The Big Ten Network: It’s All Mine!

For almost a week now, I’ve had access to the Big Ten Network on my cable system.

Saturday night, had I chosen, I could have watched Indiana play Murray State in football. I instead chose to watch something else, I don’t remember what. Probably a college football game with two Division I-A teams instead of one.

It’s 11:15 p.m. Monday as I type this, and what’s on the BTN but a replay of a men’s soccer game between Penn State and Bucknell. OH MY! SOMEONE JUST STOLE THE BALL AND ALMOST HAD A SHOT ON GOAL!

Bucknell is ahead 1-0 with 26:34 left in the second half and I can’t take the suspense. I’m going to find the final score on the Internet.

OH NO! BUCKNELL WON, 2-0!

Wisconsin Campus Programming is on at 3 a.m. But I’ll be asleep by then, even if it requires hitting myself in the head several times with a ball-peen hammer to get it done.

Iowa Football Has the Easiest Schedule/Most-Overpaid Coach?

 

 

To hear Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News tell it, Iowa is in position to grab a bunch of college football wins this year.

 

But Wilner, a fine college sports writer for that Bay Area paper, doesn’t say the reason is the Hawkeyes’ personnel.

 

Wilner: “Kirk Ferentz hasn’t done much since his recruits formed the bulk of his roster, but there’s no way he won’t win at least even (Hlog note: Wilner probably meant seven, not even) with the Hawkeyes’ oh-so-soft lineup: Maine, Florida International, Iowa State and Pittsburgh, plus Penn State and Wisconsin at home, and no Michigan or Ohio State.”

 

The guy slapped both Iowa and Iowa State in one blow. So he’s balanced.

 

But when you’re calling the mighty, mighty Maine Black Bears soft, you’ve gone too far.

 

The link: http://tinyurl.com/5luw6o

 

If that wasn’t enough, none other than Forbes Magazine is calling Ferentz the nation’s most-overpaid college football coach. That’s an opinion provided in one of a series of stories in the business and financial magazine’s look at “The Business of College Football.”

 

Forbes: “The most overpaid coach is Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, who made $3.4 million last year despite lackuster results on the field. … Just how lopsided is Ferentz’s deal? During the last three years he’s pocketed $10 million, including $4.6 million in 2006, but has led the Hawkeyes to a 19-18 record.”

 

Gee, the Hlog would have gone with Notre Dame’s Crewcut Charlie Weis as most-overpaid, given he has his own television network (NBC) and still went just 3-9 last year.

Don’t forget, Hawkeye fans, writers from border to border were calling Ferentz the best or one of the best coaches in the country a few years ago. You’re only as terrific or as deserving of your millions as what you’ve done lately.

The Forbes link: 

http://tinyurl.com/6btxdr

 

 

 

 

 

 

Penn State is Outscoring Iowa – in Football Arrests

According to an ESPN study of Pennsyvlania court records and reports, 46 Penn State football players have faced 163 criminal charges since 2002 and 27 have been convicted of or have pleaded guilty to a combined 45 counts.

Most recently, former Nittany Lions wide receiver Chris Bell pleaded guilty July 22 to making terroristic threats for an April incident in which he pulled a knife on a teammate in a university dining hall.

“We tried to get kids that were good, solid kids,” Penn State Coach Joe Paterno said. “We may have made a mistake or two, but there was no deliberate attempt.”

Which led someone at sportsjournalists.com to ask, is it Penn State or State Penn?

For all the bad publicity Iowa has gotten for 18 football players running afoul of the law in ways really bad and, well, less than really bad, Penn State is the Big Ten’s runaway leader in dubious acts over the last several years.

Big Ten football. It’s violent. It’s dangerous. And that’s just off the field.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=3504915