Barry Needs To Open A Calendar

Discussions of the Big-11 adding another team are heating up. Why? Money, of course. Well, unless you ask Barry Alvarez. He states:

"We're irrelevant for the last three weeks of the football season because we're not playing."

Three weeks is a stretch. Technically, there's only one weekend of football in between the last Big-11 conference games and the SEC/ACC/Big-12 Championship games (sponsored by Dr Pepper!). If Barry thinks this is such a problem, why doesn't the Big-11 push their schedule back? I don't get it. Here's how the schedule played out:

Saturday, November 21
-The Big-11 ends conference play, highlighted by Ohio State vs. Michigan.
- The other big boys also play conference games.

Saturday, November 28
- More conference action for the big boys including numerous rivalry games (Oklahoma-Okey St, Georgia-Georgia Tech, USC-UCLA, Florida-Florida St, etc)
- Where's the Big-11? Idle.

Thursday, December 3
- The Nation watches Oregon and Oregon St not only play the "Civil War," but play the Civil War with a Conference title on the line.

Saturday, December 5
- The ACC, Big-12, and SEC stage their conference championship games.
- The Big-11 features Fresno State-Illinois and Wisconsin-Hawaii. Yawn.

So, there you go. If ending the season too early is why "the conference is irrelevant," why the Hell doesn't the Big-11 push the final weekend of conference play to November 28th?? Or even save their showcase game (Michigan-OSU, in most years) to December 5th, or even Friday, December 4th?

Barry's right, his conference is irrelevant, but it's not because of the calendar. It's because: A) They haven't won a big time regular season game since Colt McCoy was a Freshman, B) they're 0-6 in the last six Rose Bowls with 4 blowouts, and C) The Big-11 is 0 for their last 6 BCS games, including 5 blowouts.

Sorry, Barry. If adding a 12th school is all about money, just say so. Don't insult our intelligence.

Ridiculous Statement of the Day - Colin Cowherd

A rare occurance happened on ESPN radio this morning - Big Ten Football was mentioned. Now - while you are picking up yourself up off the floor from the chair you just fell out of, note that it was in regards to the Notre Dame football coaching job, tenuously held by 10-year contract beneficiary, Charlie Weis. Mr. Cowherd contended that there were several outstanding young coaches that Notre Dame could immediately replace Weis with that would be an upgrade. Among these were Boise State's Chris Petersen and Northwestern's own Pat Fitzgerald. And while I agree that either of these guys would be an upgrade to Weis's bumbling tenure, I don't agree with Cowherd's ridiculous follow up statement to the mention of Fitzgerald. His assertion that 'Pat Fiztgerald is the best coach in the Big Ten'.

Groan. Now I know that the luster hasn't yet worn off on the Wildcats big victory over Iowa last weekend, and to a national sporting media that seemed like a massive upset. Fitzgerald deserves credit for having his team get a very tough road win. But for those of us who actually follow the Big Ten on a week in, week out basis - we've seen Iowa dodge bullets all year. They needed two blocked kicks in the 4th quarter to overcome Northern Iowa for crying out loud. Their number was finally up, and with Stanzi knocked out of the game, it gave NU the edge to hang on and steal the win.

I quickly sorted thru NU's record under Fitzgerald since he took over for the late Randy Walker. Short of the fact that he recently took down the highly ranked Squawk-eyes, there isn't much to hang your hat on. Since 2006, he's managed to lose to teams like New Hampshire, Nevada, Duke, and Syracuse. Yes, he's young. Yes, he's made NU competitive again. He's a nice story, given that he's an Wildcat alum from their Rose Bowl team and a suburban Chicago native. He's passionate and fiery. A great interview too. But best coach in the Big Ten? C'mon. 25 and 22, and 4 games under 0.500 in the Big Ten just don't qualify you to be in that discussion.

Interesting Sports Weekend

Let's review the weekend in sports:

1. Brewers trade JJ Hardy for Carlos Gomez. While Gomez's offensive numbers in the majors concern me (let's get that career OBP over .300 next year, fella) at least he has some tools and plays a fantastic defensive CF. I don't hate this trade like some do. Seriously, Hardy isn't very good. What did people expect to get back?

2. Badgers slip by Indiana. Clay/Ball looked good. So did Toon. Badgers secondary did not. Did IU's QB throw an incompletion? Chris Borland might be my new favorite Badger. Can he play corner?

3. Iowa lost to Northwestern. At home. This was just beautiful. Hawkeye fans currently feel like I felt when Minnesota beat Wisconsin in 1993. That is, they feel awful.

4. Navy beats Notre Dame. I think every head football coach at Notre Dame should have an automatic termination clause in his contract if he loses to Navy twice. What, exactly, has Charlie Weis done to deserve to continue as coach? Not that I'm complaining, mind you - I love it when Notre Dame loses to the service academies.

5. Bucks destroy the Knicks. With Murdock blowing kisses to him from the stands, Jodie Meeks has his coming-out party against the Knicks. No, that doesn't mean that he succumbed to Murdock's forward advances - it means that he scored a bunch of points. The Knicks are horrid.

6. 0-7 Bucs beat the Packers. WTF? LOL? Huh? For some reason, nobody started Tampa's D/ST in my fantasy football league this week. I guess nobody saw the two touchdowns coming. Does this finally convince all of the Ted/McCarthy backers that these two fools should be run out of town on a rail? News flash! 2007 was a fluke, engineered by a different QB and aided by lots of good breaks. The reality is that this team isn't very talented, hasn't been very talented since Ted came to town, and it sure as hell isn't well-coached. But it sure is young.

Get That Pen Ready

Notre Dame almost beat USC. Chuck Weis will be offered a contract extension any day now.

Mix in a salad

Rex Ryan needs to mix in a salad. Hell, he makes Andy Reid look like Manute Bol.

Real Football Insight: Michigan State vs. Notre Dame

Since the Badgers are playing Wofford this week, I figured we could take a look at some other match-ups that may be of interest to the locals. Lets start off with Michigan State at Notre Dame (2:30, NBC).

Let me start off by saying I really dislike Notre Dame. However, after years of looking like crap (and an emu) Jimmy Clausen is looking like a pretty good QB this year. It helps when you have a beast like Michael Floyd running routes and catching balls for you. However, their coach is still Charlie Weis. His latest in douchbaggery came this week when he started his presser by complaining about the officiating in the Michigan game, saying that was all he was going to say because he had Big Ten officials this week, and then spending the rest of the presser talking about officiating. Hey, if you want to see bad officiating, check out a tape of the Packers-Bears game from Sunday night. I was convinced the officials were trying to see if there was any way they could digitally put a 12th Packer on the field during the fake punt review.

Anyhow back to the MSU-Notre Dame game. I know State was embarrassed last week by Central Michigan and Notre Dame played a good game against Michigan. However, I see the Spartans rising up and winning this one. As wildly inconsistent as MSU football has been for as long as I can remember, they always seem to play well against Notre Dame. I am going to go with a Michigan State win here. In terms of watchability, I am going to give this one 8 bottles of High Life on a 10 bottle of High Life scale.

For a better look at the game, lets see what a MSU alum, who I will dub Sparty Tom, has to say about this game:

MSU has beaten Notre Dame an unprecedented six times in a row in South Bend. No other team in college football history can claim that feat in the 78 year history of Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame is coming off a painful loss at the hands of the Wolverines in Ann Arbor, while Michigan State is trying to forget that embarrassment in East Lansing against the mighty Chippewas of Central Michigan last weekend. Jimmy Clausen figures to have a big day throwing the ball as Michigan State's secondary has been a weakness in the first few weeks of play. Pre-season All American Linebacker Greg Jones and the rest of the Michigan State defensive line hope to provide enough pressure up front to keep the Fighting Irish offense off balance.

On the other side of the ball, there is still a Quarterback controversy in the Spartan camp. Both Oklahoma transfer Keith Nichol, and redshirt sophomore Kirk Cousins have split playing time in the Spartan's first two games of the season. Nichol likes to use his quickness to leave the pocket make plays on the run, while Cousins is more of a drop-back passer who throws a more accurate ball. MSU coach Mark Dantonio has not revealed who will receive the playing time against Notre Dame. Either way, they'll have to deal with a Notre Dame defense that is looking to redeem itself after giving up too many big plays against the Wolverines last week. Irish head coach Charlie Weis has had his first team defense taking reps against the first team offense this week in practice to instill more toughness.

This is the type of game that will set the tone for the rest of the season for both teams. How will each team respond to an early season loss? For Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis, two early season losses will most likely resurrect calls for his job that were so prevalent at the end of last season. For Michigan State, this is the start of a 3-game stretch that will define their season (Notre Dame, Wisconsin, and Michigan). A loss would put them in a hole that they want no part of. Given the nature of the rivalry, this game promises to be one of the best battles of the weekend

Nice Work Sparty Tom. Look for more Sparty Tom analysis throughout this season as well as basketball season when we discuss Big Ten Championship basketball banners left rolled up in the rafters.