In a Big Ten loaded with stories, it’s still all about the Buckeyes

That guy with the blue hat emblazoned with a maize M is Jim Harbaugh.You might recognize him from his days as an NFL quarterback, or theSan Francisco 49ers’ former head coach. He’s the guy that led Stanford back to relevance, and the 49ers back to the Super Bowl, and now, as the unquestioned most-talked-about coaching hire of the offseason, he’s the Michigan Man charged with leading the once-mighty Wolverines back to prominence. An hour to the northwest in East Lansing, Mark Dantonio has Michigan State primed to take the next step toward national prominence. In Wisconsin, new coach Paul Chryst has inherited a talented roster, and Lincoln, Nebraska couldn’t have sent a clearer message to fans and new coach Mike Riley by firing predecessor Bo Pelini after a string of nine-win seasons: It’s time to become national title contenders again. And in State College, Penn State’s football program captured the victory against NCAA overreach, can go to bowl games, reap the full abundance of second-year coach James Franklin’s recruiting tenacity, and talk legitimately about contending again just three years after being left in some estimations worse than dead. These are storylines fit for perhaps the best college football conference in the nation which, an argument can be made now, the Big Ten is. Three of the teams mentioned above — Michigan State, Nebraska and Wisconsin — have legitimate major bowl hopes. Penn State isn’t that far off, and neither is surging Minnesota. And with the prickly perfectionist Harbaugh on the sidelines, who would dare count out Michigan? So why, then, is the national focus when it comes to the Big Ten — and the BCS, for that matter — focused solely on Columbus, Ohio? Because, of course, it should be. The Big Ten is all about Ohio State again in 2015, and the rest of the conference should be so thankful. …

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