The Big Ten has the best QBs from Troy Smith to Chad Henne to the Drews at Iowa and Michigan State to Minnesota's Bryan Cupito. These and other big storylines will make 2006 an interesting year for the Big Ten.
1. With the 12-game schedule, it's time to play everyone
Big time programs like the ones in the Big Ten are as big as they are because of fan bases that bring in gobs and gobs of money by filling up the enormous stadiums. Good luck ever wrestling away any non-conference games from the Big Ten's greedy hands, but the time has come to crown a true conference champion and play a ten-game league schedule. <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" class="emailBoothFields" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); width: 180px; height: 30px;" align="right"> <tbody><tr> <td>
http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/5357746
</td> </tr> </tbody></table>In the current world of college football, finding a 12th team and splitting into two divisions with a conference championship game to end the season would make the most sense, but there's not another worthy team out there now that the wrongly named conference and Notre Dame have stopped flirting with each other. Big Ten, take the Pac 10's cue and start letting your fans see every team. It's simply not fair that a team like Purdue never misses Indiana, while Michigan and Ohio State never miss one another. It's not fair that this year we don't get to see Ohio State play Wisconsin, Iowa play Penn State, and Purdue play Michigan or Ohio State. In case you were wondering, here are the conference teams the Big Ten teams don't play this year.
Illinois: Michigan, Minnesota
Indiana: Northwestern, Penn State
Iowa: Michigan State, Penn State
Michigan: Illinois, Purdue
Michigan State: Iowa, Wisconsin
Minnesota: Illinois, Northwestern
Northwestern: Indiana, Minnesota
Ohio State: Purdue, Wisconsin
Penn State: Indiana, Iowa
Purdue: Michigan, Ohio State
Wisconsin: Michigan State, Ohio State
2. The importance of being Drew
No conference has a better overall group of quarterbacks returning with a great mix of talented long-time veterans and rising young talents. Ohio State's Troy Smith will finally get the starting spot all to himself from day one, and he's expected to be in the mix for the Heisman. Michigan's Chad Henne has been around for two years and should now be a confident leader, with a growing reputation of playing well in the clutch. Minnesota's Bryan Cupito and Wisconsin's John Stocco aren't known on a national scale, but they'll each be going into their third season as the starter and both have decent résumés. Purdue's Curtis Painter, Illinois' Tim Brasic and Indiana's Blake Powers will be worth keeping an eye on as exciting passers looking to come into their own. Along with the rest of the returning talent, two of the league's signature stars will be Iowa's Drew Tate and Michigan State's Drew Stanton.
If it's not Ohio State's Smith, expect the Drews to battle for Big Ten Player of the Year honors. Stanton was one of the nation's most efficient passers last year before the Spartan season became unraveled. Along with being deadly accurate, he's a great runner with 1,067 yards and ten touchdowns. His key is staying healthy; something he wasn't able to do over his first few seasons. Tate is a hard-nosed player who gives the Hawkeyes an attitude. He's not a runner, but he's mobile and is able to use his feet to create plays for his arm. Unfortunately, Michigan State and Iowa don't play this year.
3. In praise of Northwestern
Is it finally time to start giving respect to Northwestern for being a more-than-solid football program under head coach Randy Walker? Of course, it all got started with the Gary Barnett Big Ten title years, but give credit for Walker for keeping the program at such a competitive level. Stanford went to the Rose Bowl under Ty Willingham, and then fell off the map. Stanford, Vanderbilt, Duke, Wake Forest and Rice, comparable schools to Northwestern in both academics, football history and enrollment, haven't been close to finding and maintaining anywhere near the same success Walker has been able to achieve in Evanston. Since 2000, Northwestern has won 34 games and played in three bowl games. By comparison, Penn State has won 37 games over the last six years with only two bowl appearances. Michigan State has won 34 with two bowl games. Illinois has 26 wins and Indiana in the same span. It'll take a few upsets to get back to a bowl with this year's schedule, but Walker and Wildcats are used to that.
4. The long, lost Big Ten pass rusher
What's one thing most Big Ten teams are going to try to improve on this spring? Pass rushing. Ohio State finished fifth in the nation in sacks and Penn State finished eighth. It's no coincidence those two were in the BCS. Michigan finished 64th, Iowa, despite the emergence of Kenny Iwebema, finished 67th in the nation, averaging 2.08 sacks per game with 25 total sacks. Indiana finished 86th, Michigan State 106th, Minnesota 112th, Northwestern 116th and Illinois 117th. Were the Big Ten lines that good? Yes, but there was a major pass rushing outage and now six of the eight top pass rushers, led by Penn State's Tamba Hali and Ohio State's linebacking tandem of A.J. Hawk and Bobby Carpenter, are gone. (In case you were wondering, Nebraska led the nation with 50 sacks, averaging 4.17 per game. Florida Atlantic finished dead last with a mere six sacks.)
5. The non-conference respect
The Big Ten has represented itself extremely well in the bowls over the last several years, but hasn't really had anyone make a serious late run at the BCS championship game outside of Ohio State in 2002 (although the Buckeyes probably deserved to play for the title over Florida State in 1998). Part of the reason is because of the tough, balanced league, but part of the issue has been losses by the top teams in early non-conference games. Notre Dame did its part last year, while Ohio State's loss to Texas effectively ended Rose Bowl hopes. This year, the early non-conference games the potential bowl teams need to get by to stay in the hunt for the BCS national title game are ...
Iowa: at Syracuse, Iowa State
Michigan: Sept. 16 at Notre Dame
Michigan State: Sept. 16 at Pitt, Sept. 23 Notre Dame
Minnesota: Sept. 9 at California
Northwestern: Sept. 23 at Nevada
Ohio State: Sept. 9 at Texas
Penn State: Sept. 9 at Notre Dame
Purdue: Sept. 30 at Notre Dame
Wisconsin: none. The non-conference games are at Bowling Green, Western Illinois, San Diego State, Buffalo
