Unlike most years, the Big Ten media days are producing some news this year. We learned that the Big Ten definitely will be staging a championship game in 2011, but the conference may select a one-year host for the game rather than do the full selection process in such a short timeframe. Expanding to a nine-game conference schedule may be in the works, but probably not immediately because of existing scheduling obligations. The competitive balance calculation will be based on records from 1993 to present. Lots of good stuff today:
FOOTBALL
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IU coach has AD's support (The Journal Gazette | Fort Wayne, IN)
"I really feel like Bill and his staff are going absolutely in the right direction and my sincere expectation is that he’ll be the coach here for a long, long time," Glass said at Big Ten football media day Monday at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place. "… We haven’t tried continuity too much at Indiana University football either because of horrific circumstances beyond our control or decisions that have been made. I think we’re going to start to see the benefits of that because of the cycle that Bill’s been through, the opportunity to redshirt (and) have kids that came for him." -
Marve impresses coach (The Indianapolis Star)
"Glass said he will not mandate a certain number of wins. "That's a copout. That's what administrators do when they want a safe harbor, to say, 'We'll I'll put this on autopilot, and if you hit this, you're in. If you don't, you're out.' That's dangerous. "We will look at everything -- recruiting, retention, progress. And we'll look at wins and losses. I'm not a goof. I know that wins and losses matter."" The Star's sub-headline says that "AD endorses Lynch long term." I don't really read it that way. I think, like all of us, Fred Glass hopes that the positive developments in recruiting translate to wins. Still, I didn't take this as a guarantee that Lynch would survive another subpar season. We'll see. We didn't hear, "we honor contracts."
Indiana's Lynch talks a good game (RANDY BEARD COLUMN Evansville Courier & Press)
"The theme this football season in Bloomington will be to finish. That was a big problem a year ago for Bill Lynch's Indiana University team, which outscored only three opponents in the fourth quarter last season and finished 4-8. Through the course of those 12 games, the Hoosiers were on the short end of a 110-83 score during those collective final 15 minutes."
Big Ten Media Day 1: No Name Change and Other Highlights (NCAAFB FanHouse)
"Commissioner Jim Delany, asked if he envisions the Big Ten conference schedule moving from an eight-game to a nine-game format, replied, "I do." Delany is not known, particularly in matters related to the Big Ten, for envisioning things that do not come to pass. The commissioner also indicated that regardless of how many schools eventually join the conference, the name is more sacrosanct than the number. "I think the Big Ten is the Big Ten regardless of the number," Delany said."
The Best of The Big Ten Media Days (Hoosier Hype | Indiana Daily Student)
Quotes from all of the Big Ten coaches.
Big Ten media days (The Hoosier Scoop)
"Delany said he hopes to have a plan for divisions for a 12-team Big Ten in place within the next 30-45 days. He reiterated that the most important criteria for determining the divisions will be competitive balance. To determine that, he said, the conference would look at the past 17 years, going back to the 1993 season. That year was chosen, he said, because it was the year every team in Division I-A (as it was known at the time) was limited to 85 scholarships. Delany said definitively that he expected to have a Big Ten championship game in 2011. As far as a venue for the championship game, he did not rule out the possibility of rotating the venue, in part because he has concerns about the time and resources it would require to do an exhaustive study of a possible venue."
Glass expects Lynch to coach IU for "a long, long time" (Hoosier Hype | Indiana Daily Student)
"I really feel like Bill and his staff have this program going in the right direction," Glass said. "My sincere expectation is that he’ll be the coach here for a long, long time."
Cornhuskers good for Wisconsin recruiting (Detroit Free Press)
"Indiana also has a standout player from metro Detroit in fifth-year senior wide receiver Terrance Turner (West Bloomfield). "He's the leader of the group in terms of what a great kid (is)," Indiana coach Bill Lynch said. "He's an interesting story. He's a theater and drama major. He spends as much time acting as he does getting ready to play football.""
Ex-Crown Point star Ernest a 'secondary' player at IU :: Sports :: Post-Tribune
"Switching Matt Ernest of Crown Point from wide receiver to cornerback was a no-brainer for Indiana football coach Bill Lynch. Wide receiver is one of the Hoosiers' deepest positions.... It probably translates into more playing time for Ernest. Though he is a two-year letterman, the redshirt junior has caught only 10 passes in two seasons."
Justin Siller gives Purdue flexibility (The Detroit News)
"Indiana coach Bill Lynch , entering his fourth season, said he's had only six true freshmen play the past three years and needs a lot of newcomers to deliver."
Time's now to pick site for title game (The Indianapolis Star)
"One of the thoughts that I've had is about whether or not I will go to our athletic directors and presidents and say something like, 'With all that we have on our plate today, would we be wise to simply identify a site for one year, do a good, solid, arm's-length contract, let us get it done, and then this spring go out and spend more time with more venues and more cities both with respect to the men's basketball tournament and also the football championship game.' "
Big 10 Media Days Offer Clues to Conference Alignment (Big Red Network)
This is some really nice work by a Nebraska blogger, who puts together the winning percentages since 1993, the conference's stated year for the beginning of the "competitive balance" calculation. I do disagree with his conclusion. While it's certainly possible that Penn State and Nebraska will end up in the same division, PSU, Michigan, and Wisconsin, ranging from .703 to .686, are effectively tied. If Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State anchored one division, and Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Iowa anchored the other, that would evenly divide the top six, although the "big three" have owned the conference title over the last decade (those are the only three schools to have won the automatic BCS bid since Illinois won it in 2001).
BASKETBALL
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Hoops recruiting wars: Who's winning? (The Indianapolis Star)
This story generated some pretty heavy outrage in message board land, but I can't say I understand the outrage. The artificial "point-counterpoint" format creates an incentive to exaggerate and to leave out facts that contradict the "point." Rabjohns certainly has struck me as an anti-IU guy (remember when he was practically begging the NCAA to add a failure to monitor charge against IU?), and part of me worries that poormouthing of the program becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Still, there are plenty of entities that do a better job reporting on recruiting than does the Indianapolis Star, and their outlook is not as negative. I think Rabjohns has been taking hair-pulling lessons from Bob Kravitz. -
4 schools consider Conseco doubleheader (The Indianapolis Star)
"Indiana, Purdue, Butler and Notre Dame are in talks to play a men's basketball doubleheader involving all four schools at Conseco Fieldhouse." This is a great idea.