The Big 10 tour announces its "Bests" list - Some of you may remember me mentioning this group earlier in the year. Drew and his posse visited all 11 Big Ten Stadiums in 11 weeks. They picked the Ohio State game for their visit to Purdue, which only ended up being the biggest upset of the Big Ten season. The crew selected several "bests" involving Purdue, including this very blog as an honorable mention in that category. I got to meet Drew when he came through Indianapolis on his way to their IU visit. Great guy!
Can we get a recount? - CFN has an excellent discussion on why Drew Brees should have won the Heisman in 2000. I remember saying before the season he would win if he took us to Pasadena. He did that bu still didn't win. How much did the late losses to Penn State and Notre Dame hurt him? I do like how they call Brees' NFL career as Hall of Fame caliber. As a second question, does he make it to Canton before Alstott?
Despite loss, Orton enjoying career season - I went to Sunday's game and Kyle had a pretty good day. Put him in the NFL record book too as the quarterback who threw to Brandon Marshall for his record 21 catches. I bet the Bears have some buyer's remorse right now. Too bad Kyle is not a real NFL quarterback like Cutler and only, you know, WINS THE FREAKING GAME (Sunday excluded)!!!!
Journal & Courier calls it a Kramer moment - I want royalties! I called it that first!
Women's basketball breaks 3 game skid - Still looks like a long season when we struggle with teams like Oakland.
Jay Buente makes Marlins 40-man roster - I forgot to post this a few weeks ago, but this is a big step for the young righty. Being on the 40-man puts him likely at triple-A for the season and he'll be on the short list to make his Major league debut in 2010. The last Boiler to make the Majors was Dave Gassner, who had a cup of coffee with the Twins in 2005 (he even won a game). Reliever Josh Lindblom also has an excellent chance of making the Show in 2010 after a good year for the Dodgers at Triple-A Albuquerque.
Neal to play in east-West Shrine Game - Quite an honor for the departing senior, as the Shrine game is one of the top college All-Star games.
Big Ten expansion talk gets bigger - I haven't talked much about this because there has been nothing concrete short of "we're thinking about it", but is seems to be gaining more steam. As the article states, a more formal statement is expected later today. I think it is going to happen, the question is, who joins? Notre Dame is the obvious choice, but as others have stated, they would be stupid to do so as long as they have the TV contract and special BCS privileges. Iowa State and Missouri have been thrown around, but I don't see that happening unless the Big 12 grabs a team from somewhere else (Utah? Colorado State? New Mexico?) The two that make sense to me are Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, with the Panthers being my top choice. Pitt gives Penn State a true rival, their academics are on par with the Big ten campuses, and it gives us geographic balance with an East-West split. I can see the divisions lining up this way then:
| East | West |
| Penn State | Iowa |
| Pittsburgh | Minnesota |
| Ohio State | Wisconsin |
| Michigan | Illinois |
| Indiana | Northwestern |
| Michigan State | Purdue |
If that is too top heavy in the East (and it probably is) they might go North-South
| North | South |
| Minnesota | Indiana |
| Michigan | Illinois |
| Michigan State | Purdue |
| Wisconsin | Ohio State |
| Iowa | Penn State |
| Northwestern | Pittsburgh |
Thoughts?