The crowning “achievement” in my crusade to disparage Facebook was this post from March of 2010, which for a time was the #1 hit in Google for the search term “facebook sucks.” (And yes, I really was proud of this. Part of my day time job is search engine optimization, so you’ll have to forgive me.)

Here is what I said then:

Many of you have asked why MSF does not have an official Facebook page, and it’s a good question. We probably should; but I’ve developed an even more severe disdain for what Facebook has become, thus keeping MSF off of it can be pretty accurately described as my own subconscious, irrational, traffic-debilitating act of petulant social media rebellion.

The crux of my Facebook disdain was two-fold:

1. As someone who works in social media, Facebook has the power to be incredibly distracting for someone who likes to procrastinate and whose attention span can wander; that is me.
2. I had developed a pretty strong feeling of disdain for Mark Zuckerberg based on varying accounts I’d read of how the site was founded and developed, plus I was not a big fan of Facebook’s privacy bait-and-switch.

Well, I am posting this today to formally announce that I finally created a fan page for Midwest Sports Fans on Facebook.

You may be wondering how this jives with my previous statements and proclamations, and I’ll explain it more below if you’re interested, but more importantly I think you should become our Facebook fan (if you are someone who is included to become a fan of things on Facebook):

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Okay, so why the change of heart? I’ll explain.

First off, I’m still not keen on the idea of using Facebook personally. I’ve gotten along just fine without for the past two years, and in fact I enjoy the freedom from unwanted online obligations that not being on Facebook allows.

Really, I’m not all that cut out for Facebook anyway. I don’t really go to many events, I don’t particularly care how people from high school and college are doing except for the group of guys that I email with all the time anyway, and I know most of my close friends’ birthdays, plus they’ll send me pics when they have kids or other big life changing events. So honestly, I really just don’t feel like I’m missing anything.

Thus, while I had to set up a personal profile to create the fan page, I won’t really be using it beyond just signing in. Feel free to contact me on Twitter or via email or in the comment sections here at MSF. I love interacting with readers, I just won’t be doing it on Facebook.

As for the second part of my Facebook hate, my disdain for Zuckerberg, a couple of events have changed that.

First, I saw The Social Network, which I thought was an excellent movie. Though Zuckerberg comes off as being ruthlessly obsessed with Facebook’s success, I actually sympathized with him in the debate over whether or not he “stole” the idea – and I certainly have no issue with someone passionately pursuing a goal. In fact, the Winklevoss twins are the ones who come across as petty douchebags crying over long ago spilled milk, and there is little doubt that Zuckerberg took Facebook to heights they never would have even dreamed about.

Seriously dudes, you got paid $65 million for having an idea similar to what Zuckerberg ended up creating, but without doing any of the work. Drop it. Move on.

Second, I saw Zuckerberg’s interview on 60 minutes last night. It was the most relaxed and composed I’ve ever seen him when discussing Facebook (in stark contrast to this interview). More impressive than his “performance”, however, because he has clearly had some good PR coaching, is the genuine passion that is palpable in every word he utters about Facebook. I may not agree with some of the decisions he’s made and some of his more Machiavellian tactics, but I do respect how deeply he believes in what Facebook is doing, and I think at this point it would be petty and myopic for me to avoid Facebook for the reasons I’ve been avoiding it when I think it can offer to value to our readers.

In summation, I am changing my stance on Facebook as it relates to MSF because the negative opinions that induced that stance are no longer present.

I realize this post was largely self-indulgent, and that the majority of you probably don’t care why or why not I use Facebook, but since I’d been so adamant with my statements before, I thought this reversal of course warranted explanation.

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter. I look at having MSF on Facebook as a way to make our content more easily accessible for the readers who make this site go on a daily basis. Without our readers, MSF does not exist, and I can’t spend a portion of my day generating revenue for my company by managing this site that I love so much. I know that many of you use Facebook as a tool for managing your online experience; now MSF can be more seamlessly integrated into that experience. That is the most important thing, and we’d appreciate you being our fan.

Since its inception in the 1999-2000 season the Big Ten has never won the challenge. It’s been straight ACC domination for the last decade, as the conference owns a 64-percent winning percentage in head-to-head competition with Big Ten teams.

Anything BUT a challenge.

But this year’s matchups may present the Big Ten’s most compelling shot to come out on top. For the first time in a long time, over half of the teams in the conference made this year’s Preseason AP Top 25: Michigan State, Purdue, Michigan, Ohio State, Illinois, and Minnesota.

Not too shabby.

It may be a little too early to start declaring Fab Five status but mark my words the Big Ten is BACK. And Tuesday night’s championship rematch between No. 9 Michigan State and No. 10 North Carolina is the first BIG test on a national stage to prove just that.

This game is a must win for Sparty. But it’s even more important for the Big Ten if the conference plans to convince the college basketball world of its return to greatness.

I witnessed the Man vs. Boy beat-down last year in Detroit. It wasn’t pretty. But thankfully Psycho T, Ty Lyson, Wayne Ellington and Co. graduated to the NBA, taking five of the Tarheels top seven scorers from last year’s title team along with them. But that doesn’t mean the 2010 Heels are a bunch of scrubs. Roy Williams has a group of talented youngsters on his hands that were recruited, as he says, “to win and win now.”

The biggest question mark surrounding this Carolina team, however, is its guard play or lack there of. This is definitely good news for Tom Izzo and his guard-heavy Michigan State team that Lindys College Basketball selected as the nation’s best backcourt with juniors Durrell Summers and 2009 Big Ten Player of the Year Kalin Lucas.

The Spartans also bring experience and return seven of the team’s top nine scorers from last year’s Final Four squad, as well as a surprisingly stingy defense that’s been able to limit opponents to 36.9 percent on the season.

As the team’s given leader and captain, it’s critical that Lucas do his best Mateen Cleaves imitation and expose UNC’s weakness at the guard position, as well as motivate his teammates in a hostile environment on the road.

Yes. Every game played in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge counts and is important. But the burden of the Big Ten’s reputation as a contender or pretender rests heavily on the shoulders of the Spartans.

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About the Author

Upon graduating from Purdue University in 2007, Mary-Rachel Dick began working as a reporter for Big Ten Network. For the last two years, she has been a part of the Network’s coverage of Big Ten men’s football and basketball.

Aside from her work with BTN, Mary-Rachel has also hosted ESPN and Voom HD’s 10 episode series “Sports and Muscle in Monterey” highlighting Russo and Steele’s collector car auctions. She also got to spend some time with Michael Phelps during the USA Swimming National Championships as the poolside reporter alongside Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines.

You can check out Mary-Rachel’s work at http://maryracheldick.com/.

by Jerod Morris

I had to post this picture of KVB on the front page to cheer myself up because I officially feel dirty, slimy, and like a complete and total loser. Why? Because I just bit the bullet and updated the Purdue, Michigan, and Cubs pages with the live news feed widgets. We’re starting to get a little bit of traffic and I wanted all of the pages we have up so far to at least have the news feeds. Get to them by clicking over there on the toolbar. I’m just happy I’ll never have to visit those pages again.

On a positive note, we cracked 1,000 page views today and have had 210 unique visitors. Not bad considering I just released the site to search engines about a week ago. We even had one visitor get to our site by typing “Scott Stapp” in google! All because I described Aaron Rodgers as looking like Creed’s former singer and douche bag. Not sure how I feel about a search for Scott Stapp bringing people to the site, but any exposure is good exposure I guess. We even cracked $1.00 in total ad earnings! So keep clicking on those ads and visiting our sponsors! (like the ones below…)

To everyone who has written so far, I appreciate your excitement and involvement in the site. If you’re a visitor, don’t forget to register and contribute with comments, suggestions for site content, or even posts of your own. We were the ones who started this site, but we want it to grow into a comprehensive community of Midwest sports fans covering as many teams and topics as people desire.

Have a great Friday…and if you like this site, don’t forget to Digg it or Stumble it or bookmark it (links below). And come back soon.

UPDATE: To make myself feel better I just created a Tennessee Volunteers page. Much, much better. And no, Florida will not be getting a page. They are from the south. Even though the Vols are in the SEC, they border Kentucky. That’s enough for me. I guess at some point I’ll have to create a Notre Dame page. Ugh…

We’ve added some new features to the site. You’ll notice that the index bar in the header has changed. We have updated the About Us page, added a Contact page so you can email us, and created individual pages for MLB teams, NFL teams, and college teams to direct you to our team pages. We’ll eventually get the NBA up there too.

Also, you will notice StumbleUpon and Digg links on every page. If you enjoy Midwest Sports Fans, we encourage you to share our site with others. Also, if you manage your own blog, get a hold of us. We are not as much interested in doing a straight link exchange…our philosophy is that if you like us, you’ll link to us. And we’ll do the same for you. But definitely let us know where your blog is.

I hope you enjoy the new features, and enjoy the content that we’ll be posting in the future. The NFL and college football are getting ready to start and the baseball playoffs are just around the corner. It’s going to be a great few months…and beyond.

-Jerod