Big Ten Football & Basketball Blog

The 2007 Motor City Bowl to be played on December 26th @ Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, will feature a rematch of the 7-5 Purdue Boilermakers and the 8-5 Central Michigan Chippewas. CMU comes off their 2nd straight MAC Championship and an 8-1 record overall against their Mid-American Conference opponents, and won the 2006 Motor City Bowl. These two teams met up back in September where the Boilermakers jumped out to a quick lead en route to a 45-22 win. While Central Michigan has not faired well in non-conference games, the Chippewas have momentum while Purdue has cooled off considerably since their hot 5-0 start. You can catch the game on ESPN @ 7:30 on Wednesday night and a 2007 Motor City Bowl preview from College Sports Fans.

Find Purdue apparel online at BigTen-Fans.com.

The BCS National Championship is the college bowl game that draws the most attention each season as the winner is crowned the National Champions of the Coaches Poll, and with the 2007-2008 BCS Championship game just around the corner, OSULSU.com is here to cover the game. The Ohio State Buckeyes return to the BCS Championship bowl game for the second straight season as this year’s opponent will be the SEC Champion LSU Tigers. Last season it was these same Buckeyes facing off with the SEC Champion Florida Gators in a game that most Buckeye fans would like to forget. This season the Buckeyes look to avenge their 41-14 loss a season ago, and OSULSU.com has been launched to follow all of the BCS Championship game headlines for the Buckeyes and Tigers leading up to the big game. Find the latest news for OSU and LSU, fan and media day photos, season stats, interactive fan polls and more.

The University of Michigan’s head coaching job is reportedly no longer open. West Virginia head football coach Rich Rodriguez announced to his now former players on Sunday that he was leaving for Michigan. The official announcement and press conference will be on Monday morning. Rodriguez had a huge opportunity to leave WVU for Alabama a year ago and declined, but instead led his team to another Big East Championship and BCS Bowl berth before leaving for Michigan.

For the second year in a row the Ohio State Buckeyes are the #1 team in the BCS and will play in the BCS National Championship. Also for the second year in a row, the Buckeyes will play the SEC Champions who come in as a controversial #2 in the BCS thanks to a final BCS rankings jump over teams below the previous week. Last year it was Florida surpassing Michigan to take the #2 sport and eventually beat the #1 Buckeyes for the National Championship. This season the LSU Tigers are the team in the #2 spot thanks to a jump from #7 to #2 in BCS after their 21-14 win over Tennessee in the SEC Championship yesterday.

Fans can find a great selection of Ohio State apparel, LSU gear and more college merchandise online.

Ok, #2 West Virginia has lost. #9 Oklahoma is up 28-17 on #1 Missouri and about to add to their lead. #7 LSU beat #14 Tennessee 21-14, #8 USC beat UCLA, #6 Virginia Tech beat #11 Boston College.

So here is my Top 10:
1 - Ohio State - The nation’s best team? No. But the nation’s top-ranked team.
2 - USC - Playing great at the end of the season - may be the best team in the nation right now.
3 - Oklahoma - Dominating win over Missouri proves that had QB Sam Bradford not been knocked out in Texas Tech loss, OU would be playing in the BCS National Championship.
4 - Kansas - As one of two 1-loss teams it’s hard to keep Kansas out of the Top 2, but not only did Kansas not win their Conference, they didn’t even win their Division in the Big 12.
5 - Virginia Tech - Strong win over Boston College proves Virginia Tech should move up.
6 - LSU - Are they the 2nd-best team in the nation? Does 2 losses in Triple Overtime means LSU should be higher? This is a tough, tough call.
7 - Georgia - Sorry Georgia fans, but like Kansas, the Bulldogs didn’t win the SEC and came in 2nd in the SEC East.
8 - West Virginia - Big East Champs or not, WVU fumbled away their chance multiple times against a weak Pitt team.
9 - Florida - Tim Tebow gets the Heisman and Florida will be the highest-ranked SEC team NOT in a BCS Bowl game.
10 - Hawaii - Assuming they win in their late game tonight against Washington, Hawaii would be the nation’s only undefeated team. There is no respect or justice in Football Bowl Subdivision if you’re not in a BCS Conference.

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit just reported that Michigan will be naming Les Miles as their head football coach based on conversation with sources close the the Michigan football program. Herbstreit also said that coming along with Miles from LSU will be Georgia Tech defensive coordinator John Tenuta, a native of Columbus, Ohio, and former Ohio State defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator.

Lloyd Carr made the rumors official on Monday as he retired as the head football coach at the University of Michigan. After MGoBlog reported the rumor citing inside sources just a week ago, Carr announced his retirement during a 10 am press conference on Monday.

After an 0-2 start to the 2007 football season, Carr led the Wolverines to 8 straight wins before dropping consecutive games to Wisconsin and Ohio State. Carr led the Wolverines to 12 bowl games going 5-7 and in 13 games against rival Ohio State, Carr went 6-7.

Michigan coaching rumors have begun and will be followed at BigTen-fans.com.

The November 11th BCS Standings have been released and now feature 4 Big Ten football programs in the Top 25 rankings. After their 28-21 loss to Illinois on Saturday, the Ohio State Buckeyes continue to lead the Big Ten and will play Michigan for the Big Ten football championship next weekend, but the Buckeyes have dropped from #1 to #7 in the BCS standings. Illinois is the second-ranked Big Ten school coming in at #19 overall thanks to a strong computer score. Michigan comes in at #21 following a disappointing loss @ Wisconsin and the Badgers round out the Big Ten programs in the Top 25 of the BCS coming in at #25.

Penn State was the lone other Big Ten football team receiving Top 25 votes in the AP and USA Today rankings and was ranked as high as #22 by the coaches in the USA Today poll.

DFN Sports network sites feature a great selection of men’s & women’s Ohio State hats & apparel, Wisconsin Badgers apparel and Michigan Wolverines clothing & apparel online.

In what was quite a surprise across the nation, the #1 Ohio State Buckeyes and the #12 Michigan Wolverines both fell in Big Ten games the week before facing each other in college football’s greatest rivalry. Michigan played @ Wisconsin without RB Mike Hart and lost QB Chad Henne in the 1st Quarter, but it was the defense’s inability to stop Wisconsin’s running game that did Michigan in. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes allowling just 9.7 ppg on the season, saw the Illinois offense score 28 points en route to a 28-21 upset of the #1 Buckeyes.

The losses mark the first time since 1959 that both teams lost the week prior to the Michigan/Ohio State rivalry game.

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Big Ten Fans has released their Big Ten weekend preview for November 10th games, and their picks really come as no surprise. Although talk on the weekly Pick the Underdog contest mentions Illinois upsetting #1 Ohio State while a discussion in the football forum is centered on #12 Michigan @ Wisconsin, the consensus picks are the for the favorites in all of this weekend’s games. In one in-state “rivalry” game, Penn State visits Temple where you can expect there will be more Penn State fans than Temple fans despite Temple’s mild success in the first season in the MAC.