Around the Big Ten

[THE_WIZARD_]

There are several Village People songs PSU could choose from...

OK...that was low.

[*JD*]

Not sporty but B1G-related and disgusting:

http://mobile.mlive.com/advlansing/pm_109819/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=imBhj3gE

[Hannibal]

That whole "eye for an eye" thing sounds pretty good right now.

[Rocky Bleier]

"Hate crime" is stupid. Penalize to the full extent of the law regardless of the motivation. Why should the punishment be any different for the same crime against another person?

[Mike]

About 20 people at the party had watched the event unfold as he lay unconscious.

Stay classy, Sparty.

[iam416]

Big Ten lines this week:

Minnesota -8' (@UNLV)
Michigan State -7 (vs Boise)
Penn State -6' (vs Ohio)
Northwestern -2 (@ Syracuse)
Ohio State -24' (vs Miami, OH)
Illinois -10 (vs WMU)
Iowa -10 (neutral site NIU)
Michigan +14 (neutral site Alabama)
Nebraska -20 (vs Southern Miss)

My website hasn't put up lines, yet, for Wisky, Indiana and Purdue who all open against FCS teams.

Of that slate, I think I like Michigan State and Syracuse the best. Have to think on it some more. The Illinois/Iowa matchups against what should be the two best teams in the MAC West are interesting, too. I think I like Iowa and I think I like WMU to get the road cover, albeit in a loss.

[Hannibal]

I like Michigan, Ohio, and IMiami, OH to cover. I think I like Minnehaha to cover too. The rest -- I don't know.

[iam416]

Las Vegas is fucking horrible. The Goofers are, well, the Goofers. My sense is that they're a value pick, though. I think the road aspect of it is overvalued. I would rate it close to a 13 point game. But, man, it sucks to bet on a shit football team as a road favorite -- which explains the line!

Ohio is going to be a strong MAC team. They should easily win the East. I'm not sure I think Penn State will be equivalent to a "good" MAC team. I just don't know where PSU is.

Miami is a sensible play. They are a pretty decent MAC team -- probably a solid 2nd in the East. More to the point, this is the first game under a completely new system for OSU. Tressel's first game was muddling 28-14 win over Akron. UFM's first game at Florida was a lackluster 32-14 win over Wyoming. At Utah, he beat a bad USU team 40-20. At BG he upset Mizzou on the road 20-13. So history suggests this game will be under 24 points. But, it's another "don't know what to expect" kind of game, IMO.

[Hannibal]

I think that Minnehaha will be surprisingly closer to mediocre than terrible this year. Maybe even 6 wins. UNLV is just awful. And I like Jerry Kill as a coach. I like the Goophers handily in that one.

[Hannibal]

Purdue starting linebacker Dwayne Beckford has been kicked off the team.

[iam416]

I hope you're right re the Goofer, Hanni. I have Marquis Gray in my B10 fantasy league!

I'm starting to come around to Ohio State a bit. Ohio State should rail them.

[Hannibal]

Eh. I think that OSU fans are going to be really disappointed by the offense this year, and there could be a few games where it is really ugly. IMHO Meyer is inheriting a really bare cupboard outside of Miller. Last year's OSU offense was what Michigan's 2008 offense would have looked like if we had Braxton Miller instead of Steven Threet. But unlike the 2008 Michigan offense, the 2011 OSU offense had three senior starters on the offensive line that are gone now. What's left behind is thin and, up until now at least, poorly coached. One tight end was moved to tackle, the other (possibly the best in the Big Ten) has been moved to wideout. Add on top of that, they are learning a new system. People forget that Meyer's offense for his first two years at Florida was pretty much crap (and it was crap after Tebow left too).

I am obviously biased here, but that's not influencing my analyses. If these guys were wearing winged helmets and Meyer was coaching at Michigan, I'd be counting on the defense to win all of our games for us.

[iam416]

I'm really not worried about the OL. I'm not a particularly big fan of the WRs, but that's mostly because they are young. And I think the cupboard is far from bare. It's not like Coach Tressel wasn't recruiting really well. They haven't had a bad recruiting class in ages. The talent is there. I think it's almost impossible to comprehend how poorly coached they were on offense last season.

But we'll see. Just a few days away.

[*JD*]

Goonston gets his first personal foul of the year. Boise is trying to stay in this, despite being outmatched.

[*JD*]

The horsies give it away. Dumb pass and a nice play by the sparties.