In this week’s episode, the guys provide the latest weekly update on on suspensions, injuries, and obscure NCAA Rules. They also breakdown the ACC and Big Ten for the 2011-12 season. And they review the B.I.A.H. All-Name Team, always a highlight of every preseason for college basketball fans across the country.

Click play on the player below to listen:

How to subscribe to The Bottoms Line College Basketball Podcast:

• Subscribe to the the Midwest Sports Fans Podcast on iTunes
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And since the Big 10 is the official conference of record for us here at Midwest Sports Fans, it only makes sense that our first college football freeroll contest with the guys at Daily Joust is Big 10-focused.

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]]> http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/2011/10/fantasy-college-football-enter-the-free-250-big-10-fantasy-college-football-challenge/feed/ 0 http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/2011/09/why-isnt-notre-dame-already-in-the-big-ten/ http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/2011/09/why-isnt-notre-dame-already-in-the-big-ten/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:45:45 +0000 Josh Tinley http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/?p=37055 The obvious answer to this question is, “Well, most schools aren’t in the Big Ten.”

One could just as easily ask, “Why isn’t Cincinnati in the Big Ten,” or, “Why isn’t Ball State in the Big Ten?” (Actually, don’t be surprised when you see my “Why isn’t Iowa State in the Big Ten?” article.)

But Notre Dame is different.

Not only is Notre Dame situated near the center of the Big Ten’s geographical footprint, but it also has existing football rivalries with Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue.

Notre Dame is third on the list of the all-time winningest college football program, joining Big Ten schools Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State in the top ten. (I’m focusing on football because football was largely responsible for the formation of the major athletic conferences and because football continues to drive conference expansion and realignment today.)

The Big Ten, more than any other major conference, cherishes and guards its academic reputation. And Notre Dame, by almost any measure, is an academically elite institution.

More significantly, the Big Ten wants Notre Dame.

The richest conference in America—a league that dominates the region in which Notre Dame resides and whose members get to be part of a prestigious collective of top-flight research universities—has been courting Notre Dame for two decades, and America’s favorite Catholic football-playing university has consistently responded, “No  thanks. We’re good.”

Why?

Fighting Irish football players raise their helmets to Notre Dame students, who passed a resolution opposing Big Ten membership. (Source: Wikipedia)

Last weekend, Syracuse and Pittsburgh announced their intentions to leave the Big East for the ACC. Rumor has it that Connecticut and Rutgers could follow.

Notre Dame needs the Big East to provide a home for it’s non-football programs. Were the Big East, as we know it now, to fall apart (and it looks now like it probably won’t), the Irish could find themselves in need of a new conference for their basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, and Olympic sports teams.

Notre Dame may even have to eschew football independence to maintain an affiliation with a major conference. (I doubt that we’ll hear Father Jenkins announce in a press conference, “We’ve decided to join the Horizon League in all sports except football.”)

The ESPN ticker on Monday cited sources who said that, if Notre Dame football were to join a conference, it would join the ACC, not the Big Ten. Yahoo’s Dan Whetzel earlier this week wrote a column explaining why Notre Dame should head for the ACC. He cites population trends (Rust Belt states are growing slowly or not at all, while southern and mid-Atlantic states are blowing up) and argues that Notre Dame would stand out as the ACC’s top game day destination (as opposed to being in the Big Ten, where the Irish would have to compete for that distinction with Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin, etc.).

In the ACC Notre Dame would join former rivals Miami and Florida State and private, sectarian schools such as Duke and Boston College.

Would Notre Dame really join the ACC before the Big Ten, given its location and historic rivalries? For that matter, why isn’t Notre Dame in the Big Ten already? The Irish played a century’s worth of elite football in the middle of the Big Ten’s neighborhood. Why didn’t the league bring in Notre Dame decades ago?

It’s complicated.

There have been times when Notre Dame would have done anything short of blasphemy to get into the Big Ten, and there have been times when the Big Ten would have done anything short of renaming itself the Archdiocese of Football to add Notre Dame to its roster. But there has never been an occasion when both parties were interested in each other at the same time.

Rockne’s Crusade

When the presidents of Northwestern, Purdue, and the Universities of Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin founded the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives (later known as the Big Ten) in 1896, Notre Dame—though growing in prestige and enrollment—was just one of many private, sectarian universities in the Midwest.

Knute Rockne: He wanted the Big Ten, but the Big Ten didn't want him. (Source: Wikipedia)

In 1887 a group of football players from the University of Michigan taught the game to Notre Dame students. Though Notre Dame’s football team had some success in the late nineteenth century, the program was hardly remarkable.

That changed in 1913 when Jesse Harper took over as head football coach. In Harper’s first season, Notre Dame scored wins over national powers Army, Penn State, and Texas. In 5 seasons under Harper, Notre Dame went 34-5-1.

The program’s success continued after Knute Rockne took over as head coach in 1918. During Rockne’s tenure, Notre Dame completed five undefeated seasons and won the 1925 Rose Bowl.

In 1926 Notre Dame, having established itself as the home of one of the nation’s elite football programs, applied for admission to the Big Ten. The league had expressed interest in expansion and was considering adding Michigan State. Rockne visited the Big Ten schools, making his case for Notre Dame. Michigan was opposed to adding the Catholic school from South Bend; Chicago and Illinois weren’t warm to the idea either.

(Chicago football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg accused Notre Dame of using its prep school as a four-year training program for its football team. In truth, Notre Dame no longer operated a prep school by the time it applied for Big Ten membership. Michigan coach Fielding Yost accused Notre Dame of developing players for five or six years in its intramural program before promoting them to varsity.)

Though the student paper at the University of Minnesota published an editorial in favor of adding Notre Dame and Nebraska (and changing the name of the conference to the Big 12), the league voted 6-4 against expansion. Opposition to Notre Dame could have stemmed from anti-Catholic prejudice, a dislike of Rockne, rumors of impropriety, or a combination of the three. And even then there were some in the Notre Dame community who didn’t want the school to give up its athletic independence.

(You can read the full account of Notre Dame’s 1926 appeal for Big Ten admission in chapter 23 of Shake Down the Thunder, available through Google Books.)

When the University of Chicago left the Big Ten in 1946, Notre Dame—along with Nebraska, Iowa State, Pittsburgh, and Marquette—were considered as possible replacements. In 1949 the league settled on Michigan State.

A Changing Landscape

Notre Dame and the Big Ten would flirt with each other again, perhaps most notably in 1999.

Today only 4 Division I-FBS schools are independent in football: Notre Dame, Army (which was a football-only member of Conference USA before the Great Realignment of 2004–2005), Navy (which the Big East was reportedly preparing to invite as a football-only member before Pitt and Syracuse bolted), and BYU (which left the Mountain West earlier this year and is reportedly one of the top schools on the Big 12′s wish list). All four schools are members of conferences for all sports other than football. (Notre Dame is in the Big East; Army and Navy are in the Patriot League; and BYU is in the West Coast Conference.)

As recently as the early 1990s, there was nothing unusual about being an independent, in football or in general. 26 schools were football independents during the 1990 season, among them Notre Dame, Florida State, Penn State, Miami, South Carolina, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia.

The following year the Big East decided to sponsor football and welcomed former independents Miami, Rutgers, Temple, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia as football-only members. Penn State would soon join the Big Ten, Florida State the ACC, and South Carolina the SEC. Louisville, Cincinnati, Memphis, Southern Mississippi, and Tulane would form Conference USA.

Television dollars were largely responsible for the change in landscape.

From the birth of television until the 1980s, the NCAA negotiated all television contracts for its member schools. After a series of legal battles (including one spearheaded by Notre Dame itself), member schools won the ability to enter into their own agreements with television networks. Since TV networks preferred negotiating with conferences instead of with dozens of individual schools, many independent schools decided they were better off joining leagues.

But Notre Dame didn’t need a conference to strike a football deal with NBC in 1991.

Before long Notre Dame was the only high-profile football program to maintain its independence. In 1995, the Irish joined the Big East in all sports other than football.

“Catholic, Private, Independent”

Meanwhile the Big Ten, which had added Penn State as an eleventh member, was courting Notre Dame as a twelfth. In December 1998 the university’s Faculty Senate voted 24-5 in favor of pursuing membership in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), the academic wing of the Big Ten.

The Big Ten schools, along with the University of Chicago (who left the league in 1946) founded the CIC in 1958 as a research cooperative. But the cost of joining the CIC would be Notre Dame’s athletic teams—and particularly the football team—joining the Big Ten, and that was not a price that the school was willing to pay.

In February 1999 then Notre Dame president Father Edward Malloy released a statement including the following:

The process of sharing information with the Big Ten and CIC has been of great value to Notre Dame. It encouraged us to consider a variety of issues integral to our pursuit of academic and athletic excellence, as well as to our distinct mission as a Catholic university. We have great respect for both the academic stature and the athletic integrity of the Big Ten universities.

Why, then, not take the ultimate step in partnership and become a member of the Big Ten? That answer, in the end result, transcends the many individual factors, academic and athletic, that weigh either for or against conference affiliation. Ultimately, the answer lies in the institutional identity of Notre Dame, its overarching definition. Just as the Universities of Michigan or Wisconsin or Illinois have core identities as the flagship institutions of their states, so Notre Dame has a core identity, and at that core are these characteristics—Catholic, private, independent.

Malloy noted that Notre Dame would have been, by far, the smallest Big Ten member. Northwestern, who has an undergraduate population similar to Notre Dame’s has three-times as many postgraduates.

Notre Dame also would have been the only Big Ten school with a religious affiliation. (Northwestern was founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church but severed formal ties with the church decades ago.) All of the existing Big Ten schools—save Nebraska, which got booted earlier this year—are members of the American Association of Universities (AAU), a collective of 59 of the top research universities in North America.

When you look at the AAU’s roster, you’ll notice that many of the nation’s best religiously affiliated schools, including Notre Dame, are not on it. The Catholic University of America, for instance, left the AAU in 2002, saying, “it has become clear that CUA and the vast majority of AAU institutions are moving forward but on different trajectories.”

Last year Notre Dame’s student senate adopted a resolution opposing membership in the Big Ten and CIC. The resolution expressed “concern about Notre Dame aligning itself with 11 other Midwestern universities ‘who do not embody our unique national, Catholic and undergraduate characteristics.’ ” Students feared that membership in a regional conference might threaten the school’s identity as a national university (which doesn’t make sense to me, but whatever) and that membership in the CIC—which emphasizes research and graduate programs—would threaten the school’s emphasis on undergraduate education.

At any rate, Notre Dame’s decision to remain independent and reject the Big Ten’s overtures is about more than just football.

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If the Big East had imploded earlier this week, as some assumed it would, Notre Dame would have a tough decision to make. But as long as the Big East remains a viable basketball (and field hockey, etc.) conference,  as long as the Big East doesn’t give Notre Dame a join-us-in-football-or-leave ultimatum, and as long as NBC agrees to broadcast Notre Dame football, the Irish have no need for the Big Ten (or the ACC, for that matter).

But if you’ve ever wondered why they didn’t join the Big Ten at some other point in history, now you know.

**********

Josh Tinley is the author of Kneeling in the End Zone: Spiritual Lessons From the World of Sports. Follow him at twitter.com/joshtinley or send him an e-mail.

At this time, when everyone is looking ahead to 16-team superconferences and/or conferences that are geographically abhorrent and make no effort to preserve traditional rivalries, let’s look back at where these conferences started and where they have come.

Click on the links below to jump to a conference:

Big Ten
SEC
Pac-12
Big Eight
Southwest Conference
WAC
ACC
Big East
Conference USA

Big Ten Conference

Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives (better known as the Western Conference), original roster, 1896

Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives (better known as the Big Nine), 1899

Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives (better known as the Big Ten), 1917

Michigan left in 1908, but rejoined in 1917. Ohio State joined in 1912.

Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives (better known as the Big Ten), 1950

Chicago left in 1946. Michigan State joined in 1950. This roster would remain unchanged until 1990, when Penn State joined the league. (Penn State did not begin play in the Big Ten until 1992.) In 1987 the conference officially changed its name to the Big Ten.

Southeastern Conference

In 1932, 13 members of the Southern Conference broke away to establish the new Southeastern Conference. At that time the Southern Conference included the following schools (23 in all): Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Duke, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, LSU, Maryland, Mississippi, Mississippi State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Sewanee, South Carolina, Tennessee, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Virginia, VMI, Virginia Tech, and Washington & Lee.

Southeastern Conference, original roster, 1932

Southeastern Conference, 1967

Sewanee left in 1940; Georgia Tech in 1964; and Tulane in 1966. This roster would remain unchanged until Arkansas and South Carolina joined the league in 1991.

Pacific-12 Conference

Pacific Coast Conference, original roster, 1915

Pacific Coast Conference, 1928

Washington State joined the PCC in 1917; Stanford in 1918; USC and Idaho in 1922; Montana in 1924; and UCLA in 1928.

Athletic Association of Western Universities, original roster, 1959
The PCC disbanded in 1959. Five of its member institutions formed a new conference, the AAWU, also known as the Big Five.

Pacific-8 Conference, 1968

Washington State joined the AAWU in 1962; the Oregon schools joined in 1964. In 1968 the league formally changed its name to the Pacific-8 Conference.

Pacific-10 Conference, 1978

The Arizona schools joined in 1978, and the Pac-8 became the Pac-10. This roster would not change again until Colorado and Utah joined the league this year.

Big 8 Conference

The history of the Big 8 officially ended with the creation of the Big XII conference in 1996.
Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, original roster, 1907

Iowa was a member of both the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association and the Big Ten during this time.

Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, 1925

Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, better known as the Big Six, 1928

The private schools, along with Oklahoma A&M, left in 1928 to form the Missouri Valley Conference.

Big Eight Conference, 1964

Colorado joined in 1948, and the conference became known as the Big Seven. Oklahoma State rejoined the league in 1958. In 1964 the conference formally changed its name to the Big Eight. This roster and name would remain until the formation of the Big XII Conference in 1996.

Southwest Conference

Southwest Conference, original roster, 1915

Southwest Conference, 1926

Southwestern left in 1916, Oklahoma in 1919, and Oklahoma A&M in 1925. SMU joined in 1918, TCU in 1923.

Southwest Conference, 1971

Texas Tech joined in 1956, Houston in 1971. This roster would be stable until Arkansas left for the SEC in 1991. In 1996 Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech joined with the Big 8 schools to form the Big XII. Rice, SMU, and TCU joined the WAC. Houston became a founding member of Conference USA.

Western Athletic Conference

Western Athletic Conference, original roster, 1962

Western Athletic Conference, 1980

UTEP and Colorado State joined in 1967. The Arizona schools left to be part of the Pac-10 in 1978. The WAC replaced them with San Diego State (1978), Air Force (1979), and Hawaii (1980).

Western Athletic Conference, 1996

Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, UNLV, New Mexico, San Diego State, Utah, and Wyoming left in 1999 to form the Mountain West Conference. The WAC’s roster has been unstable ever since. Notice that, by next year, the only team from the 1996 roster that will still be in the conference is San Jose State.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Atlantic Coast Conference, original roster, 1953

The ACC hasn’t changed much in its 58 years as a conference. South Carolina left in 1971 and was replaced by Georgia Tech in 1978. Florida State joined in 1991. The ACC added Miami and Virginia Tech in 2004, followed by Boston College in 2005.

Big East Conference (Football Only)

Big East Conference football members, original roster, 1991

The Big East didn’t sponsor football until 1991. At the time Boston College, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse were the only Big East schools with Division I-A football programs. The other five schools were new to the conference. Temple, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia joined as football-only members. The Big East dropped Temple in 2004, the same year UConn was eligible to become a football member and Miami and Virginia Tech left for the ACC. In 2005, when Boston College left, the Big East added Cincinnati, Louisville, and South Florida from Conference USA. TCU will join next year.

Conference USA

Conference USA football members, original roster, 1996

Conference USA was established in 1995 but didn’t sponsor football until 1996, when Houston joined. (Houston was a founding member of Conference USA but had to play out the 1995-1996 season in the Southwest Conference before joining. The other members were football independents before 1996.) East Carolina joined as a football-only member in 1997; Army in 1998.  UAB and South Florida were founding members of Conference USA, but were not admitted as football members until 1999 and 2003, respectively. TCU joined in 2001. Army left in 2004; TCU left in 2005, the same year several other schools left for the Big East. That year Conference USA added UCF, Marshall, Rice, SMU, UTEP, and Tulsa. The league has been stable ever since.

**********

Josh Tinley is the author of Kneeling in the End Zone: Spiritual Lessons From the World of Sports. Follow him at twitter.com/joshtinley or send him an e-mail.

Update: For the second year in a row, we are holding an MSF Bracket Challenge over at ESPN.com. Sign up now and then fill in your brackets after they are announced on Selection Sunday.

It’s February 22nd, which means we now officially have less than a full week until March. And you know what that means. March Madness 2011 is almost upon us.

As we are every year around this time, MSF will be a one stop shop for all of the TV schedule, bracket, tickets, and history info you want or need. We’ll start with the conference tournaments and go all the way until the Final 4.

First up today is our Big Ten Mens Basketball Tournament Quick Preview, which includes the TV schedule, bracket breakdown, ticket links, and a rundown of the brief history of the Big Ten Tournament.

First, the basics:

2011 Big Ten Mens Basketball Tournament Info

• Big 10 Tournament Dates: March 11-14, 2011
• Big 10 Tournament Arena: Conseco Fieldhouse
• Big 10 Tournament Location: Indianapolis, IN
• Big 10 Tournament Website: 2011 Big Ten Mens Basketball Tournament

2011 Big Ten Mens Basketball Tournament Tickets

If you are thinking of attending the 2011 Big Ten Tournament, here are some links (and discount codes!) you can use to find the best prices on tickets:

• RazorGator: 2011 Big Ten Tournament Tickets ($20 off on orders of $150+ at Razorgator.com! Use Code RG150J to save at checkout!)
• TickCo: 2011 Big Ten Tournament Tickets ($20 off on orders of $200 or more at TickCo.com. Use Promo Code: ORDR20TC)
• TicketLiquidator: 2011 Big Ten Tournament Tickets (CLICK FOR $20 COUPON DISCOUNT – Gift Card ID: save20now)
• Vivid Seats: 2011 Big Ten Tournament Tickets

Below is how the bracket and TV schedule will look. Follow the link for info on the seeding rules for the Big Ten Tournament.

Note: once we know which teams will be seeded where, I’ll update the table below and someone will have a more detailed preview of the matchups.

Here is a rundown of the results of the past Big Ten Tournaments. Remember, the Big 10 is still relatively new to the postseason tournament game.

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Midwest Sports Fans (MSF) Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that MSF makes a small percentage of anything purchased upon a click-through. That said, MSF only writes about stories that we believe will interest our readers, and we only link to and endorse sites and services that we would use or have used ourselves. We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Big 10, which actually had 11 teams, added a team from the Big 12, which did in fact have 12 teams at the beginning of today. So now, the Big 10 actually has 12 teams while the Big 12 actually has 11…no wait, 10, because Colorado is now a part of the Pac-10, which had 10 teams but now has 11.

So, let’s try this again: the Big 12 had 12 teams, but lost two and now has 10, technically making it the Big 10. And the Big 10, which had 11 teams, added one and now has 12, technically making it the Big 12. The Pac-10, which no one will care about anyway now that USC is on probation, is now the Pac-11.

[Deep breath....deep breath]

I can’t take this anymore. Let’s make fun of some coaches.

Johnny, let’s show the Big 10 (12) and Pac 10 (11) what they’ve won!

As previously mentioned, the Big 10 added Nebraska today. Purportedly, the #1 reason why the Big 10 was interested in Nebraska was to confuse and infuriate Indiana fans when both red & white schools (say it with me now Hoosiers, “We’re cream and crimson damnit!) are on the same field/court. But that is not, in fact, the real reason why Nebraska was added.

The Big 10 added the Cornhuskers because coaches in the conference have gone soft and the Big 10 needed the constant screaming and contorted facial expressions of Bo Pelini.

Remember, this is the conference of Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, Hayden Fry, Bob Knight, Jud Heathcoate, Gene Keady, and other assorted old, angry (and sometimes goofy) white men. Now, however, this drill sergeant legacy has been replaced by politicians like Jim Tressel, douchenozzles like Rich Rodriguez, old guys who can’t remember where they are like Joe Paterno, and men who think they are cheerleaders like Tom “Clap, Clap, Clap” Crean.

Something had to be done, and Bo Pelini is the right man to do it, as the following video and pictures prove:

Image source: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images via Zimbio.com

Image source: DawgSports.com

Image source: John F. Rhodes / DMN Photo Staff via DentonRC.com

Image source: Deadspin

Hmm…not really sure what to say about that last picture. Let’s just say that most people who wear Cleveland Indians clothing look or at least act like that.

Moving on.

Nebraska wasn’t the only member of the former Big 12 (now technically Big 10, but not that Big 10 who is now technically the Big 12, but not that Big 12…AHHHH!!! I said I was going to stop! We’ll all go insane!) to move. Colorado and football coach Dan Hawkins will now be doing a lot more flying left to the West coach on Fridays as they begin new rivalries with their new Pac 10 (11) brothers.

Right brother?

And we’re not talking about intramurals either, are we brother?

No sir. We’re talking about DIVISION 1 COLLEGE FOOTBALL! (You know…the kind they haven’t played in Boulder since Bill McCartney left.)

At least, that’s what Dan Hawkins was talking about (brother).

This is similar to a rant that Hawkins made when he played coach Pete Bell in the movie Blue Chips.

At least now Hawkins is going to a conference with schools that take football seriously, certainly more than those pansy asses in Texas and Oklahoma. Light weights! Hard Ass Hawkins and his mighty Buffalos will now get to match up in battles of will and toughness with the likes of UCLA. If I do say so myself, it’s about damn time.

Oh, and for good measure, Hawkins has some stupid pictures on the Internet too. Let’s enjoy those before going back to Izzo Watch 2010.

Image Source: TideDruid.com

Image source: EDSBS

Image source: BuffZone

Image source: Downstreamer

(P.S. In case you didn’t figure it out, I think Dan Hawkins looks like Nick Nolte. Actually…and don’t tell the Pac-10 this because they’re really excited about getting Colorado…the Dan Hawkins we’ve seen coaching at Colorado actually is Nick Nolte. The real Dan Hawkins is still back coaching Boise State in secret. What…do you have a better explanation for the Buffs’ play under Hawkins?)

Anyway, congratulations to the Big 10 (now 12) and Pac 10 (11) both of which gained colorful coaches who will provide bloggers with funny pictures and snarky comments for many Falls to come.

And to the Big 12 (now 10…for now), it truly is your loss. But hey, at least you still have a crazy coach or two left, including the one below…you know, until you don’t even exist as a conference anymore.

Image source: The Pitch

Update: A loyal twitter follower just reminded me that Mark “Mangiant” no longer coaches at Kansas anymore. Haha, I forgot. Damn it sucks to be the Big 12 right now.

Excitement is building in East Lansing as the Spartans prepare to face their first real challenge of the season against Gonzaga, at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

The Spartans will showcase their talented line up that is gathering more and more comparisons to the 2000 championship team. Coach Tom Izzo is among those making such comparisons.

In an interview with ESPN.com Izzo was asked if he would ever coach someone like Mateen Cleaves again. Izzo answered saying that he may be doing that right now. The player Izzo is talking about is junior point guard Kalin Lucas.

As Lucas continues to emerge as a premier point guard, his similarities with Cleaves become more apparent. Lucas, like Cleaves, is a Michigan native and Lucas is now in the leadership role Cleaves once held. Lucas came out of the gates quick this season, scoring 21 points and one highlight reel layup against Florida Gulf Coast.

Tonight Michigan State takes on Gonzaga, for the first time since the “Goran Suton triple overtime missed layup fiasco.” (The image of Adam Morrison’s mustache is still burned in my mind from that game.)

However, both teams have changed greatly from their last meeting. Gonzaga is in a transitional year with only one returning starter, in Matt Bouldin. Michigan State is a potential Final Four team this year.

Forwards Raymar Morgan and Delvon Roe saw limited time in the opener against Florida Gulf Coast due to lingering injuries. The two forwards should be ready for more minutes againsts Gonzaga, but still may be out of the starting five.

Freshman center Derrick Nix put up a double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds in his debut. Nix and fellow freshman center Garrick Sherman will be utilized to take on some of Morgan and Roe’s minutes.

The trio of Kalin Lucas, Durrell Summers, and Chris Allen will be counted on as the primary scorers. Lucas and Summers combined for 38 points in the opener and have been the sparkplugs for the offense. Allen struggled with his shooting in the opener, but is still a viable outside threat.

Sophomores Korie Lucious and Draymond Green are the x-factors coming off of the bench. Against Florida Gulf Coast, Lucious looked very confident in his jumpshot and has been playing aggressive. Green helped score second-chance points by controlling the offensive boards.

Gonzaga will challenge Michigan State bu the Spartans should win this game. The key word being “should.” Gonzaga has a size advantage against State and the undersized Spartan forwards will have to play big. This game is not a complete lock but if the Spartans play as they did their first game they will come out with a win.

Prediction: Lucas and Summers are too much for the Zag’s backcourt to handle and Michigan State takes the win 86-78.

Nearly a decade later, the Final Four returns to Indianapolis and the Spartans are hoping for a case of dèjà vu.

Last season the Spartans almost fulfilled a dream season but fell just short of winning a national championship in Detroit. Unfortunately for MSU, the North Carolina team they faced was truly the better team.

Now the Spartans are a much different team from a year ago.

State comes into the season with a #2 national ranking and is favored to be Big-10 champions for the second year in a row. Center Goran Suton and point guard Travis Walton may have both graduated, but new players are ready to step into their roles.

The Spartans will likely start three guards with Kalin Lucas, Chris Allen, and Durrell Summers. Forwards Raymar Morgan and Delvon Roe will likely complete the starting lineup.

• Lucas will be the team leader at the point guard position and is emerging as one of the top floor generals in the nation.
• Morgan is the only senior in this starting lineup and will be depended on heavily for points in the paint.
• Allen is the sharpshooter of this squad, providing a dangerous outside threat.
• Summers will use his explosiveness to drive at the basket and also can spot up and shoot from outside.
• Sophomore Delvon Roe will be given the oppurtunity to show why he was recruited so heavily as an extremely athletic forward.

Off of the bench, sophomore Korie Lucious will be a sparkplug with his lightning quickness and high energy play. Sophomore Draymond Green is continuing to get himself in better physical shape, making himself an even more dangerous player off of the bench.

Freshman centers Garrick Sherman and Derrick Nix will see a lot of playing time, to help prepare them for tournament time when MSU will need a post presence off of the bench.

The Spartans will get a rematch against North Carolina this season and will also face an always tough Gonzaga team early in the year.

Michigan State’s toughest non-conference matchup however, at least based on preseason projections, will be against #3 Texas. The Spartans have had the Longhorns’ number the last three seasons. Similarly, top ranked Kansas looks like they could go wire-to-wire this season, but the Spartans beat the Jayhawks twice last season.

My season prediction: Michigan State has a lean and athletic squad this year that will be one of the more exciting teams in the country. Size in the frontcourt is a weakness for the Spartans, but that didn’t stop them from reaching the Final Four last season. The Spartans will edge out Purdue for a Big-10 Chamionship and will be a Final Four team.

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* – Tom Izzo photo credit: AllBigTen.com

The last two meetings between these teams were sloppy blowout games and neither team ended up having a good season. But this year both squads look to be back on track and the rivalry is being revived.

Last week, Michigan coasted to an easy 31-7 victory over Western Michigan, scoring all of their points in the first half. Freshman quarterback Tate Forcier solidified himself as the starter for the Wolverines while fellow freshman Denard Robinson flashed the speed and big play ability that quarterbacks in Rich Rodriguez’s system are known for having.

Rich Rodriguez’s spread option offense was effective against the Broncos, as Michigan racked up 242 rushing yards from 8 different ball carriers. The problem for the Wolverines is they are currently without a go-to running back. Backup quarterback Denard Robinson was the leading rusher with 74 yards.

In Notre Dame’s season opener, the Irish shut out Nevada 35-0 with Jimmy Clausen throwing for 4 TD’s. Claussen showed poise in the pocket, completing 15 of his 18 attempts.

Charlie Weis and the Fighting Irish look ready to make it back to another bowl game this year, and possibly even compete for a BCS bid. The offense that was in complete disarray two seasons ago is now finally coming together.

Saturday’s matchup between these two bitter rivals is an intriguing one. Both teams have shown vast improvement from last year, but this will obviously be the first real test for each squad with Rodriguez and Weis both seated firmly on the hot seat to bring their teams back to the elite level of college football.

Before we get into an analysis of the matchup, let’s take a quick look at the particulars:

#18 Notre Dame (1-0) at Michigan (1-0)

• Notre Dame-Michigan Date: Saturday, September 12th
• Notre Dame-Michigan Time: 3:30 ET
• Notre Dame-Michigan TV: ABC
• Notre Dame-Michigan Location: The Big House in Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Notre Dame-Michigan Point Spread: Notre Dame -4.5
• StubHub: Michigan-Notre Dame tickets for as low as $95
• StubHub: Michigan football tickets
• StubHub: Notre Dame football tickets
• StubHub: all College Football tickets

Notre Dame-Michigan Preview and Analysis

Notre Dame comes into the game a slight favorite and rightfully so. Clausen is starting to fill in the void that was left when Brady Quinn left for the NFL draft. (Side note to Notre Dame fans: please don’t treat Claussen like the “golden boy” as you did with Quinn. Thank you.)

To win the game, the Irish must provide strong pass protection for Clausen and allow him to spread the ball around. Michigan, on the other hand, needs to pressure Clausen and limit his ability to locate WRs Golden Tate and Michael Floyd down the field. If Michigan tries to get in a shootout with Notre Dame, the Wolverines won’t be able to keep up with the Irish’s high-octane offense.

If Claussen can put up 300-plus yards passing Michigan won’t have a chance. Tate, a speedy and talented young receiver, could be the X-factor with his big play potential.

Michigan needs to control the pace and the clock by running the football over and over. Forcier looked good passing the ball last week, although he only put the ball in the air 20 times. He completed 13 of those passes for 175 yards and tallied 3 TDs. You might look at those stats and think the Wolverines should throw more.

On the contrary, Forcier’s efficient passing was set up by 50 rushing attempts at 4.8 yards per pop. Michigan would do well to follow attain a similar run:pass ratio. Forcier will have to be smart with the ball again when passing plays are called. An improving Irish defense picked off two passes last week and will be licking their chops going up against a freshman making only his second start.

Notre Dame-Michigan Prediction

This game can go either way and will likely be decided by one or two key plays. Notre Dame comes in ranked #18, but when playing in the Big House all rankings go out the window. [Editor's note: as do Division 1-A and 1-AA classifications...right App State?]

Rich Rodriguez will have the Wolverines amped up to start the game and the Irish will have to take the fans out of the game early. Luckily for Notre Dame fans and the embattled Weis, the Irish have an experienced quarterback to rely on in Jimmy Clausen, who is no stranger to pressure, expectation, and hostile environments.  

In this high profile matchup between two of the all-time giants of college football, Clausen’s experience will most likely be the difference.

My prediction for this game: Notre Dame- 31 Michigan- 24

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* – Notre Dame / Michigan helmets image credit: The Onion

* – Charlie Weis photo credit: AP Photo/Carlos Osorio via WSBT-2

* – Denard Robinson / Tate Forcier photo credit: Said Alsalah/Daily via Michigan Daily

* – Jimmy Clausen in high school photo credit: Pre Pro Sports

Legion, a 6-foot-5 transfer from Kentucky who just became eligible, came off the bench to score six points in 18 minutes in Illinois’ 82-51 win over Detroit Mercy at Assembly Hall. Legion was one of the nation’s top 50 recruits coming out of Oak Hill (Va.) Academy when he signed with Kentucky.

“You have to give the kid credit,” Illini coach Bruce Weber said told reporters after the game. “He made his first shot. I think it was the first time he touched the ball. He’s not shy about shooting. He’s got to be better on the defensive end with the team defensive concept. We got better because we watched film. He’s not had a chance to watch film on himself. Now he has a chance to watch and see what he’s doing. Over the next five or six games, I hope he can make progress.”

The Illini are hoping Legion can play a bigger role on Tuesday when they travel to St. Louis to face Missouri in the annual Braggin’ Rights game at Scottrade Center. Illinois has won eight straight over Mizzou in the series.

Yesterday, Michigan had a lead at the half over the #3 Penn State Nittany Lions, in their house! Michigan had momentum and the ball after the half. Then Rich Rodiguez had a brianstorm and placed the one person who when he walks on the field, his whole team collectively knows regardless of the score, the game is now officially over.

Once the Big 10 player of the year entered the game, he did what he does best, score for the other team. He gave up a safety after sitting in the pocket for far too long without throwing the ball away, only to complete a pass to his lineman two feet infront of him while falling into the end zone.

I think that Sheridan has naked pictures of Rich Rodriguez because for the life of me, I do not understand how else this turnover machine could take snaps for the Wolverines.

Here’s Sheridan’s stat line year to date; 29 of 54 for 262 yards, 1 touchdown 5 INTERCEPTIONS AND A SAFETY!

Opposing Sheridan is Steven Threet, far from a football God, but leaps and bounds better than Nick Sharetheball, I mean Sheridan. Threet is 67 for 132 with 708 yards, 6 TOUCHDOWNS and 3 interceptions. I am not a college mathematics professor, but the statistics are in glaring favor of Threet. I would rather see the Miami Dolphins Wildcat formation than the Michigan offense with Sheridan under center. Please, tell me I am wrong, but if you are a Wolverines fan, you feel the same way I do whenever #8 takes the field. When Rich Rodriguez lost Terelle Pryor to Ohio State, he lost more than a recruit, he lost the Wolverines 2008 season.

Kurt Fraschetti

profootballinsight@live.com

[tags]michigan wolverines, rich rodriguez, big ten, nick sheridan[/tags]

I tailgated with my brother and father then went to the Purdue-Oregon game in West Lafayette Saturday afternoon and watched the usual tank job by the Boilers. Quoting my dad after the game (an Ohio State grad, current Purdue Employee), “That is why I stopped getting season tickets.”

I also saw more of the norm from Curtis Painter, wobbly deep balls being intercepted, ten yard out passes bouncing off the turf in front of the receiver. Other things bothered me about the game like the near ten thousand empty seats but that is another post by itself. So after watching both Oregon and Purdue play like the kids in Varsity Blues when they were hungover from being at a strip club all night; I was ready to watch the Ohio State versus USC clash in prime time on ABC.

Then I saw Beanie Wells in red sweatpants and no pads (left) on the sidelines and I immediately stop being excited for the game.

I watched Ohio State’s offense without Beanie Wells against Solich’s Bobcats and knew Pete Carroll’s shit eating grin (right) could outscore the Buckeyes by itself that night. Ohio State’s offense (yes they have one) is a well oiled machine of 28W-Beanie that sets up Boeckman’s play action deep ball. The offensive line is average and relies on Beanie breaking tacklers that they cannot block. So without Wells in the backfield even Terrelle Pryor’s abilities cannot ever do enough to set up touchdown scores. Which is what we saw, three points and a 50% redzone efficiency. The “overrated” chants from the USC fans came early in the second quarter after a missed FG.

The preparation by the Buckeyes in recent “Big Games” (except Michigan) is well documented so I wonder why they are playing Youngstown State and Ohio University at home before going on the road against USC? The NCAA gives you the ability to make more money, play a twelfth game, get your team better, and show the college football world you deserve a shot at the national title then they schedule Youngstown State. Really? At least when that option was given to the PAC 10 they added one more conference game so their teams couldn’t schedule a Cal State Fullerton, Northern Colorado, or Jacksonville State. This also begs the question why the BCS would eliminate the schedule strength criteria from their genius formula, but of course you can’t fix a flawed formula you just have to eliminate it and find a new solution (PLAYOFF!?!). But I digress.

Preparation for a game like Oregon or USC on the road could simply be to schedule a tough opponent before them. Northern Colorado and the Youngstown State Fighting Penguins huh? Just scheduling Virginia on the road week one and a bye week was obviously enough preparation for the Trojans to fashionably smack “number five” Ohio State back to ole Columbustown.

Let’s also get one thing straight. Ohio State is not a top five team without Beanie Wells but USC is far and above the best team in College Football. Everyone else is just trying to not beat themselves against South Carolina, Mississippi State, Fresno State, Purdue, etc. And everyone else says “A win is a win,” while USC just says “We won” period. At the same time USC film sessions of their own games probably gets more laughs than if they just had a screening of Pineapple Express.

comment below or email me directly, kvb@midwestsportsfans.com