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First off, thank you for all the well-wishes. As you may have noticed via Twitter, my son had to be hospitalized yesterday afternoon on day 5 of his life.He was incredibly lethargic and we called the nurse line about it. They advised that we bring him to the ER, and panic pretty much set in. They had to run a battery of tests and it was determined he likely had an infection set in in his umbilical cord. Still, to rule out anything more serious they had to hospitalize him, perform a spinal tap, and place him on antibiotics for at least 48 hours. So, I am typing live from Peyton Manning Children's Hospital using this blog as a much-needed distraction.
The biggest news of the day is that the Big Ten officially released the new divisions with the addition of Rutgers and Maryland in 2014. Purdue was sent West with Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. It means Purdue only keeps Wisconsin and Illinois as current divisional opponents while OMHR is now officially a divisional rival.
The Old Oaken Bucket Game received special status as the only "protected" cross-division game every year. Starting in 2016 the Big Ten season will feature a nine-game season. Until then, Purdue could not ask for a better Big Ten schedule in 2014 and 2015. Purdue will play its six divisional opponents, Indiana, and only one of Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers, or Michigan State. The Boilers get the worst FBS program ever as a locked in opponent and opponents in Minnesota, Illinois, Northwestern, and Iowa where Purdue either leads the all-time series or is close. That is very favorable starting in coach Hazell's second year.
The divisions appear tohave a straight directional naming convention as opposed to Legends/Leaders. I proposed Rotel/Queso with the West being Queso since it has Wisconsin.
So, there we have it, kids. In other brief news Robert Marve and Akeem Shavers inked undrafted free-agent deals with the Buccaneers while Josh Johnson signed with the Chargers.