Former Penn State quarterback, Daryll Clark, reportedly signed with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League, Monday, July 19th. In so doing, Clark will attempt to take the same route his favorite football player, Warren Moon, took to get to the NFL. After two standout seasons as Penn State's signal caller, the draft experts speculated that Clark's inability...

JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-NewsClark celebrates a touchdown by saluting the crowd, during the '09 season.

Aside from the usual discussion about how Nebraska moving to the Big Ten was all about money and the arrogance of Texas, the topic of the name of the Big Ten (and Big 12) came up. I don't know what their plans are. I found an entertaining article on this topic by Andy Staples. My favorite line from the story, "I know the Big Ten name has been around since Fielding Yost outcoached Leonidas at Thermopylae." The fact remains that everyone knows what you mean when you say Big Ten. The name has great market recognition and value.

Is there anyway to switch one of the 1's to a 2?

Nothing gives you more time to think of blog topics then sitting at a national car repair chain for 5 hours on the Friday before the 4th of July weekend while they don’t replace the starter on your car. My 1996 Infinity with 358,000 miles on it left me stranded at a gas station yesterday and the car repair chain left me stranded in Wilmington, DE. It’s tough to keep yourself entertained when you’ve run out the batteries on your laptop and portable XM player and are left with hard plastic chairs and Judge Judy on the TV. That’s why I was thrilled when the guy in the Nebraska hat wanted to talk football. My daughter was on her way home for the weekend and I was wearing my K-State Dad t-shirt so he felt comfortable talking Big 12 football.

Aside from the usual discussion about how Nebraska moving to the Big Ten was all about money and the arrogance of Texas, the topic of the name of the Big Ten (and Big 12) came up. I don’t know what their plans are. I found an entertaining article on this topic by Andy Staples. My favorite line from the story, “I know the Big Ten name has been around since Fielding Yost outcoached Leonidas at Thermopylae.” The fact remains that everyone knows what you mean when you say Big Ten. The name has great market recognition and value.

I think it may be time to change it, but you need to pick something that is going to deliver the same market recognition. I’ve not had any great ideas come to me but I am sure that all of you can come up with something. So here’s the plan. Send me your ideas for the new name. I will compile them and we’ll hold a vote next week and rename (or not) the conference ourselves.

Please post your ideas here or email them to me at rbtjsmith@comcast.net.  

Yesterday I got an email from an Iowa fan supporting my division splits. He added an argument that had not occurred to me. In my split, every division opponent for Iowa would be within 6 hours by car.

Road Trip! Load up the Vista Cruiser and lets head to Nebraska. We're only going to miss a couple days of classes.

One of the great things about this blog is the comments and emails that I get from all of you. Yesterday I got an email from an Iowa fan supporting my division splits. He added an argument that had not occurred to me. In my split, every division opponent for Iowa would be within 6 hours by car.

Teams Travel Well
You here lots of talk about how well a team travels. Penn State is well known for how well the fans travel and I am sure that many fans will make the trip to Nebraska if it was every other year. Many graduates have the money to book a flight and a hotel room to travel to see their team play, but what about college students?

How far is it? Can college students load up the car and drive all night Friday night to the game, party all day, sleep Saturday night and Sunday morning in their car, and then drive home? Remember, college students are generally the ones with the shirts off, chests painted, hanging on the rail at the big game. They add color to the TV broadcast and in some strange way make us all proud of our school.

Speaking as someone who travels to Manhattan, KS at least once a year, you can’t get there in one day. Lincoln, NE is too far for a 1 day road trip.

How Far?
So how far are the road trips for division games in my division split? I have run the trips and here are the travel times. They are rounded to ½ hour increments and were done using safe highway speeds. I am sure that many you can cut some time off these numbers. Of course I am equally certain that the appropriate legal authorities would like to know when you are planning to make the trip.

State College, PA to:
Columbus, OH: 5 hrs
Ann Arbor, MI: 6½ hrs
East Lansing, MI: 7 hrs
Bloomington, IN: 8½ hrs
West Lafayette, IN: 9 hrs

Lincoln, NE to:
Iowa City, IA: 4½ hrs
Minneapolis, MN: 6½ hrs
Madison, WI: 8 hrs
Champaign, IL: 8 hrs
Evanston, IL: 8 hrs

With these splits the longest road trip is 9 hours. Leave State College at 3:00 pm on Friday afternoon and wind up in West Lafayette by Midnight. Not easy, but doable for college students.

How far would the longest road trip in the Big Ten (12) be? State College, PA to Lincoln, NE is about 17 hrs by car.

Game Day
I am concerned that if they are not careful about how they split the divisions, the Big Ten (12) could risk losing this atmosphere. The Big Ten (12) needs to be careful that in the pursuit of that most mythical of creatures, competitive balance, they don’t ruin the regular season and the game day atmosphere that makes a Big Ten (12) game one of the premier football experiences in college football.

Road Trip Stories
I made the road trip to Morgantown, WV once. Suffice it to say it was certainly interesting. What is your best road trip story? As always you can respond here on the blog or to my email address at rbtjsmith@comcast.net.

It's been a couple weeks since Nebraska has joined the Big Ten (12). The dust hasn't quite settled but the division alignment discussion is slowing down. I did a little web surfing this weekend and identified some opinions on the topic from other Big Ten (12) bloggers. The following team names link to a posting from a blogger for that team speaking on the division alignment debate. I have included a notional point of view from Sports Illustrated. The fact of the matter with the Big Ten (12) is that it splits very well east and west. Here are my divisions:

Ok, Nebraska in the west, Penn State in the east.....Crap! That's not balanced. Maybe this would be easier with a Mettler balance!

It’s been a couple weeks since Nebraska has joined the Big Ten (12). The dust hasn’t quite settled but the division alignment discussion is slowing down. The fact of the matter is that what we think doesn’t matter, the Big Ten (12) will do what it wants. But hey, it’s something to talk about and kind of fun. I did a little web surfing this weekend and identified some opinions on the topic from other Big Ten (12) bloggers. The following team names link to a posting from a blogger for that team speaking on the division alignment debate. I have also included a national point of view from Sports Illustrated.

Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel

Michigan

Iowa

Nebraska

Michigan State

My Thoughts
In my last post on alignment I threw out there that perhaps they should look at non-geographic divisions. I have always been bothered by teams in Arizona being part of an eastern division. The fact of the matter with the Big Ten (12) is that it splits very well east and west. Here are my divisions:

East
Penn State
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Indiana
Purdue

West
Nebraska
Wisconsin
Iowa
Minnesota
Illinois
Northwestern

Division Strength
I have seen many tortured methods of ranking the teams. Some take the last 5 years, some since 1996. I have not seen anyone analyze team strength back to 1994. In every case, the people doing the analysis are choosing the time period that best fits their thoughts. There are lies, darn lies, and then statistics.

As I pointed out before, team strength varies over time. Can we be assured of Penn State staying a force in the Big Ten (12) after Joe finally steps aside? Take a look at Michigan and see how it has turned out for them in the post Lloyd Carr era. What effect will Nebraska joining the Big Ten (12) have on their recruiting? We don’t know. We can guess, but we don’t know. It certainly didn’t help Penn State’s recruiting when they joined the Big Ten (11).

All I’m trying to say is that these divisions seem pretty balanced on the face of it.

Future Expansion
I still do not believe that the Big Ten (12) is done. It may not happen this year, but I still expect them to add 2 more teams. I believe they will add an eastern team and another mid-west team, in which case you can slide them right into my divisions. Say Rutgers in the East and maybe Missouri or Notre Dame in the west. Your balance is maintained and maybe even enhanced.

Coming to Beaver Stadium
I don’t know about you, but there are certain matchups that just have more juice for me. They get my blood flowing. Which of the following opponents would you rather see in Beaver Stadium?

Wisconsin or Michigan?
Nebraska or Ohio State?
Iowa or Michigan State?
(for some reason I love going to the Michigan State game and Iowa makes my blood run cold)

Michigan and Ohio State are two games I can’t wait to see. Even with Michigan being down a little, I circle these dates on my calendar. I am sure for a while the Nebraska games might be fun, but there are very few Nebraska fans around here to “debate” with. I love getting into it with the Ohio State and Michigan fans every year.

My favorite game to go to is the Michigan State game. It’s usually cold and in recent years the game has meant something to the Lions. There have even been some spectacular games along the way.

I don’t know about all of you, but I dread seeing Iowa and Wisconsin on the schedule. I would be glad to see them off the schedule every so often.

Your Thoughts
This is how I would like to see it break down. I’ve gotten some good responses over the past week discussing this topic. Have I swayed you at all with my arguments? I welcome your thoughts. As always you can respond here on the blog or to my email address at rbtjsmith@comcast.net.

I really enjoyed a recent posting by Steve Smith concerning the USC sanctions and the 2005 National Championship game. I did not realize at first that if the NCAA had been watching closer, that great Texas USC vs BCS Championship game would’ve never happened. It would have been Penn State vs Texas

Was Joe robbed of a chance at another national title by Reggie Bush and USC?

USC Sanctions
I really enjoyed a recent posting by Steve Smith concerning the USC sanctions and the 2005 National Championship game. I did not realize at first that if the NCAA had been watching closer, that great Texas vs. USC BCS Championship game would’ve never happened. It would have been Penn State vs Texas. Steve actually takes the time to write up how the game might’ve played out. It’s really entertaining.

12th Team
It also looks like the Pac-10 (11) will be going to 12 teams even though Texas has turned them down. ESPN is reporting that Utah will be getting an offer to join the conference today. Next up: the Pac-10 (11) Championship game and possibly more attention for the conference from the East Coast for at least one day a year.

I welcome your thoughts. . As always you can respond here on the blog or to my email address at rbtjsmith@comcast.net.

One of your comments on all of this expansion really struck me yesterday. Thank you “wallynut” for bringing me back from the financial ledge. Unfortunately dollars are driving all of the changes in college football. I don’t want to spend any more time on them. It simply sucks the fun out the sport. Let’s talk about what happens now that Nebraska has joined the Big Ten (12). Divisions How do we split the Big Ten (12) into 2 divisions? Jared Shanker is suggesting the following alignment:

Who will wind up as the Wicked Witch of the West in the Big Ten? Or will the division be called something else?

One of your comments on all of this expansion really struck me yesterday. Thank you “wallynut” for bringing me back from the financial ledge. Unfortunately dollars are driving all of the changes in college football. I don’t want to spend any more time on them. It simply sucks the fun out the sport. Let’s talk about what happens now that Nebraska has joined the Big Ten (12).

Divisions
How do we split the Big Ten (12) into 2 divisions? Jared Shanker is suggesting the following alignment:

East
Penn State
Ohio State
Illinois
Indiana
Northwestern
Purdue

West
Michigan
Michigan State
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nebraska
Minnesota

He’s trying to create competitive balance based upon won loss records over the last 5 years. East would be .572 and West would be .581. I think this is laudable but no matter what you do you always risk competitive imbalance between the divisions.

Big 12 Example
Many people point to the Big 12’s championship games over the last few years where teams form the North have been over-matched by teams from the South. They conveniently forget that when the Big 12 first started, the first 8 champions went back and forth between the North and South. It was even every other year. That was great balance. The last 6 games have all been won by the South with an average margin of victory of 30 points.

What happened? Change happened. And change will come to the Big Ten (12) too. Penn State is a great example. Not so long ago the league was having their way with Penn State. If divisions had been created then, how bad would they look now?

Division Names
I am sure that everybody is thinking, East West for division names. Do we have to use geographic names? Why don’t they name the divisions after Big Ten (12) commissioners? We could call the two divisions Jim and Delany. How does this sound, Penn State 2011 Delany Division Champions? One thing this would do is to stop everyone from worrying about making sure the divisions make geographic sense.

So I want hear from you. How would you split up the divisions and what would you call them? I loved the ideas that “wearepennstate” replied to my last posting. If you haven’t read it, take a minute and check it out. He has continued the expansion in an interesting way. As always you can respond here on the blog or to my email address at rbtjsmith@comcast.net.

On Thursday Colorado leaves the Big 12 to join the Pac 10. On Friday Nebraska joins the Big Ten. The Big 12 is left with 10 teams. The Pac 10 now has 11 teams. The Big Ten now has 12 teams. It’s enough to make calculus seem easy. It’s easy to see why Nebraska made the move. Last year each Big 12 team got around $10 million from the conference TV contracts. In 2009, each Big Ten team was getting around $20 million. Nebraska just doubled their TV revenue.

Welcome to the Big Ten or is that the Big 12 now?

On Thursday Colorado leaves the Big 12 to join the Pac 10. On Friday Nebraska joins the Big Ten. The Big 12 is left with 10 teams. The Pac 10 now has 11 teams. The Big Ten now has 12 teams. It’s enough to make calculus seem easy.

Truth in Advertising
Is it time to force conferences to change their names to match the number of teams? Are countless school children having trouble with math because of college football conferences? Usually if it is “for the children” politicians will line up behind the cause. Will there soon be hearings on capital hill to fix this national crisis?

Nebraska Only
I have to ask the question. Is this all there is? The Big Ten has gotten their 12 teams so they can now stage that championship game. No major shakeup to the college football universe by going to 16 teams. What about Missouri, Rutgers, Syracuse, or Notre Dame?

Why Nebraska?
Does it expand the Big Ten eastward? No. Does it add significant households to the Big Ten Network? No. Is it a “premier” research institution? Maybe, but it doesn’t really raise the conference’s standing in this area. Does it have a storied football program that is trying to resurrect itself? Yes. I’m not sure that there is much in this for the Big Ten other than a 12th team.

It’s easy to see why Nebraska made the move. Last year each Big 12 team got around $10 million from the conference TV contracts. In 2009, each Big Ten team was getting around $20 million. Nebraska just doubled their TV revenue.

This is nice for Nebraska, but the amount of revenue for each team in the Big Ten will actually fall because of the move. The conference pulled in around $220 million in TV revenue. With Nebraska bringing along negligible TV households that $220 million needs to be split again. Each school’s share will be dropping by around $1.7 million. In order to keep revenues as they are now, the new championship game is going to have to generate nearly $20 million in additional revenue. As an example, in 2009 the SEC championship game generated $14.3 million.

So why did the Big Ten add Nebraska, did they need another “Red” team? You can almost make a whole division of schools whose school colors include some form of red.

My hats off to all of you readers who picked Nebraska back in December when I asked your thoughts. Great call! Now that it has happened, what do you think about all of this? As always you can respond here on the blog or to my email address at rbtjsmith@comcast.net.

The carpet bombing of the college football landscape continues. SI is reporting that Colorado has accepted a big to join the PAC 10. Word is expected from Nebraska tomorrow. I have attached a link to the SI story. It looks like the Big 12 is going to be torn apart. What do you think about all of this? I will follow-up with my thoughts on this tomorrow. As always you can respond here on the blog or to my email address at rbtjsmith@comcast.net.

The carpet bombing of the college football landscape continues. SI is reporting that Colorado has accepted a big to join the PAC 10. Word is expected from Nebraska tomorrow. I have attached a link to the SI story.

It looks like the Big 12 is going to be torn apart. What do you think about all of this? I will follow-up with my thoughts on this tomorrow. As always you can respond here on the blog or to my email address at rbtjsmith@comcast.net.

Bombs are dropping all over NCAA football this week. I have spent a lot of time on this blog discussing Big Ten expansion and while it looks like expansion is coming to a head this week, another big bomb is going to be dropped by the NCAA this week. After what only seems like a couple of decades the NCAA has reached a decision in the Reggie Bush case and it appears that they are about to make an example of USC. The AP is reporting that the following sanctions are coming down:

BOBAK HA'ERI - Wikipedia ImagesReggie Bush did what?! I had no idea. I am here with the Seahwaks to win the Super Bowl. I'm sure Lane will be fine.

Bombs are dropping all over NCAA football this week. I have spent a lot of time on this blog discussing Big Ten expansion and while it looks like expansion is coming to a head this week, another big bomb is going to be dropped by the NCAA this week. After what only seems like a couple of decades the NCAA has reached a decision in the Reggie Bush case and it appears that they are about to make an example of USC.

The AP is reporting that the following sanctions are coming down:

• A 2 year post-season ban
• Loss of more than 20 scholarships
• Forfeit all wins from at least the 2004 season
• Possible limits on recruiting contacts
• Football program to be placed on probation

They are to be announced to the team today.

I guess Pete Carroll really didn’t leave for the NFL to get that Super Bowl win. You can’t tell me he didn’t know this was coming. I wonder if Lane Kiffin misses Knoxville yet.

Bad Guys Get Away with it
Here’s the problem as I see it. The two people most responsible for this mess have no impacts on their lives. Bush and Carroll (I almost typed Chaney there….) are both going on with their professional lives, dollars intact. The program they both “loved” in a shambles.

Bobby Knight on Mike and Mike this morning while commenting on how the coaches seem to get away with this stuff and schools pay the price had this line. I am paraphrasing here because who thinks to write down what Bobby Knight is saying. “If the NCAA was planning the invasion of Normandy they would have landed in Portugal instead of France.”

At Least Punish Coaches
There has to be a way to punish Carroll at least. I understand that Bush is never going to play College Football again, but they could at least attach something to Pete Carroll in case this NFL thing doesn’t work out and he needs to return to the college ranks. What do you think? As always you can respond here on the blog or to my email address at rbtjsmith@comcast.net.

Happy Birthday
I want to apologize to my regular readers for the length of time between posts. The new job has me running crazy. I am going to try and get back to my regular posting intervals. I also want to issue a special Happy Birthday to Sam. I always appreciate your comments. I hope you had a great Birthday.

Alex Mateas--OL--6'4"--301--Just when you thought all of Penn State's letters of intent for 2010 were signed, Alex Mateas just received a scholarship from Penn State, and has yet to sign his. Mateas is from Canada, where he played in the Canadian Junior Football League. While many people--myself included--question the competition in the CJFL, it appears that the comptetion is...