By JAMES HOWELL, Jr. ISL Purdue Writer Have the Boilermakers finally crawled out of the hole they placed themselves in during the non-conference season when they lost to teams such as Gardner-Webb and North Florida at home? It appears that if they haven’t, then they are well on their way to escaping. On Wednesday night, […]
By JAMES HOWELL, Jr. ISL Purdue Writer WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. _ As the new year approached, Purdue created a new beginning. The Boilermakers bounced back from three straight losses to close the non-conference season and knocked off Minnesota 72-68 Wednesday at Mackey Arena. During the first 31 minutes, it appeared the Gophers would just be […]
From the Big Ten Rosemont, Ill. – Seven Big Ten schools were selected for bowl competition on Sunday night, including two teams earning Bowl Championship Series (BCS) berths. Big Ten Champion Michigan State will represent the conference in the historic 100th edition of the Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO and Ohio State is headed […]
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 CLIFF BRUNT ISL Editor The Big Ten was a powerhouse during the non-conference season and a dominant force in the national rankings throughout January and February. Now, it’s hanging by a thread. Michigan is the conference’s only hope in the Final Four. Yes, Michigan. The same team that needed an out-of-this-world second-half performance by national player of […]
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 […]