By DOUG GRIFFITHS ISL Assistant Editor Another relatively light schedule in the Big Ten this week greets us. Four teams will enjoy bye weeks – Indiana, Purdue, Michigan and Wisconsin – while the four conference games on the slate aren’t really overly exciting. Both the Legends Division leaders, Nebraska and Michigan State, are in action, […]
By DOUG GRIFFITHS ISL Assistant Editor Thankfully, the Big Ten’s so-called Fall Break is over. After half of the conference’s 12 teams enjoyed a bye week last Saturday, 10 of the teams return to the gridiron for action this week. This Saturday will really mark the opening of Big Ten play, since all 10 active […]
By DOUG GRIFFITHS ISL Assistant Editor In all my years covering Big Ten football, I can’t remember this many teams having the last Saturday in September off. You can thank the Big Ten Championship Game and the league not wanting to have a respite between the end of the regular season and the title tilt […]
By DOUG GRIFFITHS ISL Assistant Editor Thankfully, the college football season has finally arrived! As we celebrate this Labor Day weekend, college football officially kicks off. In fact, three Big Ten teams got things going prior to Saturday. On Thursday night, Indiana destroyed Indiana State, scoring 73 points – the most for a Hoosier football […]
By CHUCK SAMPLES ISL Correspondent Big Ten football begins this week, and ISL’s Chuck Samples is here to offer his forecast. Leaders 6. Illinois. Fighting Illini didn’t show much fight last year. A two-win season already has head coach Tim Beckman on the hot spot, largely because the team had virtually no offense to speak […]
By DOUG GRIFFITHS ISL Assistant Editor If you’re like me, you’re beginning to think more and more about the college football season. Sure, we haven’t even arrived at the Fourth of July or endured the dog days of summer. But in about a month conferences across the country will hold their annual media days and […]
By DOUG GRIFFITHS ISL Assistant Editor The Big Ten has to be sick and tired of hearing about its lack of recent success in college football. It knows Ohio State’s 2002 national title was the last time the conference was king of the sport. In fact, the Big Ten has had just two national champions […]
By PAUL SIEGFRIED ISL Correspondent Day two of the 2013 NFL Draft wrapped up on Friday with the completion of the second and third rounds. The Indianapolis Colts added an offensive lineman in the third round, while Purdue defensive tackle Kawann Short heard his name called early in the second round by the Carolina Panthers. […]
By COLLIN O’CONNOR ISL Correspondent Indiana this season has become what some people probably never expected: an elite half-court defensive team and a team that is undefeated on the road, the last remaining team in the Big Ten with that mark. A lot of that has to do with the emergence of Victor Oladipo as […]
By DOUG GRIFFITHS ISL Assistant Editor As North Carolina prepares to play IU tonight in Assembly in one of the biggest games of the young college basketball season, you have to wonder if we’ll see the Tar Heels more frequently in Big Ten country in the very near future. There’s plenty of legit talk circulating […]
By DOUG GRIFFITHS ISL Assistant Editor There’s plenty to be determined as we enter the final weekend of regular season Big Ten play. We don’t know who is going to represent the Legends Division in the Big Ten Championship Game or if five, six or seven teams from the league are going bowling. On Friday, […]