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.
We finally figured out what sort of misfortune Iowa's Cardiac Kids couldn't survive. They couldn't survive losing Ricky Stanzi. As a result, No. 8 Iowa fell to unranked Northwestern on Saturday, 17-10.
The junior quarterback left just before halftime after Northwestern's Corey Wootton tackled him in the end zone. Stanzi sprained his right ankle and fumbled the ball. As Northwestern's Marshall Thomas recovered the fumble for a touchdown, Stanzi remained on the Kinnick Stadium turf. He would walk off the field on his own power, but Stanzi would not return to the game. Neither would Iowa's offense.
Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten stays late to run the TPS reports on the coming weekend's games.
In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence.
The above statement is better known as the Peter Principle, and if it doesn't make sense to you, join the club. I didn't get it the first 1,378 times I read it. Now I recognize it for what it is. It's an overly intellectual way of saying "People who do a good job keep getting promoted until they wind up in a job they can't do."
So what does this have to do with Illinois, you ask?
Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten previews the weekend's action, even when the truth is ugly.
It was a bad week for vowels.
The seven Big Ten schools whose names start with consonants played anywhere from OK to brilliantly this past weekend. The four that start with vowels -- Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio State -- all dropped a pantload on the field.
Illinois gets a partial pass because Missouri has been on a nice run lately. Ohio State played a Navy team that usually goes bowling. Indiana struggled with a Division I-AA FCS school, but they're Indiana; you kind of expect these things from them after a while.
That leaves one school. Iowa. And if I was an Iowa fan ... wait. I am an Iowa fan. Make the jump and see what has me feeling punchy. I promise I'll get around to the games eventually.
The college football season is fast approaching, with many fall camps set to open this week. Thus it's time to lay aside our interregional bickering and turn our thoughts to, you know, what might actually happen on the field.
The big question in the Big Ten this season is whether Penn State's conference championship was just a momentary burp in the conference's Buckeye-dominated food chain, or whether things might actually be shifting just a bit in the conference. Do the Buckeyes claim the title again? Will the Nittany Lions defend last year's crown and make a run at the national title? Will there be some giant, world-rocking surprise team that comes in and knocks them both out of the BCS?
James McDonald, a backup wide receiver on the Penn State football team, has been kicked off the team for reasons which are technically undisclosed, at least by the PSU athletic department.
However, McDonald was cited for DUI on July 9th after being pulled over for an expired registration. Couple that with a suspension for "undisclosed violations" back in 2007, and it isn't hard to see why McDonald is now an ex-Lion.
In an interview with the Reading Eagle newspaper, Paterno made it clear that he doesn't care if he winds up with the all-time wins record or not. "When they put me underneath, it won't make any difference whether I'm one win ahead or 10 wins behind. I've enjoyed my career. I've been lucky. I've never really thought about that kind of legacy."
Stating the Irish have "had their chance," Paterno wants the league to look east, as in Big East. He recommends adding Syracuse, Pitt, or Rutgers to the conference. Paterno wants to see the Big Ten pick up the New York market, which would argue against Pitt. Rutgers has to like its chances in the Big East more than in in the Big Ten. As for Syracuse, well, at this point, you couldn't blame them if they decided to join Temple in the MAC. So there's no school out there that makes sense as a twelfth Big Ten Team, right?
Florida State -- hey, remember when they were good? -- is challenging the punishment handed down by the NCAA on Friday in relation to an incident of academic fraud perpetrated by athletes across many of its sports programs. No, not the entire punishment, but simply the NCAA order that Florida State "vacate" all victories achieved with ineligible athletes stemming from that incident. You can call it the tip of the NCAA's spear.
Its safe to say this is being done in the name of Bobby. Simply put, legendary football coach Bobby Bowden's dimming hopes of outlasting Penn State's Joe Paterno for the all-time Division I NCAA victory mark are kaput if the ruling is followed through. The Seminoles are playing the unknowing victim card, but will it work?
Florida State has a right to appeal, but the notable punishments include: public reprimand and censure, scholarship limits imposed for football and several other sports, all records (wins, stats) vacated for all games ineligible athletes participated in and requirement of an annual compliance report.
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.
We finally figured out what sort of misfortune Iowa's Cardiac Kids couldn't survive. They couldn't survive losing 
Every Thursday, 
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The college football season is fast approaching, with many fall camps set to open this week. Thus it's time to lay aside our interregional bickering and turn our thoughts to, you know, what might actually happen on the field.
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Florida State -- hey, remember when they were good? -- is challenging the 
