Examining the Big Ten in the NFL draft

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg
The 2009 NFL draft was a fairly forgettable one for the Big Ten, which didn't have a top-10 pick for the first time since 2002 and had fewer first-round picks (4) than the SEC, ACC and Big 12. Michigan didn't have a player drafted until the fourth round (defensive tackle Terrance Taylor), while hoops powerhouse Connecticut already had four players…
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Former Lions DT Taylor starts fresh at Baylor

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg
My colleague Tim Griffin has an interesting piece over at the Big 12 blog about Phil Taylor, the former Penn State defensive tackle who transferred to Baylor after being dismissed from the program last summer. 
Taylor was among the swell of Penn State players involved in off-field incidents in 2007 and early 2008. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor…
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SEC Had Best College Football Attendance in 2008

In 2008, the Southeastern Conference led the nation again in home attendance.  Conference schools attracted more than 900,000 fans and averaged 75,816 at each game.

The rest of the BCS conferences finished in the following order: Big Ten (70,514), Big 12 (61,993), Pac-10 (56,632), ACC (52,806), and the Big East (42,994).  The Mountain West Conference’s average home attendance was just…
Continue reading at Bleacher Report – Big Ten Football

Who Is the Top College Football Team in Each Conference This Decade?

Since we last left the discussion of what conference has the “bragging rights” as far as who is the best, a parallel conversation regarding who actually has those rights in the present decade in each of the BCS Conferences seems to be in order.

 

The Big 12

Although it may irritate the Texas Longhorn followers, we are compelled to rank Oklahoma as the premier team of…
Story By Bleacher Report – Big Ten Football

College Football: The Astonishing Truth Regarding What Conference Is Best

With a plethora of knowledgeable writers and pundits promoting the idea of certain conference supremacy, the timing seems ideal for a generalized view of how the entire country approaches this quandary. 

What did he say?

I said “take for instance the following scenarios.”

Take Oklahoma out of the Big 12 and Southern Cal out of the Pac-10. Look at the…
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Could Long be back at Iowa in 2011?

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg
In case you missed it, my colleague Tim Griffin has an interesting post on the Big 12 blog about former Iowa star Chuck Long and his future plans after being fired as San Diego State's head coach in November. 
Rather than bolt for a job as an assistant somewhere, Long is expected to remain at San Diego State for the duration of his contract,…
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Big Ten in recruiting scorecard, final rankings

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

It's time to recap national signing day for the Big Ten, and let's begin with the recruiting scorecard.

The Big Ten finished seventh nationally among conferences in total commits with 189, likely the result of several smallish classes (Iowa, Northwestern, Indiana) and the scarcity of junior college players. It's interesting to see how few jucos (3) came to the Big Ten compared with some of the other BCS conferences (SEC had 40, Big 12 and Pac-10 both had 29).

As far as ESPNU 150 commits, the Big Ten finished third behind the SEC and ACC with 19 players, with Ohio State and Michigan each landing seven prospects.

Aside from Michigan, the final Scouts Inc. top 25 recruiting rankings weren't kind to the Big Ten.

Ohio State fell five spots to No. 9, the result of cornerback/running back Justin Green switching to Illinois and some questionable lower signees. I would point out, though, that several of Ohio State's recent superstars (James Laurinaitis, Malcolm Jenkins) didn't arrive with many accolades.

Michigan moved up four spots to No. 10 after picking up several key players on signing day, namely wide receiver Je'Ron Stokes and quarterback Denard Robinson. Penn State dropped a spot to No. 16 after a mostly quiet signing day highlighted by the addition of wide receiver Justin Brown.

Both Michigan State and Illinois fell out of the rankings after placing Nos. 21 and 22 on Tuesday. Considering the Spartans had no late decommitments and answered several needs, it was a surprise to see them drop out. Illinois had a wild signing day in which it lost wideout Kraig Appleton, held onto wideout Terry Hawthorne and added Green, but Ron Zook's class doesn't quite match up with the last two years.

Scouts Inc. also graded the Big Ten classes, with both Ohio State and Michigan receiving A-minuses for their classes. Wisconsin might have moved past Minnesota by landing Appleton, though the Gophers' late signing of Michael Carter shouldn't be discounted. Michigan State got a good review for its class, while Purdue, Iowa and Indiana rounded out the bottom.

Ohio State running back Jaamal Berry is among the Top 10 instant-impact prospects selected by Scouts Inc. Berry will compete for the starting running back spot vacated by Chris "Beanie" Wells.

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Big Ten lunch links: Zook courts FSU’s Trickett

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

Expect the links to have more of a recruiting flavor as we inch closer to National Signing Day. 

• In addition to courting Penn State D-line coach Larry Johnson, Illinois head coach Ron Zook also hopes to lure Florida State O-line coach Rick Trickett, Loren Tate writes in The (Champaign) News-Gazette.  
• Ohio State safety Kurt Coleman continues to weigh his options with the NFL draft, Doug Lesmerises writes in The Cleveland Plain Dealer. 
• Bad weather in Ann Arbor didn't bother Michigan recruits from the Sun Belt region, Josh Helmholdt writes in the Detroit Free Press. 

"The biggest news emerging from the weekend is the moves Michigan made with the two highest ranked visitors from the weekend — [Marcus] Hall and Greenwood, S.C., defensive end Sam Montgomery."

• Purdue now has a dozen commitments from the state of Florida, Mike Carmin writes in The Journal and Courier. 
• Despite its on-field struggles, the Big Ten continues resonate with NFL scouts, Dan Pompei writes in the Chicago Tribune. 

"In the last five drafts, 166 Big Ten players were chosen, third highest among conferences. The SEC led the way with 192 players, followed by the ACC with 176. The Pac-10 had 157 while the Big 12 had 143.

If you break it down to first-rounders, the Big Ten also fared pretty well. The conference has had 28 such players in the last five drafts, including one chosen first overall — Jake Long of Michigan by Miami last year. Only the ACC (39) and the SEC (37) have had more first-rounders. The Big 12 and Pac-10 each had 17."

• Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster could hire an offensive coordinator today, and it won't be Oklahoma's Josh Heupel, Kent Youngblood writes in the Star Tribune. 

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Big Ten can’t change sad script in bowl season

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

A miserable bowl season that ranked among the worst in Big Ten history underscored the biggest problem with the league this fall.

Nothing changed. 

The Big Ten entered the 2008 season hearing how bad it was, and despite ample opportunities to change its national perception, the conference only made things worse. The script played out exactly how the critics thought it would, never more so than in the postseason.

Of the seven Big Ten bowl teams, only Iowa was favored to win its contest. Though the Big Ten sent two teams to BCS games for the fourth consecutive year, co-champs Penn State and Ohio State entered the Rose and Fiesta bowls as heavy underdogs. 

Las Vegas turned out to be spot on, which meant bad news for the Big Ten. Iowa won its game, and the other six teams came up short. 

Much like Ohio State in the previous two BCS title games, Penn State fell victim to a disastrous second quarter against USC in the Rose Bowl and couldn't recover.

The league's bowl record nearly received boosts from Ohio State and Northwestern, both of whom were a play away from knocking off heavily favored Big 12 foes (Texas and Missouri). Both teams played solid defense and held acclaimed spread offenses in check, but Ohio State caved in the clutch and Northwestern committed inexcusable special-teams blunders. 

Ohio State's loss extended the Big Ten's BCS losing streak to six. Penn State's loss extended the league's Rose Bowl slide to five. Since its last winning bowl record in 2002-'03, the Big Ten has gone 15-28 in the postseason.

Is the Big Ten still relevant? From a marketing standpoint, absolutely. But after the recent on-field performances, particularly in bowls, it's a tough sell. 

Bowl locations and matchups undoubtedly make things tough, and the Big Ten could have benefited from sending only one team to a BCS bowl this year. Michigan State played hard but was overwhelmed by a superior Georgia team. Wisconsin and Minnesota looked totally overmatched against Florida State and Kansas. 

As commissioner Jim Delany said this week, "I'm not sure anybody plays up as much as we do. And we're not playing in our backyard, that's for sure."

But Delany admits those things aren't going to change.

There's an added urgency for the Big Ten to elevate its play and improve in both key nonconference games and the bowls. 

It's time for the league to change the script.

Right now, it reads like a tragedy.

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Big Ten bowl wrap-up with Jim Delany, Part I

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

	Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
	Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany remains optimistic about next season.

His league has taken a beating on and off the field in recent weeks, and many are questioning the Big Ten's relevancy in college football. But league commissioner Jim Delany remains resilient, albeit realistic, about the recent struggles. The Big Ten went 1-6 in bowls this year, arguably the league's worst postseason performance ever. It extended the Big Ten's losing streak in BCS games to six.

Nine years have passed since the Big Ten won a Rose Bowl, and the league hasn't posted a winning postseason since 2002. I caught up with Delany on Friday to discuss the league's bowl performance and the future.

Obviously the Big Ten's record wasn't good, but how did you feel coming out of this postseason?

Jim Delany: I would rather have gone 6-1, but that's not what the predictors said we would be. I was optimistic going in. I thought we'd win more than we'd lost, but we did not, so it was disappointing. The margins in some cases were not good. In other cases, the games were more competitive. I've given it a lot of thought. I'm not sure I've arrived at any particular conclusions, other than we're playing elite teams. Certainly Southern Cal was playing at another level. That was clear to me. While Penn State got their way back into the game, [USC] really had their way by the half. I'd seen them play earlier against Ohio State and I saw them play last year [in the Rose Bowl] against Illinois. They're very good. They've got great athletes, they're well coached and they play at a level. We don't have a team that's playing at that level at this juncture. We just don't.

How do you think Big Ten teams competed in all the games?

JD: I saw the Michigan State-Georgia game and I saw the Missouri game, I saw the Ohio State game and I saw the Iowa game. Those games were more competitive. One we won and the other ones, we were definitely in the games. Obviously, our goal is to compete at the highest level. When you don't, you have to look internally. That's a football coach's role, to see exactly what needs to be done. We've got great coaches. I would say we have, probably more than people realize, five or six programs that are in the building stages. I don't think you can say anything other than that about Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Illinois and now probably Purdue and Indiana. So to be fair, a program that has got a coach in Year 1, 2 or 3, is different than a program that is in Year 5, 6, 7 or 8. So that has an effect, but that doesn't speak really to the issue. The last four or five years, we've played USC four or five times. We've gotten blown out a couple of times, we were competitive a couple of times, but we haven't been able to beat them. So clearly a better program. And while LSU and Florida got us on championship day, we've gotten them in other bowl games. Michigan got Florida last year and Iowa got LSU. So I'm not despondent about our ability to compete. But I think at the very highest level the last three or four years, we have not had a team. When Florida, LSU and Southern Cal have had championship teams, to me they have been the crème de la crème in terms of coaches, athletes, et cetera.

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