Sure, it’s baseball season, and the NBA playoffs and NHL playoffs are on, but those of us who are college football fans are pining for some gridiron activity. Early June is truly the slack period in college football, about midway between the spring game and the start of fall camp. The only real college football news is speculation about recruiting, and it really doesn’t fill the void.
Fortunately, the Big Ten Network Twitter feed is there to help out Ohio State football fans who are looking for their early summer football fix. Above is a link to a recent Twitter posting by BTN of video of every one of the 44 touchdowns that Ohio State has scored against That Team Up North during the Buckeyes’ current eight-game winning streak over the Wolverines.
Speaking as someone who cut their teeth on Buckeye football during the Woody and Bo Ten-Year War era, it’s still hard for me to believe two parts of the sentence immediately above: 44 touchdowns and an eight-game winning streak. How things have changed since the ’70s!
And the projected revenue number (drum roll, please) is: $51.1 million. That $51.1 million in expected revenue distribution will go not only to the despised Maize and Blue, but also to the good guys in Scarlet and Gray and all of the other schools in the 14-member Big Ten Conference. Do the math, and you will quickly determine that the Big Ten will be dishing out more than $700 million to the schools that are lucky enough to be part of the Old Conference in 2018. Say, do you think the school administrators and athletic directors at Rutgers and Maryland are happy about their decision to join the Big Ten back in 2014?
Oh, yeah. Ugh. This is the year the Big Ten adds the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and the Maryland Terrapins to the conference. I don’t know whether Ohio State will be any good this year — I’ll write something about that later this week — but I know that Rutgers and Maryland aren’t likely to increase the Buckeyes’ strength of schedule any. Last year the Scarlet Knights were 6-7 in whatever conference they were in (was it the Big East?) and the Terrapins were a hardy 7-6 in the ACC. Will they be any better this year? Heck if I know, but I do know that a homecoming game against Rutgers doesn’t exactly get the blood pumping.
Thompson had a jaw-dropping dunk after catching a slightly errant alley-oop pass in Ohio State’s recent win over Nebraska, and it caused 
Some people like Dick Vitale, some people like Bill Raftery, some people like Jay Bilas — but for my money no announcer is so perfectly matched to a sport as Gus Johnson is to college basketball. He is knowledgeable, and professional, but what really makes him great is that he gets as pumped about the great games, the great plays, and the great finishes as everyday fans do. Listening to Gus Johnson call a game, his voice rising as the adrenalin surges, always makes that game more exciting and memorable.
Typically, The Journey will follow three or four storylines each episode, with the different subjects woven together into a kind of tapestry. The show is granted exceptional, behind-the-scenes access to the players and coaches, to the workout rooms, the long bus rides, the timeout huddles when the game is in the balance, and the locker room jubilation and disappointment. Viewers of The Journey have learned about what a fine person Michigan’s Darius Morris must be, as he has dealt with the death of a close friend from a debilitating disease. We’ve seen the commitment of the Illinois student section, the Orange Crush, as they perform charitable work and then travel for hours to cheer their team during a key away game. We’ve heard Minnesota’s Trevor Mbakwe talk about overcoming his past mistakes, seen Northwestern’s Mighty Mite Iron Man, Juice Thompson, conditioning himself to play every minute of every game, and listened to Ohio State’s Dallas Lauderdale talk about his mother and the limitations imposed by her illness. The stories are well presented and told by the subjects themselves and the production values are excellent. The end product is riveting television.
I’m just about ready to:
I don’t see much point in such speculation. I agree with those who think it is likely that the Big Ten will take its time, consider candidates carefully, and look for schools that satisfy the Big Ten’s academic and research university standards, provide entry to new TV markets, and thereby allow schools to increase their shared revenue. I don’t think the Big Ten decisionmakers are paying much attention to dreaming up divisions or methods of scheduling, or even considering athletics beyond evaluating whether the candidate schools could field competitive football and basketball teams.
Webner House 