FanHouse BillMartin

One little loss to Northwestern can change everything. Iowa looked like the team to beat in the Big Ten title race, but now that it has fallen to the Wildcats and Ohio State has beaten Penn State, all the momentum has moved back to Columbus. Technically, both the Hawkeyes and Buckeyes control their own destiny. Whichever team wins Saturday's game is the presumptive conference champion.

Now go try to figure the odds that Iowa can win in the Horseshoe with a redshirt freshman quarterback making his first career start with no run support to speak of.

If you didn't know already, more than a few Michigan Wolverine fans are upset with how this football season has turned out. Not only is the nation's longest bowl streak over, but the Wolverines are enduring their first eight-loss season ever. Number nine looks to be on the horizon, as Rich Rodriguez's squad heads to Columbus for the annual Big Ten Championship Game Ohio State-Michigan game.

It isn't just fans who are upset with the team's non-performance this season. Even some former Wolverine players are getting into the act. On Monday, Desmond Howard, of all people, gave an interview to a Columbus radio station on Monday and left no doubt about his opinion of the team's performance this season:

"I made a comment (Sunday) on our show that it's not like they were trying to learn a spread offense (as much as) like they were trying to learn how to play football in some of those games, they looked so bad. This isn't Michigan, this is like Michigan Tech."

For the benefit of the unenlightened, yes, there's really a Michigan Tech. It's located in the Upper Peninsula, so far up it's actually closer to Minneapolis than to Detroit. Howard's comparsion is unfair, though.