The quintessential Big Ten smoking room.
LAZERZ…and a whole bunch of other games of limited import. A very pleasant Land Grant Trophy week to each and every one of you. One of my favorite genres of longform journalism is the travel fiasco narrative, and this week Mike Taniel—of Too Deep Zone—has a great one about taking a Greyhound bus from New […]
3 months ago | 1 read
Happy Saturday everyone! Welcome to the week 12 edition of our weekly recurring Where We Be, What We Be Drinking column, where we have a peek at what the OTE “writers” will be doing this gameday. We are contractually obligated to not watch the games. MNWildcat: Hometown in the SE suburbs, but for the birthday […]
3 months ago | 2 reads
Boilers. Bama. Battlestar Galactica. Pretty uneventful week of basketball, how are you? Most Impressive Win #14 Illinois Fighting Illinois 81, #11 Texas Tech Red Raiders 77 Most Disappointing Loss Missouri Tigers 83, Minnesota Golden Gophers 60 Here’s the problem with this bit: if you’re the only team to lose, you get the award. Sorry, Goldy. […]
3 months ago | 0 reads
Editor’s Note 1: This post contains a veritable shit-ton of spoilers. If you haven’t seen Justified, STOP NOW, go watch all 6 seasons, and then come back. It’s rewatchably excellent. -RMB Editor’s Note 2: Larry31 wrote this power poll. Not me. All I did was assemble it in our editor. SBNation has been kind enough […]
3 months ago | 0 reads
But mostly, we’re here for WAGON WHEEL. Will Indiana be PUNISHED for barely beating Penn State? Seems far-fetched, but given the Ducks’ slide down to #9, I’m not holding my breath that these standings will do anything other than reflect the inherent greatness of the SEC. College Football Playoff Rankings Show When: 7:30-8pm CT Where: I dunno, […]
3 months ago | 2 reads
This is a column to check in on the rest of the football world, but since it’s 2025 in America I will beat you over the head with The Agenda, which in case you’ve forgotten is “Big Ten Superiority Unless It’s Funny.” THE AGENDA MVP: INDIANA HOOSIERS Finally finally finally! Someone listened to me! I […]
3 months ago | 0 reads
Before I get started, I would like to first thank all veterans for their service. This week I will review Purdue’s loss to Ohio State and preview the upcoming game at Washington. About last week … Throughout history, Purdue has had success against top ranked teams, previously beating the top ranked team on seven previous […]
3 months ago | 7 reads
The conference took its first two losses. But also…a Good Win? Many of your basketball teams played over the weekend. Some acquitted themselves nicely, others are Maryland. Most Impressive Win Indiana Hoosiers 100, Marquette Golden Eagles 77 Michigan State’s home win over Arkansas is nice, but I’ll tip it to the Hoosiers—very much in a […]
3 months ago | 5 reads
Ten Fourteen Eighteen B1G Things The Rundown Northwestern takes the loss leader title from Indiana with loss to USC In this season of misery, I always take solace in the little things. MinnesotaWildcat: Ah, what could have been. Northwestern committed one of the great Fall’s Tarts of recent memory on a would’ve-been pick-six, USC remembered […]
3 months ago | 0 reads
Good morning. College Gameday is in Lubbock for BYU-Texas Tech, while B1G N00D is in Iowa City for Quacka-Herky. Looking for something else? Big Ten Basketball Weekend Previews and Thread Big Ten Football Picks and Predictions Full College Football Watch Guide: Don’t Watch This; Watch That Here’s your thread for the day—usual rules apply. (2) […]
3 months ago | 1 read
Trojans, facing nerds who never had to learn how to use one. B1G Football for a National Audience Northwestern Wildcats at #19 USC Trojans8pm CT | FOX | USC -14.5 | O/U 50.5 USC has all the athletes, hype, and home-field advantage needed to make this a laugher. What they don’t have, though, is the […]
3 months ago | 1 read
Who had the most impressive win in a week full of tomato cans? It’s the 12 Month Rap Up—Rap Rap Rap Up! Most Impressive Win No one. The highest-rated team that a Big Ten team faced in the season-openers was Hawai’i (KP 103), and Oregon nearly lost to them—most on that soon. The only other […]
3 months ago | 1 read
‘Cats-Trojans. Hoosiers-Nits. Ducks-Hawkeyes. Who ya got? Does wisconsin believe in Luke Fickell, or is Chris McIntosh just trying to save his skin—and a hefty buyout—for one more season? Either way: it matters not to me, because one more year of this arrogant prick grimacing his way around madison and pissing off high school coaches in […]
3 months ago | 1 read
Happy Saturday everyone! Welcome to the week 11 edition of our weekly recurring Where We Be, What We Be Drinking column, where we take a look at what the OTE “writers” will be doing this gameday. It most definitely will not be watching the games. AlmaOtter: Bye week for the Illini! I will be in […]
3 months ago | 4 reads
I will pay any amount of money to be free of your shitty driving for ten minutes. Also, Tulane-Memphis is my game of the week. Breaking with my (current) tradition and actually getting DWT;WT posted on Thursday for two reasons: Please note: enthusiasm should not be shared by YouTube TV users. However, I’m told YouTube […]
3 months ago | 2 reads
Indiana #1 or we riot. Who has the most impressive win of the season? It’s Indiana at Oregon, and it isn’t particularly close. Will that matter? Likely not, and all the College Football Playoff committee is going to do is make Curt Cignetti angrier and angrier. College Football Playoff Rankings Show When: 7pm CT Where: […]
3 months ago | 3 reads
This is a column to check in on the rest of the football world, but since it’s 2025 in America I will beat you over the head with The Agenda, which in case you’ve forgotten is “Big Ten Superiority Unless It’s Funny.” THE AGENDA MVP: Illinois Fighting Illini, Minnesota Golden Gophers, USC Trojans Three teams […]
3 months ago | 1 read
This week I will review Purdue’s loss at Michigan and preview the upcoming loss game against Ohio State. About last week … From the perspective of a Purdue fan, the Boilers showed some grit in hanging around and not giving up in Ann Arbor against the more talented Wolverines. As Coach Barry Odom said after […]
3 months ago | 4 reads
Here so we don’t get fined. Hi! Welcome to Off Tackle Empire—now third in the blogosphere for Big Ten basketball content. …you might’ve noticed we dont’ have any! Well, this is a Big Ten football site, and we have always only been able to cover shootyhoops as volunteer contributors and my schedule permit. My schedule […]
3 months ago | 1 read
Dylan Raiola is out for the year, and now Nebraska—and the Mailbag—will regroup. The Huskers’ signal-caller will miss the rest of the year with a broken fibula, and now it falls to frosh TJ Lateef. Best of luck to the Huskers on that transition. Here’s your mailbag call for the week. What would you like […]
3 months ago | 2 reads
Ten Fourteen Eighteen B1G Things The Rundown Ohio Sate does what it always does, Penn State edition The Nittany Lions went into the half down 17-14, in what looked like a typical game between the two teams. Then, the Buckeyes learned their lesson from the Michigan loss last year, stopped trying to run the ball, […]
3 months ago | 1 read
All Saints here. Good morning. Time to make the donuts. Need to know what to watch? Try Don’t Watch This; Watch That. Want answers to all your pressing Big Ten questions? We’ve got you with our Midweek Mailbag: Is the Indiana Experience Replicable? Oh, and don’t forget to make your picks on the Obligatory Predictions […]
3 months ago | 1 read
D2 and D3 football rankings are here, now let’s appreciate some good games and silly rivalries. I’m fairly confident this was an accident by the ESPN schedule crew, but scrolling the D-II and D-III schedules for this week, I stumbled upon this: And what a world it would be if, instead of having to watch […]
3 months ago | 2 reads
USC-Nebraska! Penn State-Ohio State! Uh…football! We’ve done about all the pre-Halloween prep in the MNW household. The pumpkins are gutted, with just a couple left to carve, we’ve taken the obligatory “infant in a pumpkin” photo (she sat great, totally unperturbed, happiest six-month-old ever), candy’s bought, pumpkin seeds ready to be roasted, pizza dough purchased […]
3 months ago | 2 reads
Where We Be and What We Be Drinking is BAACCCKKKK!!!!! And unlike Texas, we’re back for realz. Your overworked “writers” needed the newb to pick up the slack and I am here for it. So, welcome back to our weekly recurring (cough cough) Where We Be, What We Be Drinking column, where we pull back […]
3 months ago | 1 read