatus. Most of the blame goes to Medill for eating my life, but I could have done better to find a way to report on some of the Big Ten shenanigans that have been going on.  Luckily, the quarter is over and it couldn't have ended at a better time because...

It's Tourney Time! NCAA March Madness is by far the best sporting event of the year. I'm someone who prefers watching pro sports over college sports about 99 percent of the time, and I still think nothing can match the first two rounds March Madness. It's the perfect combination of volume and excitement. Being able to wake up Thursday morning and watch games continuously until Sunday night is a sports fan's dream.

And of course, with the tournament comes filling out your brackets. I'm not going to bore you by being the 15,000th person show my bracket and tell you why Team X will make the Final Four and Team Y will pull off the first round upset. It's the same as getting stock market advice, "experts" tell you there's a logical approach to picking teams but in the end, who the hell knows what going to happen anyway?

Anyway, while I was filling out my bracket on cbssportsline.com and slotting Cornell in the 2nd Round over Missouri (please basketball gods, give the Big Red the strength to knock them out) I realized that they said Cornell has a 1.8 percent chance of winning that game. Then they said Cornell has a 0.4 percent chance of winning their second round game. This could either be calculated odds or 1.8 percent of people filling out brackets on CBS picked Cornell to win.

Either way, I thought this was pretty cool, so I decided to run all seven Big Ten teams through the tournament and check out their odds.

(ps. Big Ten had a great year considering they had seven teams and Penn State and Northwestern had a chance to get in late in the year and ended up in the NIT.)

*the numbers represent the percent chance that team will win that round's game

CBS obviously says Michigan State is the Big Ten team most likely to run the slate. What I found interesting is that none of these teams have much of a chance to go all the way.
To get a better idea of how those odds compare to other teams, here are some stats from all the top five seeds.

The chances of a Big Ten team winning it all this year are slim at best. Not a lot of people are giving any love to Michigan State, especially compared to the other highly ranked teams.

I added the first round numbers there to see where there might be some upset potential. Obviously, the top 2 seeds almost never lose the first game and 3 and 4 seeds are also extremely unlikely. I feel like anything less than 99 percent is an indication that there might be a chance of upset. It seems Washington will have their hands full with Mississippi State and Utah is fighting for their lives. But other than that, the top teams "seem" pretty safe. Whether these numbers are calculated odds or public opinion, it's still a good barometer of what teams are considered the best.

The two Big Ten sleeper teams I could see making a serious run are Purdue and Michigan. I've always had a theory that teams with a dominant player have the best chance of getting hot and making a run no matter how bad the supporting cast may be. This can apply in any sport, but especially in basketball. If Manny Harris or any one out of Robbie Hummel, JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore trio can get hot, they're good enough to carry their teams to wins even when the rest of team may not be playing well.

Speaking of which, I wouldn't mind seeing Manny Harris go off because of the Fab Five flashback potential. I used to love those Fab Five teams and not since the days of the immortal Robert "Tractor" Traylor have the Wolverines done anything in March. I think Michigan is due for some help from the basketball gods.

It’s been a little over a week since the college football season ended, so now that the dust has settled and we’ve had a little bit of time to reflect and think about what exactly Tim Tebow does that causes sportscasters who are twice his age to turn into 12-year-old girls at a Jonas Brothers concert, we can now FINALLY put the 2008 season to bed.

But before we do that, I would first like to congratulate the Utah Utes on their triumphant national championship campaign this year. After destroying Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl and finishing the year as the lone undefeated team (13-0) in the FBS, they were very deserving of their national championship crown.

Note: Since in actuality Utah got screwed, the Utah Attorney General is looking into the possibility of pursuing legal action against the BCS, claiming anti-trust violations. It’s uncertain how far the AG is willing to go to pursue this, but with a little divine intervention from Brigham Young, I think Utah has a legit case to finally bring down the BCS.

What most Midwesterners will remember about the 2008 college football season was another collapse by the Big Ten in the postseason. After going 1-6 overall in the bowls and losing their sixth straight BCS game, everyone was ready to put the Big Ten on BCS probation.

There’ve been a lot of theories floating around trying to explain the Big Ten’s futility. Some of the most common ones are: lack of athletes, travel, warm weather, offensive style and the long layoff. I think all of these problems are fairly minor and range somewhere between myth and illusion. Here’s why…

Lack of athletes: In recent years some of the Big Ten teams have looked completely overmatched in the bowl games. The embarrassing fashion that they lose in makes it seem as though they are not fully equipped to compete with the SEC/Pac-10 teams. In reality, it doesn’t make sense that this happens. The Big Ten has had a lot of NFL-caliber players on their recent teams. Let’s take the 2006 teams for example and compare the number of NFL draftees they had to their opponents.

Rose Bowl – USC 32, Michigan 18
BCS Championship – Florida 41. Ohio State 14
Players drafted by NFL since these games:
USC - 15
Michigan – 13
Ohio State – 11
Florida – 10

Although there are some players who played in those games who are still yet to be drafted (Beanie Wells, Tebow, etc), this stat accounts for most of the older, more influential players in those games. The talent level was essentially equal across the board.

Travel: The Big Ten is at a slight disadvantage when it comes to travelling to bowl games because most of the games are in warm weather spots on the West Coast or the South. Though travel has an influence, these teams arrive at their bowl locations around a week in advance, so jetlag is no longer an issue.

A bigger issue might be the home-field advantage that USC gets in the Rose Bowl, LSU gets in the Sugar Bowl and Florida gets in the Orange Bowl. Although Big Ten fans are loyal and travel well, I would say the fans are usually distributed around 65-35 against the Big Ten. Not that big a deal, but it is factor nonetheless.

Warm Weather: I don’t buy when people say Big Ten football is built for the cold and therefore they don’t perform well in warm weather. That doesn’t make any sense because cold weather is only a factor for like two or three games in late November while warm weather is the ideal football situation. It would be like a golfer preferring to play on a windy day instead of a calm day. Though I believe Pac-10 teams would have A LOT of trouble if the Rose Bowl were played at Wrigley Field, all teams from all corners of the Earth should be capable of playing in warm weather.

Offensive Style: Time and time again, the Big Ten looks incapable of competing with the high powered offenses from other conferences. It just seems like the Big Ten style of play puts them at a disadvantage.

The best solution for this: PLAY BETTER DEFENSE.  If you don’t think it’s possible, just look at Super Bowl XLII. The Giants (with an average offense) were able to beat the Patriots, who had the best offense in NFL history, because they played superior defense. Big Ten teams are fully capable of playing lock down D. In fact, Ohio State nearly pulled it off against Texas simply because their defense played so well and kept Colt McCoy in check until the last drive of the game.

Long Layoff: The Big Ten is the first conference to end their season, finishing the Saturday before Thanksgiving. This usually gives them around 40 days off before their BCS game. For other schools, it’s usually around 30 days. There’s basically no difference between the two, both are ridiculously long breaks for a football team to be on. It wouldn't matter if it was 30, 40, 50 or 100 days.

Despite all of these perceived problems, I think the Big Ten’s problem has been overlooked and can be solved almost immediately. What all the teams need to do is…

PLAY A TOUGHER SCHEDULE.

After doing the research and "crunching the numbers" from the past three years (where the Big Ten went 0-6 in the BCS), I realized that the Big Ten has had one of the softest strength of schedules over the past three years, and was by far the softest in 2008. 

According to Jeff Sagarin’s strength of schedule rankings (which rates every team's SOS in Division I from 1 to 242, 1 being the toughest), the average SOS rank of the top-5 Big Ten teams this year was 55. The SEC was the highest with an average rank of 19.2 and the only other conference with a lower average rank than 28 was the Big East with 51.6.

Average SOS Rank of Top-5 teams

2006
Pac-10 - 7.8
SEC - 16.2
Big Ten - 37.4
Big East - 41.8
ACC - 52.4
Big 12 - 54.8

2007
Pac-10 - 15.2
SEC - 16.2
ACC - 38.6
Big Ten - 50.4
Big East - 51.2
Big 12 - 51.6

2008
SEC - 19.2
Pac-10 - 25.4
Big 12 - 27.2
ACC - 27.8
Big East - 51.6
Big Ten - 55

2008 Big Ten Top-5 Teams National Schedule Rank
Penn State - 55
Ohio State - 46
Iowa - 63
Mich. State - 41
Northwestern - 70

I think the Big Ten’s problems aren’t because the teams are not good enough to compete; it is simply because they are not prepared to compete.

Here’s a look at the out of conference games by the top-5 Big Ten teams in 2008.

Penn State (4-0): Coastal Carolina, Oregon State, @Syracuse, Temple
Ohio State (3-1): Youngstown State, Ohio, @ (1)USC, Troy
Michigan State (3-1): @Cal, Eastern Michigan, Florida Atlantic, Norte Dame
Iowa (3-1): Maine, Florida International, Iowa State, @Pitt
Northwestern (4-0): Syracuse, @Duke, Southern Illinois, Ohio

Out of the top-5 Big Ten teams, only one played a ranked out of conference game (OSU@USC). The Big Ten is simply not good enough for their teams to get away with playing such soft outside competition. Teams like Coastal Carolina, Duke, Youngstown State and Florida International/Atlantic do nothing to improve their teams. Ohio State might as well have had intrasquad scrimmages than play some of these games. Just look at the picture above and tell me Youngstown State doesn't look like a team you would see on Friday Night Lights. Beanie Wells looks like he's a counselor at Offense-Defense peewee summer camp.

In most facets of life, success comes through meaningful experience. A failure to challenge yourself makes it much harder to reach your potential through these experiences.

A 16-year-old kid doesn’t finish driving school and go to NASCAR the same way a 22-year-old kid doesn’t graduate from college and become the CEO of a company. These kids may eventually become talented enough, but they need to learn through experience to make sure they are ready to succeed when the reach the top. Big Ten teams are falling behind in bowl games because they don’t have enough experience playing against the top competition.

I have a feeling Big Ten teams are reluctant to schedule tough games because they know they have the easiest path to the title game out of all the conferences. They have a weaker league, only play eight conference games, they don't have a conference championship game and they end the earliest. As we’ve seen in recent years, the best team in the conference almost always goes undefeated or has one loss, which is basically all you need for consideration for the title game.

The only problem is…those teams have made the title game (2006-07 Ohio State) and then gotten exposed for being frauds.

Now that the credibility of the league is at an all-time low, it’s time to scrap that strategy and do something that makes the teams better. From now on they should ignore the local small schools (Youngstown, Ohio, Temple, Eastern Michigan, etc) and try to schedule games against middle of the pack teams from the SEC, Big East or Pac-10. Yes, this will lead to the Big Ten champion probably having two or three losses and not getting a chance to play for the championship, but at least they’ll be ready to hold their own in the Rose Bowl and possibly win the damn game one of these years.

And honestly, who really cares about the BCS championship game? As we saw this year, the real national champion didn’t even have to play in it.

After the latest Big Ten-BCS debacle at this year’s Rose Bowl (USC 38 Penn State 24), pundits nationwide have been taking shots at the conference. I mean EVERYBODY is piling on top of Penn State and the Big Ten. It seems like the cool thing to do thus far in 2009. Here are some examples…

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David Lubach of the Sheboygan Press in Wisconsin:
We should all be grateful for Iowa. Not that the Hawkeyes have the Big Ten's only victory in the bowls, but because they handed Penn State the loss that knocked the Nittany Lions out of the BCS Championship Game.

It's obvious after Thursday that Penn State clearly would not have belonged.

Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times:
In the end, it was the same old Rose Bowl story -- too much USC and too much Pac-10. The conference, savaged this year for going 1-6 against the Mountain West in the regular season, finished with a 5-0 record in the bowls.

The Big Ten fell to 1-5, with Ohio State still left to play Texas in the Fiesta Bowl.

There really have been memorable Big Ten moments in the Rose Bowl, and if you'll give me an hour I'll try to recount some.

Oh yeah: In the 1998 game, Michigan won the AP national title with a victory over Washington State. And Wisconsin, led by Ron Dayne, bull-rushed UCLA and Stanford the next two years, but since then it's the Big Zero.

You'd like to say better luck next year, but luck may have nothing to do with it.

Kurt Streeter, also of the LA Times:
So far this bowl season, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Minnesota and now the Big Ten champs have all suffered humiliating defeats. Forget about talk of college football playoffs; how about this simple, small change? Maybe the Rose Bowl should just ditch the hulking Midwestern clunkers altogether and form a new bond with somebody like the Western Athletic Conference. After today's 38-24 manhandling, USC vs. Boise State has a certain special ring to it. We'd probably get the same final result, but the games would probably be a whole lot more entertaining.

Arash Markazi of Fan Nation (a Sports Illustrated blog) was especially harsh on them:
Penn State's lackadaisical reaction to being disrespected and insulted was an extension of the way the Nittany Lions played throughout the Rose Bowl and really the way the Big Ten has played in BCS games the past three years (0-5 since 2006).

Ray Holloman of Fan House (an AOL Sports blog):
You beat a Big Ten team in a virtual home game in a BCS bowl. It isn't exactly curing the common cold and, statistically speaking, beating a Big Ten team in a BCS bowl game is exactly as likely as eventually catching a cold.

Lindsey White of the Chicago Daily Herald:
For the last two years, the six Bowl Championship Series computers have screamed to us - likely using Stephen Hawking's voice synthesizer - that human pollsters tragically overrate Big Ten teams.

(Here's what I mean: In this year's final regular-season polls, five Big Ten teams received votes from either the coaches or the Harris Interactive people. All five teams had a better average rank in the polls than with the computers, a few teams significantly so. In 2007, four of the five Big Ten teams that got votes in the final regular-season poll had a better poll average than computer average.)

And in each of the last two years, once it became too late for the computers to do anything, Big Ten schools have proven them right with their colossal bowl crudulence.

Finally, the Big Ten Network posted an article written on the Austin American-Statesman in Texas:

Asked if the Buckeyes have been unfairly criticized, cornerback Malcolm Jenkins [of Ohio State] said, "I wouldn't say unfairly. If I wasn't in this conference, I would probably say the same thing about us. I guess that's one way to prove how your conference is, how you play in the postseason."

Let's be real. The decline of the Big Ten is about so much more than two lopsided losses by the Buckeyes to SEC elite teams LSU and Florida. The Big Ten was fading before that and has lost five straight BCS games. With the Nittany Lions' loss, the Big Ten reps have dropped every Rose Bowl since Wisconsin's win in January 2000. Even Ohio State's national title in 2003 was tainted because of a late pass interference call.

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Yikes! Even I would admit that this has gotten a little ridiculous. Despite the fact that the Big Ten has been coming up small in bowl games for most of this decade, most of the nation has now become relentless. I’m not even sure what all these people want to do to fix it.

If Ohio State gets blown out by Texas on Monday, what happens then? Does the Big Ten lose its automatic bid to the Rose Bowl? Do they get replaced by the Mountain West for BCS bids? Do they get moved down to the FCS?  I wouldn’t even be surprised if LA Times pressures local legislature to pass a restraining order on Big Ten teams to keep them away from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

I said a couple weeks ago that the integrity of Ohio State and Big Ten football are at stake in this year’s Fiesta Bowl. Looking back at it, that ranks near the top of the all-time understatement department, slightly above “The Illinois senate situation is a mess” but still slightly below, “Amy Winehouse takes too many drugs.”

Good luck Terrelle Pryor, Beanie Wells, James Laurinaitis and the rest of the Buckeyes. The weight of the rest of “hulking Midwestern clunkers” in your conference rests on your shoulders.

The non-conference season for the Big Ten has to be considered a success at this point. The combined record of all the teams is 106-25 as of December 30, 2008, with Indiana (5-7) being the only team below a .750 winning percentage. Because of the hot start, I decided to hand out some awards before the Big Ten gets basketballs deep into conference play.

Best Team
Purdue gets the slight nod over Illinois, Ohio State and Michigan State despite losing to Oklahoma and getting crushed by Duke at home. A lot of times, teams that have a dominant player are able to win tough games because they have someone to rely on in crunch time. Even though Davidson was a decent team last year, they only made it to the Elite 8 because their best player, Stephen Curry, caught fire and was able to carry them. Robbie Hummel is good enough to do that, which makes Purdue more dangerous than the other Big Ten teams.

Worst Team
This season was over before it started for Indiana. The effects of the Kelvin Sampson era to Indiana basketball is similar to what a Navajo teepee goes through when simultaneously getting hit by a hurricane, earthquake, napalm and a forest fire. Nothing can really be expected of a team who’s highest scoring returning player, Kyle Taber, averaged 1.3 ppg last year, but this team would struggle in the Ivy League.

The “Archbishop Don Magic Juan Award” for the Big Ten’s biggest baller
Also the winner of the “Devin Harris Award” for the player who out of nowhere has morphed into an absolute beast on the court goes to Manny Harris of Michigan. He’s currently second in the league in scoring, sixth in rebounding and fifth in assists. He’s also had a 30 point game (second highest in league), a 15 rebound game (second highest) and a 13 assist game (highest in the league). This guy is playing his ace off. He’s spent the first 11 games of this season doing his best Oscar Robertson impression.

The “Old Spice Bodywash/ Ford F-150/ Miller High-Life Manly Man Award” for the team with the toughest schedule
Michigan has played No. 4 UCLA, No. 5 Duke twice and Maryland on the road. When you play three of your first eight games against top five teams and win two of them, that is what is called "Manning Up."

The “Bromance Award” for the team with the softest schedule
Penn State hasn’t played a ranked team and their only BCS conference game was against Georgia Tech by way of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. Anytime you have NJIT on your schedule, you are as soft as a cotton ball wrapped in wet Kleenex.

The “Paul Shirley Award” for the best blog from a 12th man on a basketball team
Club Trillion is a blog written by Ohio State benchwarmer Mark “The Shark” Titus. Basically, he documents how he and a couple of his buddies on his team (who are also benchwarmers) pull pranks on each other and while remaining nonfactors in the Ohio State basketball program. It’s quite hilarious.

Best Win
December 6, 2008: Michigan 81, 4) Duke 73 – Anytime Duke loses a game, I get a little extra hop in my step that day. Anyhtime Duke loses to an unranked team, as MSNBC’s Chris Matthews says, “I feel a thrill going up my leg.”

Worst Loss
December 28, 2008: Lipscomb 74, Indiana 69 – I know this team is a teepee that has recently undergone mass destruction, but come on. I really wanted to give this award to Michigan State for getting their aces handed to them by UNC, but I mean… Indiana blew a 21-POINT LEAD TO LIPSCOMB AT HOME.

The “FEMA Award” for person most responsible for picking up the pieces of an epic disaster
Indiana coach Tom Crean should be doing anything in his power (within the rules of course) to get the best possible recruits for the next couple of years. He should be visiting high schools more often than Matthew McConaughey does in “Dazed and Confused.”

The “Steve Smith Award” for most common name in the Big Ten
PJ Hill – Ohio State, as opposed to PJ Hill – Wisconsin. Considering my name is ChiChi, I’ve always had a soft spot for interesting names. Here are a couple more deserving award winners in the name department…

The “Reggie Cleveland Award” for the white guy with the best black name
Colton Iverson – Minnesota

The “Troy O’Leary Award” for the black guy with the best white name
Dallas Lauderdale – Ohio State

The “Jrue Holliday Award” for the craziest spelling of a common name
Wquinton Simth – Wisconsin (pronounced QUINT-ton). As of now, Wquinton is the leader in the clubhouse for my future second son’s middle name.

That was fun, now back to the “regular” awards.

The “Grey Beard Award” for the top senior
Craig Moore of Northwestern gets the nod in a pretty weak senior class thus far.

The “Muff Stubble Award” for the top freshman
Tom Pritchard – Indiana

The “Manning-Tyree Helmet Catch Award” for the best play
Durrell Summers’ 3-pointer to beat Texas on December 20, 2008. ONIONS!

The “Kim Kardashian Award” for best recovery from a potentially career-crippling embarrassing moment
Stanley Pringle from Penn State wins in a landslide. Just read this…

The “New York Mets Award” for the team off to a hot start that is most likely to collapse
I wouldn’t be too excited about Minnesota’s 12-0 start just yet. Tubby Smith is a great coach that has his team playing well, but wins over Concorida, High Point, North Dakota State, South Dakota State and my beloved Cornell doesn’t automatically make you a contender. The win against Louisville is very sweet though.

The “Jason Biggs in American Pie Award” for the team that may have peaked too soon
Michigan is the only team in the nation that has beaten two top-5 teams already and somehow they remain unranked. Hopefully for them, that wasn’t the high point of their season. They need to continue the strong play throughout the Big Ten season to get an NCAA tournament bid. Those big out of conference wins would be a huge trump card come Selection Sunday if they’re on the bubble.

The “Tom and Jerry Award” for the most lopsided rivalry
Our final award goes to the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Since its inception in 1999, the ACC is now 10-0 in the challenge. Even this year, with the Big Ten teams dominating their out of conference schedules, they were only able to win five out of 11 games. This year’s most damaging blow was when each conference’s most storied programs played (UNC v. Mich State) and the Spartans got completely decimated. It’s too bad because I think the Big Ten is as strong as the ACC this year. They can only prove it with a strong in-conference showing and by putting some teams in the Big Dance this year.

The Big Ten announced last Thursday that the 2009 Big Ten Baseball Tournament will be held at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio, home of the Triple-A Columbus Clippers. In the past, the conference championship had been held at the home of the team with the best regular season record. The conference hierarchy is pretty pumped up to finally have the tournament at a “neutral” site.

“We are excited to announce that the 2009 Big Ten Baseball Tournament will be held at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio,” said Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany. “Moving the baseball tournament to a neutral site will allow the conference office and the local organizing committee to promote this event throughout the season.

Technically, Huntington Park is a neutral site because none of the Big Ten teams actually play their home games there, but I’m pretty sure the Ohio State University will still be in Columbus as of 2009. I agree that establishing a set site for the tournament is a huge advantage for the conference in terms of marketing and promotions, and a very good move for all postseason tournaments. This gives people a chance to get tickets and travel set up for for the tournament weeks in advance, as opposed to scrambling for it after the regular season winner is declared.

That being said, this site is hardly neutral and the NCAA falls into this trap all the time. This is like the college basketball game this past weekend between UConn and Gonzaga that was considered to be at a neutral site even though the game was played in Seattle. Or better yet, the Rose Bowl, which is considered to be at a neutral site even though Penn State has to travel 2500 miles to get there while USC has to go like 10 miles.

The tournament being played in Columbus would be a huge advantage for Ohio State if: a) college baseball fans actually existed and b) home field advantage actually meant anything in baseball.

Regardless, never underestimate the effect of traveling hundreds of miles and staying in a hotel for a week. The disadvantage to playing on the road is not necesarily playing at the other team's stadium, but its the long hours spent on a bus or plane, followed by lying in bed at a Residence Inn, watching the Discovery Channel while waiting for the 10 pm bed check. Then, because there's literally nothing else to do, going to bed at some ridiculously early time like 11:30. This throws off a college athlete's bodily clock more than cross country travel does.

While every other team is trekking to Columbus during finals week next May to play this tournament, the Ohio State baseball team will be sitting at home, doing what every other student does during finals week: eating, sleeping, drinking and playing Call of Duty on ps3.

My choice for the Big Ten Baseball Championship would have been the Field of Dreams in Dubuque County, Iowa. It’s neutral (75 miles from Univ. of Iowa), has national appeal and is already a tourist attraction. This is guaranteed to increase interest in the Big Ten tournament, which was the goal in the first place. Without a doubt, if the Big Ten hierarchy build it, people will come.

State College, Pennsylvania remained the volleyball capital of America Saturday when No. 1 Penn State women’s volleyball defeated No. 2 Stanford to capture their second consecutive national champion in Omaha, NE. Sandwiched between the two women’s national championships was a title by the men’s team at Penn State this past May.

This championship capped off a historic season by the Nittany Lions, who became the fourth team in Division I women’s history to have an undefeated season. Over the course of their 38-0 season, they won an amazing 114 out of 116 games played. They also extended their NCAA-record winning streak to 64 games, their last loss coming to this Stanford team on Sept. 15, 2007.

So now when deciding the greatest teams in sports history, the 2008 Penn State women’s volleyball team deserves to be in the discussion along with the other historic teams that always come up. My all-time top ten, in no particular order is: 2008 Penn State women’s volleyball, 1927 and 1998 New York Yankees, 1996 Chicago Bulls, 1985 Chicago Bears, 2007 Northwestern women’s lacrosse, 2005 USC football, 2001 Los Angeles Xtreme, the James Van Der Beek’s team in Varsity Blues and the 2008 Obama campaign team.

And finally, the top 3 reasons why you should watch the Big Ten this bowl season.

Capital One Bowl: (18) Michigan State v. (15) Georgia
January 1, 2009 12:00 pm CST ABC
3. Javon Ringer v. Knowshon Moreno is a heavyweight running back bout with NFL Draft implications

This matchup features the two finalists for the Doak Walker Award (nation’s top running back) who ended up losing out on the award to Iowa’s Shonn Greene. The story of the Big Ten this year has been the strong play of their running backs. Between PJ Hill, Shonn Greene, Javon Ringer, Tyrell Sutton from Northwestern and Beanie Wells from Ohio State, most of the Big Ten’s best offenses have revolved around the running game. Michigan State is no different, relying on Javon Ringer for about 40 percent of their offensive production. Both he and Georgia's running back Knowshon Moreno will be going shot-for-shot in this game, hoping to both win the game and heighten their stock for the 2009 NFL Draft.

Though I love watching dominant running games and think they are essential for a good offense, the reliance on running the ball is a reason why the Big Ten has struggled on the national stage in recent years. Conferences like the Big 12, SEC and Pac-10 have much more high powered passing games that simply overmatch anything the Big Ten has to offer.  Big Ten teams tend to be less comfortable with throwing the ball 35-45 times, which leads them to get overwhelmed by other high scoring conferences.

The highest ranked Big Ten bowl team in passing yards this season is Penn State at 35th in the country. There are 24 bowl teams ranked higher than the Big Ten’s highest passing team, including six teams from the Big 12. During the bowl season, the Big Ten style of play is the equivalent to bringing a sword to a gun fight. It can win some times, but they’re starting at a severe disadvantage. In a fight between Beatrix Kiddo from Kill Bill (Uma Thurman's character) and Doc Holliday the old school gunslinger from the Wild West, I would take Holliday. Even though Kiddo is a martial arts expert with the sword and knows the "Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique", all Holliday needs is one bullet to win the fight. Javon Ringer is a nice sword, but Michigan State may not have the necessary artillery to win.

Rose Bowl: (8) Penn State v. (5) Southern California
January 1, 2009 3:30 pm CST ABC
2.  Joe Paterno

Joe Parterno has now become a mythical figure worthy of consideration as the eighth wonder of the world. After signing a three year contract extension this week and winning Big Ten Coach of the Year, I’m convinced that he is capable of anything. The reason being… he doesn’t even have to coach to be considered a good coach. How does a head coach who sits in the press box without a headset on earn Coach of the Year status? The way things are going, he’ll be coaching Penn State in 2011 from his living room while flipping the channels between the Penn State game and Antiques Roadshow on PBS.

He’s merely a spectator on game day. He has no contact with his players, the coaches on the field or the referees. I’m not even convinced he knows the names of every player on his team. In fact, I’d be willing to bet $1000 that he couldn’t name every freshman on his team. And if he can, he truly is the eighth wonder. Anyone who is 82 years old and can remember that many names is basically Rain Man.

The player-coach relationship in college sports is interesting because the coach becomes your surrogate father for four years. They demand a lot from their players, but are usually very grateful and proud of their players for succeeding. My question is whether or not Paterno is capable of holding relationships with his players anymore. He has grandchildren that are older than most of his players. Honestly, what does Paterno say to a 19-year-old sophomore cornerback from West Philadelphia? I really wish there was more investigation as to what it is that Paterno does that allows him to remain the coach at such an advanced age. It boggles my mind.

PS. The Nittany Lions are playing against the best defense I’ve ever seen in the Rose Bowl. USC has allowed more than 10 points only twice this year and are giving up around 7 per game. Yikes! The Eight Wonder will have his work cut out for him.

PPS. These two teams, ranked fifth and eighth, have as much a right as Florida and Oklahoma to play in the championship game. As a matter of fact, those four teams along with Alabama, Texas, Texas Tech and Utah could all argue that they deserve to be ranked either No. 1 or 2. All those teams had one loss this year, except for Utah who was undefeated. Interestingly enough, that makes eight one loss or undefeated teams. That seems like a perfect amount of teams to have in a playoff. Hmm…

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: (10) Ohio State v. (3) Texas
January 5, 2009 7:00 pm CST Fox
1. The integrity of Ohio State football is at stake

Here’s a recap of the Buckeye’s big non-conference games from the last three seasons.
2006 National Championship – (1) Florida 41, (2) Ohio State 14
2007 National Championship – (2) LSU 38, (1) Ohio State 24
September 13, 2008 – (1) USC 35, (5) Ohio State 3

The last three marquee games Ohio State has played have been complete disasters. I still remember Ted Ginn Jr. returning the opening kickoff two years ago against Florida and thinking they had a chance. Shortly afterwards, Troy Smith introduced the 17-step drop to the nation while Florida defensive linemen were running untouched into the backfield.

I also remember Beanie Wells breaking off a 65 yard run in the first quarter against LSU last year and thinking they had a chance. Shortly afterwards, Glenn Dorsey and the LSU defense destroyed the OSU offense.

I also remember earlier this season when OSU was battling USC tough for most of the first quarter and took a 3-0 lead. Ohio State almost lured me into believing again, but I remained skeptical. I proved to be right because shortly afterwards, Mark Sanchez turned into Brett Favre in the Wrangler Jeans commercial. He was throwing darts all over the field and everyone on USC was laughing and smiling like this was the easiest game they've ever played.

Now, in 2008-09, this Fiesta Bowl is the BIGGEST game in Ohio State’s history. For the sake of their program and the millions of insufferable Buckeye fans across the country, they have to be competitive in this game. They don’t even have to win. They just can’t get run off the field like they have their last three big games.

If they do, Ohio State and the Big Ten will take a huge hit. It’s possible that AP voters will start to view the Big Ten as more comprable to the Mountain West than the Big 12. If they lose big in this game, Ohio State in particular should be nowhere near the BCS for a minimum of five years. They should be treated in the rankingst the way Utah, BYU, Boise State, TCU and Hawaii are treated. I don’t care if Ohio State goes undefeated and the rest of the teams in the country have two losses, they should now get mid-major treatment and have to play in the Poinsettia Bowl.

This is the Big Ten bowl game that is a must-watch because the integrity of the league’s most storied program is on the line. This game will either be a night of redemption or a funeral for the ol’ Buckeyes.

Javon Ringer picture, Joe Paterno picture, Ohio State picture

Insight Bowl: Minnesota v. Kansas
December 31, 2008 4:30 pm CST NFL Network
5. The combined weight of the two coaches in the Minnesota-Kansas game is approximately 588 lbs.

Minnesota coach Tim Brewster is a pretty big dude. The former two-time All-Big Ten tight end at Illinois has lost some weight since his playing days, but still probably weighs somewhere between 190-200 lbs. That being said, the combined weight of him and his opposing coach Kansas's Mark Mangino is roughly 588 lbs with 10 percent error.

Seriously, Mangino can easily weigh anywhere between 350-510 lbs. He's a great coach, he has resurrected the football program at Kansas, he won every Coach of the Year award known to man in 2007 and he's absolutely stunning to look at in HD. Even if you don't have any interest in these two teams, watching Mangino rumble up and down the sidelines is well worth the price of admission.

After starting the season 7-1, Minnesota has fallen apart in the last four games, going 0-4 and losing their regular season finale 55-0 to Iowa. I don't know what their strategy will be against Kansas's high-powered offense, but if things start to get ugly for the Golden Gophers, as a last resort I recommend they revert to one of the oldest tricks in the books: Yo Momma jokes. In this instance, instead of Yo Momma, they can go with "Yo Coach." For example...

Yo Coach so fat, the last time he saw 90210 was on the scale.
Or
Yo Coach so fat, he has to iron his pants in the driveway.

Honestly, if that doesn't work. I don't know what will.

Outback Bowl: Iowa v. South Carolina
January 1, 2009 10:00 am CST ESPN
4. Shonn Greene is a BEAST (and the best player in the Big Ten)

There's no better cure for a hangover than waking up and watching a running back that runs like a boulder rolling down a hill. When you see Shonn Greene careening off would-be tacklers and running over everyone in sight, you'll realize your headache can't be as bad as what the South Carolina defense feels.

Greene has been unstoppable this year, running for at least 100 yards in each game and totaling 1729 yards, second in the nation. He's another example of why I think power running backs are the most valuable commodity in football. Running backs like Greene are not only more consistent on a game-to-game basis than faster, more elusive backs; they also strike a fear in the defense that other players can't approximate. Guys like Greene are a defense's worst nightmare.

There's nothing more humiliating for a defensive player than getting run over by a ball carrier. On top of that, it's usually pretty painful too. So when a running back is a threat to do that every time he touches the ball, it subconsciously changes the way the defenders play the game. In an attempt to avoid getting pummeled and becoming a highlight on Sportscenter, defensive players devise alternate tackling techniques, and usually dive at the ball carrier's legs. This decreases the chance of pain and humiliation, but also increases the chance of missing the tackle completely; thus making the power running back even more effective. This vicious cycle affects the whole defense and makes big backs so valuable.

Basically, if the S. Carolina d-line doesn't take care of Greene before he gets to the smaller defenders in the open field, Greene will punish the Gamecocks.

The top 3 to be continued...

Minnesota picture, Shonn Greene picture

We all know the BCS system is a convoluted mess. At this point, there's really no argument to support it, so it's not worth talking about. Because everyone is focused on the BCS mess, people tend to overlook the ever increasing amount of bowl games we have now. This year, an NCAA record 34 bowl games are scheduled. That means 68 out of the 119 FBS teams are playing in bowl games this year. That's more than half (57%) the teams.

Luckily for Big Ten fans, 7 of the 11 teams in the conference are involved in this year's bowl season and unbelievably, Michigan isn't one of them. Since none of those seven teams are playing for the national title, here are seven reasons why to watch the seven Big Ten teams in this year's bowl season, broken into 3 parts.

Champs Sports Bowl: Wisconsin v. Florida State
December 27, 2008 3:30 pm CST ESPN
7.  P.J. Hill is the second coming of Ron Dayne

Since the day P.J. Hill stepped on the Wisconsin campus in 2005, the comparisons between him and former Wisconsin great Ron Dayne have been inescapable. Hill and Dayne are both from the East Coast, both power running backs, both around 5'11" and 240 lbs and both started for the Badgers as freshmen and ran for 1000 yards. Although it would seem like a compliment to be compared to the NCAA all-time leading rusher, Hill has downplayed the link between them.

In an espn.com piece that ran last summer, Hill said, "I don't like to be compared to anyone, although that's a good guy to be compared to. Everybody wants to have their own running style. I don't want people to say I run like Ron Dayne. I want them to say he runs like P.J. Hill."

Although the similarities between these two backs are eerie, Hill's career hasn't played out exactly like Dayne's did. No doubt Hill has played well, but he'll need to run for about 3,400 yards next season to break Dayne's rushing record. It should be pointed out that unlike Dayne, Hill has vowed to not let his weight be a problem. In that same piece, Mark Schlabach wrote, "When he was 8, Hill locked himself in the boiler room of his family's apartment building and dressed himself in plastic bags to sweat off extra pounds."

Now that's the type of determination the Giants should have looked for before drafting Dayne. In fact, Dayne was so disinterested in losing weight and staying in shape when he was in the NFL that he ended up looking like Professor Klump shuffling around a science lab. I suspect this is why Hill doesn't want to be compared to Dayne. Hill is a hard-worker and he'll break out for a huge game against Florida State at the Citrus Bowl.

Alamo Bowl: (23) Northwestern v. (21) Missouri
December 29, 2008 7:00 pm CST ESPN
6.  Northwestern will win their first bowl game since 1949 in honor of the late Randy Walker

Being a high school football recruit in Fairfield, CT is a different experience than what most recruits around the country face.Within 200 miles of my house, there's like three Division I-A football teams and probably 5000 I-AA schools. Needless to say, when I was a junior in high school, I was getting recruited mostly by Ivy League and liberal arts schools in the area. Though I always wanted to play Division I-A football, I was starting to think that I wasn't Division I caliber. That was until I got a call before my senior year from Randy Walker, then the head coach at Northwestern.

When Coach Walker told me that Northwestern was actively recruiting me, I couldn't believe it. Though it took me until the signing day deadline to decide to go to Cornell over Northwestern, Coach Walker's letters and phone calls throughout the recruiting process gave me a boost of confidence in my athletic ability that carried me for the rest of my football career. For the first time I felt like a legitimate, big-time college football recruit.

When I saw that Randy Walker died unexpectedly on June 26, 2006 of a heart attack, it really made me sad. I couldn't imagine how the Northwestern players were coping with such a tragedy. After two tough seasons, they've responded this year with a 9-3 record and a matchup against a very good Missouri team.

I usually don't believe in teams posthumously dedicating sports games to people because someone's life means much more than a just one game, but I think it would be fitting if the seniors on this team (who were recruited by Walker) were the ones to break Northwestern's 60 year bowl victory drought.

The top 5 reasons to be continued...

PJ Hill picture, Ron Dayne picture, Northwestern picture, BCS picture