Posts from the Big 10 Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

3 ... 2... 1 ... Splat, in a straw cowboy hat. Not sure whether this was a puke-and-rally scene or if Ohio State's star cornerback (formerly pictured at right -- we're working to add the picture again) executed the El Foldo maneuver and called it a night.

Background: Playboy invites players named on its preseason college football All American team to hang out, bond, and, well, party together before the season.

They take group pictures for the magazine, but otherwise have a lot of free time on their hands. Sometimes that free time is spent wearing silly straw cowboy hats. Sometimes it's spent with women you won't be taking home to mother.

... And sometimes its spent refunding your lunch and all the good stuff that had you so cheerful earlier in the evening. Dagnabbit (sorry, straw hat talking there).

More documented fun at the link. Hint: USC's linebackers dwarf James Laurinaitis.

Update: Looks like the thread was pulled with all the images from the event. Hmm. Most of the pictures in the now-escaped thread showed several Ohio State and USC players hanging out together, partying, with women, etc. Standard stuff. And of course the former picture of Jenkins above losing his lunch. You'll have to take our word for it. It was funny. Bent over puke on the sidwalk funny. Darn lawyers.

Pop quiz, hot shots. The phrase "half past dead" refers to which of the following:

A) A lyric in The Band's classic song, "The Weight;"

B) Steven Seagal's timeless cinematic treasure "Half Past Dead," co-starring noted thespian Ja Rule;

C) Kevin Grady's state of being early Wednesday morning.

If you guessed A, you're over 40 years old. If you guessed B, you are a fine connoisseur of cinema. For everybody else, yes, C is the right answer. The Michigan tailback, one of several looking to take over the departed Mike Hart's carries, was arrested on "suspicion" of DUI. We say "suspicion" because Grady blew a .281, which is more than three and a half times higher than the legal limit in Michigan and most other states.

Just for the sake of further context, .080 is legally drunk. .200 will absolutely ruin your weekend. .400 is enough to kill people.

So, if anything, Grady is lucky in that he didn't kill anybody--or himself. Again, he blew a .281. He does, however, find himself in the unfortunate position of being incoming head coach Rich Rodriguez's first serious disciplinary case, which makes it unlikely that he'll escape with anything less than serious punishment. As first offenses go, OWIs almost never result in dismissals, but the mind-blowing particulars probably mean Grady's not seeing the field in any meaningful action until at least October.

The Iowa-Iowa State rivalry may not be the sexiest intrastate rivalry in college football, but in Iowa, it's a sharp sword that slices the state in two. Even though the modern series is only 31 years old, the game is still one of the biggest events in Iowa year in and year out. Whether it's at Kinnick or Jack Trice, the stadium is always filled to the spilling point, and most of the rest of the state watches on TV.

Or at least they used to.

This year's Hawkeye-Cyclone game will be airing on the Big Ten Network, which still isn't available on many of Iowa's biggest cable systems. Comcast, the first major cable provider to sign with the BTN, barely has any subscribers in Iowa. A number of the state's smaller companies have signed on, but Mediacom, the state's largest provider, is still in negotiations with the network.

In its first year the games which aired on BTN provided plenty of memorable moments (like the notorious Appalachian State game) but relatively few of them were games with this degree of desirability. It's a brilliant move by the Big Ten Network to grab this game, which should put some pressure on Mediacom to get on board. I'm not sure how many Iowans would dump cable for satellite just for this game, but it's a good bet that you wouldn't want to be a Mediacom customer service rep if a deal doesn't get done before kickoff.

I no longer live in Iowa but I'm still in Big Ten country and I think it's past time for all sides to give a little and get a deal done. I can live without seeing my Hawkeyes take on Maine or Florida International (two other Iowa games that will air on BTN) but if I can't see Iowa-Iowa State? A pox on both their houses.

FanHouse is counting down the ten best, ten worst, and ten weirdest moments in the history of Big Ten football.

Hayden Fry was, for the media, like having an Instant Money Quote button. The West Texan coach was always good for something lively and interesting with which to season an otherwise bland story. Fry's flamboyant, down-home verbiage was an especially welcome contrast to the usual tight-lippedness of Iowans and their public figures.

Big Ten Media Day 1983, however, was a slight exception.

On that day, a reporter asked Fry if he thought college football players should receive a salary in addition to their scholarships. Fry said yes, noting that times had changed since his playing days at Baylor in the late 1940s. Back then, he said, players got $15 a month just so they could do their laundry, though few players washed their own clothes. "That wasn't any big deal," said the coach, "because you could find a little dumplin' to do the wash and then take her out to eat."

Now, there are a lot of ways in which Waco and Iowa City are not alike. Iowa City is as progressive as people tend to think it won't be. Fry's comment may have been innocent, but it certainly wasn't taken that way.

With Rich Rodriguez taking over the Michigan football program from Lloyd Carr there are going to be plenty of changes made in Ann Arbor. Obviously, the biggest change the team and Rich will have to make is implement ing an entire new offensive system with a bunch of players who weren't recruited for it. That's not exactly the easiest thing in the world to do, but luckily the Wolverines early season schedule consists of cupcakes like Utah, Miami (OH), and Notre Dame. There isn't an Appalachian State in the bunch, so the Wolverines will have some time to adjust.

Another big change will come on Sunday mornings, as Rodriguez has no plans to appear on "Michigan Replay", a popular postgame show that's been running for 33 years.

The Michigan football coach's show, which reviewed the previous game and looked ahead, will no longer be on the air Sunday mornings.

Rodriguez has said he's not interested in hanging around after games to tape a show because he would rather use the time visiting with recruits and spending time with his family.

Not to fear, Michigan fans, just because "Michigan Replay" is going the way of the single wing formation doesn't mean there won't be a new show. Instead of having a weekly show taped after each game to review it and look forward to next week's game, the school is going to produce a weekly preview show.

What it's going to be called, or when and where it will be aired have not been announced yet.

FanHouse is counting down the ten best, ten worst, and ten weirdest moments in the history of Big Ten football.

Of all the ephemera associated with college football, probably the worst is that dreadful institution, the coach's TV show. While I can hardly claim to have seen them all, the ones I have seen have been (a) pretty much all the same, and (b) terrible. The production values are just a notch above something you'd see on the public access channel. The game film is nothing but the highlights your local news showed the night of the game. The commentary from the coach is usually empty of any non-obvious content. And you just know they only pick the fat, juicy hanging curveballs for the "Ask the Coach" segment. The shows are just a way to generate some additional income for the coach, because as we all know, college football coaches at the Division I-A Football Bowl Subdivision level don't get paid very well.

So today we turn our attention to what might be the only interesting moment in the entire history of these wretched programs. It involves a coach who ... well, he made a rather curious decision about how to remind people that the season wasn't over yet.

It seems every paper in Pennsylvania has a reporter dedicated to scouring the seven seas for information about Joe Paterno's pending retirement: is it pending? Like... how pending? Are we talking "imminent" or "his dessicated bones will still lord over us when it's Planet of the Apes time?" And who will they hire? Schiano? Al Golden? Bender?

No one knows. Except maybe these guys:

Players recruited by the Nittany Lions are being assured that when Paterno retires, his replacement will come from the current coaching staff rather than an outside hire.

''Mr. Paterno told me himself that his replacement is already within the staff, so he'll just bring one new guy in and bump everybody up in the ranks,'' linebacker Mike Yancich from Washington, Pa., said.

Any reasonable observer must therefore conclude that the job will go to defensive coordinator Tom Bradley, and outpost of competence amongst-

What about me?

Find out after the jump.

Like boom boom, world's gonna end crazy talk.

[USC fans] know that [Ohio State is] gonna slaughter the Trojans, and therefore they do not want me there at the bloodbath, since it's probably the last football game we'll ever get to see before the United States gets blown up by the Islamists under Obama.

Uh huhhhh. Oh, and the conservative Los Angeles based radio host wants his USC listeners to offer him tickets. Good luck with that.

Crazy as this sounds, I'm actually going to defend Hewitt a bit.

I won't defend the world's-gonna-end part, I'll leave that to our sister site News Bloggers to have fun with, but since we're talking college football here ... let it be known Hewitt is an unabashed Ohio State and Notre Dame (and Michigan) guy. USC naturally gets under his skin. I've listened to his show enough to know that one of his favorite things to do is bash USC. It's his schtick, and he gets particular glee from it considering the greatest chunk of his national audience is in USC-mad Orange County, where he also works as a law professor.

I've seen this act before and taken out of context it sounds crazy, but he truly is just being himself and hoping for a rise out of the USC contingent within his listening audience. As a person holding tickets to that game, I won't be offering Hewitt mine, nor do I think it will be a bloodbath in the Buckeyes' favor. But I am thoroughly amused at his opinion, which is what he was aiming for in the first place.

Now about that world's-gonna-end thing ...

(Via: Get The Picture / EDSBS)

Now that the Big Ten Network and Comcast cable have finally come to an agreement that will actually allow the majority of Big Ten fans to see the network, it's time to figure out what exactly they're going to be showing to fill all that dead air between Iowa/Indiana lacrosse matches and Minnesota/Penn State tennis.

Last season the BTN did a series called "The Journey" in which they followed Tubby Smith and the Minnesota basketball team around during the season and chronicled the changes taking place under Smith. The series was a success, and the network will be doing it again this season, with the focus of the show being on Ron Zook and Illinois' football program.

BTN officials plan to announce Thursday the Illini will be featured in Season 2. Minnesota and its first-year basketball coach, Tubby Smith, were the series' guinea pigs.

"I talked with Tubby and he was impressed with their professionalism," Zook said. "He had the same fears in the beginning as I do."

Chief among those fears?

"This will be like having someone in your bedroom," Zook said.

(Gratuitous Gisele photo to the right. You're welcome.)

Victoria's Secret is a place where you can buy ... well, you probably already know. No need for an explanation.

On their website, you will find section that leads you to the PINK Collegiate Collection. On that page, there is a list of 33 colleges who have licensed apparel available.

Among the list of 33 is the University of Minnesota. However, someone at the school has apparently decided that it's not a good place for Gopher gear to be sold.

Seriously.

"We are not making a judgment in regards to Victoria's Secret," said University spokesman Dan Wolter. "We just don't feel it is in our institution's best interest right now."

Wolter said there was not enough discussion about how the company's image could affect the University's reputation and that upon review, "it was simply determined we should opt out of it."

It's not like we're talking about Gopher lingerie. Victoria's Secret has a shirt, sweats, a hoody, and a tote bag (read: purse) available. Perhaps the university was offended by the prices. The tote bag alone runs $24.50. Yikes.