The Big1T2en???

Joe Paterno is now the voice of change in the BigTen...While our representatives sit around Congress waisting out money talking about the BCS some of the guys who roam the sidelines are trying to do something about it. While presidents like Gordon Gee and Mary Sue Coleman vow to avoid a championship game and giving all BigTen fans what they want, more football, Joe's trying to get it right.

"I've tried to talk to the Big Ten people about, '

Let's get a 12th team -- Syracuse, Rutgers,

Pitt -- we could have a little bit of a playoff.'"

While most would agree Joe's choices are pretty poor fits for the BigTen, we don't need another Indiana, Iowa, and MSU respectively, but why hasn't this been done or even a shot taken at making something happen? Joe's been around since leather helmets, he's led Penn State from an agricultural powerhouse to Linebacker U. Yet, as most fans do these days the heads in the BigTen just laugh at him..."Oh Joe, such cute and angry old crumudgen." The BigTen Conference used to be THE conference, Jim Delany is still known as one of the most powerful guys in the NCAA, but all we get is mediocre play on the field lately and bunch of traditional bastards who think we can still run the toss sweep all day. You should NEVER run the toss sweep!!

So there's something to this notion of adding a 12th team; who do we want? Notre Dame is always the first choice, Big Ten type of tradition, outstanding academics, and usually a top notch program. It'll never happen so lets just leave it at that. So other names are Missouri, Iowa State, Louisville, and other midwestern schools. Stealing a team from the Big12 seems pretty outrageous considering the state of the two leagues currently but you never know. ISU is has a pre-existing rivalry with Iowa, and a Minnesota would make a formidable secondary rival.

The only problem I see with the proposition is alignment. How do you keep all natural rivalries and keep the divisions balanced?? Every year, Michigan needs to play Minnesota, OSU, and MSU. Ohio State needs UM, MSU, and the Illini. Add PSU to that division and you have wrecking ball of an East vs. a West squad of Indiana, Northwestern, Iowa, Purdue, and Wisconsin...not a geographically correct representation, but the point is this would be like putting Tyson against your children's testicles.

So we'll sit through another year of possibilities, another season of high expectations of a return to prominance, and another bowl season we get screwed out of, and then proceed to get drilled in. No, I'm not just setting low expectation for my Wolverines, we're talking about this entire conference. This conference needs some changes up top, while the rest of the country is thinking about playoff we're still trying to figure out how to get our players home for Thanksgiving. The game never passed JoePa by, he traded a few seasons to transition to match the rest of the country. There's no reason the BigTen should truely be left behind.

On a side note, I think Joe Paterno is a relic that no one appreciates nearly enough. We're talking about a guy who's won more than anyone and literally built a program. He's quirky and fun, yet cares more about the game and his players than 90% of the guys to ever stand on the sidelines. I often wonder what could have been if Don Canham had closed the deal before Bo, how big is the Big House if JoePa brings UM into the modern age? What track would we be on today. I wouldn't say I'd take Joe over Bo, but who knows what could have been.

If the damn video game post gets more comments than this we need to seriously reconsider the direction of this blog. Our readers obviously think Coach and I are the smartest men alive when it comes to sports content (we are, but regardless lets get some comments.)

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