What is up Badger fanatics? It’s Friday and that means one thing here, it’s time to go around the world of the Big Ten and give you the goods about all our wonderful frenimies around the Midwest.
Before we get started with the main course, let’s take a moment to remember what could have been – Yes, I’m talking about the Big Ten/Pac-12 scheduling agreement. It’s officially off the table now, so bow your heads in silence… O.k., that’s a bit much but here are the statements from the commissioners of both leagues: (screw you Pac-12).
Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott:
“After extensive deliberation and consultation with member institutions, television partners and oth- ers, the Pac-12 and Big Ten have decided not to pursue the previously announced plans for enhanced scheduling collaboration across all sports at this time. While we continue to value our close relation- ship, particularly our partnership in the Rose Bowl, the Pac-12 came to the conclusion that it’s in our best interests to maintain our 9-game conference schedule and maximum flexibility in out-of- conference scheduling. Thus, the Pac-12 decided not to lock into the proposed mandatory 12-game schedule in football.”
Big Ten Commissioner James E. Delany:
“We are disappointed to announce today that the Big Ten Pac-12 strategic collaboration announced jointly in December 2011 unfortunately will not be consummated. We recently learned from Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott that the complications associated with coordinating a non-conference foot- ball schedule for 24 teams across two conferences proved to be too difficult. Those complications, among other things, included the Pac-12’s nine-game conference schedule and previous non- conference commitments.
A great effort was made by both conference staffs to create football schedules that would address the variety of complexities, but in the end, we were just not able to do so.”
Alrighty then… it was nice knowing you while you were around. Seriously, I feel like we all just got dumped by that girl who strung you along on dates two, three, and four, only to tell you she sees you as a friend. You know the “friend” that you only see once a year if you’re lucky. Blahhhhh, so much for helping the fans out.
Now back to regularly scheduled linking…..
Of course much of the talk this week has been on the Penn State scandal and rightfully so, so we’re gonna start with some of the best reactions from around the conference and go from there. Sit back, open your favorite beverage, and enjoy!
Naturally, any talk of the JoePa incident needs to start with our Penn State friends at The Nittany Lions Den where they have had a great amount of coverage. First they ask if the Paterno statue should be torn down, then they also have not one, but two interviews from after the Freeh report was released. There’s much more said on the site, so do some digging around, it’s all top notch and not full of “apologies” for JoePa.
Crimson Quarry stays in the relm of basketball… It’s been nearly a month since they’ve talked anything of substance regarding football, and even then it was a retrospective on the death Terry Hoeppner, but I digress. Christian Watford made Hoosier nation proud this week winning an ESPY for his buzzer beater against Kentucky.
While things are a bit quite on the Illini blogging front the folks from IlliniHQ (newspaper site) are beginning to countdown the 50 most important Illini to the 2012 football season.
Staying in the state to the south Northwestern blog Lake the Posts gave the low down on the two newest recruits, oh and the 2012 basketball schedule was released (boy wouldn’t that be nice, huh Badger fans? Huh?).
Also, if you missed the Big Ten Mascots doing “Call Me Maybe” well, here you go:
If you noticed a few mascots were missing… Well, Sippin’ On Purple sets the record straight and it appears as if a few people making this one dropped the ball… Willie the Wildcat and Purdue Pete’s numbers must have gotten lost?
Fellow Bloguiners at The Buckeye Housecall have undergone some changes, but look no further than new site Buckeye Empire to pick up where it left off a bit. They claim that “Cornerback University Lives.” They also took a deeper look into the dismissal of Storm Klein and the legal mess he’s got himself into.
Black Heart Gold Pants is looking into the 1921-22 team that will be honored with throwback uniforms against Iowa State (BEAT IOWA…. but I digress) for all you history buffs out there.
Oh, and if you didn’t know… WRESTLING is freakin’ huge in Iowa and the Hawkeyes released their schedule earlier this week.
What about our wonderful Lake Michigan, Lake Superior sharing brethren to the east? Well, Michigan State blog The Only Colors started a series of looking at it’s 2012 football opponents with Boise State.
Big Brother Michigan blog MGoBlog gives you recruiting and chart loving folks plenty to look at as they update the “standings.” Fellow blog Maize ‘N Blue Nation does a great job of asking “What’s Next for Penn State Football?”
Now for our least favorite subject…. The Gophers…. Well, if you hated that video above you can blame Goldy and his 1980’s video recorder for that!! He started it, I swear he did! But on the ice the Hockey Gophers got a pick me up yesterday when Nick Bjugstad announced he was coming back for his junior year.
And lest we forget the fine folks at Purdue… Is there such thing as the wrong kind of optimism? They ask that very question at Boiled Sports. They also take a look ahead to the football season and ask “If everyone calls you a darkhorse winner, are you really a darkhorse anymore?”
Finally, we leave you with this nugget from CornNation… Their preview of our beloved Badgers! Seriously, if you are considering a trip to Lincoln and these folks are going to be there, it’s worth buying them a beer. They were great guys when we got a chance to hook up with them at a few watering holes in Madison last year.
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