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I'm feeling a bit under the weather tonight (no, it's not the South Florida / Connecticut game or the lingering effects of the Tampa game) so I'm going to be brief today. Anyway, today is another glorious College Football Saturday so you know what means...Big Ten football. It's also the last day of college football before the fall officially begins.
We've mentioned it recently about how Big Ten football hasn't been very good and while week three wasn't much of an improvement, week four has better odds as we're favored in seven games, plus two games versus FCS opponents. So there's that.
Anyways here's the viewing schedule since I know most of you will be more busy with football today instead of college basketball:
| Time (EST) | B1G | Opponent | Channel |
| 12:00 | Michigan State | Eastern Michigan | BTN |
| 12:00 | Iowa | Pittsburgh | ESPNU |
| 12:00 | Wisconsin | Bowling Green | ESPN2 |
| 12:00 | Purdue | S. Illinois | BTN |
| 12:00 | Northwestern | W. Illinois | ESPNews |
| 12:30 | Maryland | Syracuse | ESPN3 |
| 3:30 | Michigan | Utah | ABC/ESPN2 |
| 3:30 | Rutgers | Navy | CBS Sports |
| 4:00 | Penn State | Massachusetts | BTN |
| 4:00 | Minnesota | San Jose State | BTN |
| 4:00 | Illinois | Texas State | ESPNews |
| 4:00 | Indiana | Missouri | SEC Network |
| 8:00 | Nebraska | Miami (Fl) | ESPN 2 |
That leads me to today's question. What will it take to make the Big Ten relevant in football again? When I say relevant I mean on the same level as the basketball programs, not just top heavy or a money making machine (both of which are usually true in most years). There was a lot of talk about the reason for Big Ten's basketball dominance being the impressive head coaching from top to bottom. If the basketball programs can lure (and retain) top level coaching, why not the football programs? It's not like we haven't seen an abundance of high quality coaches up top (Meyer, Dantonio come to mind).
Either way, you guys should let me know what you think the conference needs to do to improve in football to a level similar to the basketball programs. I plan on writing something a little more intensive (and positive) comparing the two sports in the future and would likely try to incorporate it into the article.
Anyway, let's enjoy some football today. Also, we're officially less than two months away from Saturdays having basketball all day once again. Soon.