B1G media days preview: Michigan threepeat, new commish, farewell divisions, NU nightmare and more
The season is near. Can you smell the grass? Can you feel the humidity?
The arrival of Big Ten media days is an indicator of how close kickoff is for the 2023 season. The event will take place on Wednesday and Thursday in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers will take part on Wednesday. Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin will take their turn on Thursday.
There will be plenty to discuss over two days. Here are some of the storylines that should have the media buzzing.
Michigan threepeat?
Remember when some Michigan fans wanted to run Jim Harbaugh out of Ann Arbor after a 2-4 mark in the 2020 COVID season? Look at Harbaugh now, all bright and shiny with a 25-3 overall mark and 17-1 Big Ten record the last two years.
Best of all for Harbaugh: The Wolverines are the two-time defending Big Ten champion, taking down Ohio State each of the last two years en route to earning bids to the College Football Playoff.
The last time the Wolverines were this dominant was when they won five Big Ten championships in a row from 1988-92.
Can Michigan make it three Big Ten titles in succession? Can the Wolverines get to the national title game? Can Michigan win its first national crown since 1997?
Yes, it’s good to be Harbaugh.
New coaches
There are four dotting the Big Ten landscape: Nebraska’s Matt Rhule, Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell and Purdue’s Ryan Walters have been on the job for over six months. David Braun is the Northwestern interim head coach in the wake of a hazing scandal that is swallowing up the Wildcat program and has seen Pat Fitzgerald lose his job.
Rhule faces the most pressure among the newbies, inheriting a program that’s still grasping at the ghosts of the 1990s in search of national relevance. Never before has one school devoted so many resources to football and received so little in return. Nebraska’s last league title? It was 1999 in the Big 12.
And there is this: Nebraska hasn’t been to a bowl since 2016. Think about that.
Is Rhule FINALLY the answer to Cornhusker fans yearning for yesterday? Bill Callahan, Bo Pelini, Mike Riley and Scott Frost all arrived amid heaps of hyperbole. All flopped.
Nightmare at Northwestern
Fitzgerald was the personification of Northwestern, the face of a program he pored his heart, soul and blood into as a player, assistant and head coach for over 20 years.
In 17 seasons as head coach, Fitzgerald won two Big Ten West titles and went to 10 bowls after an iconic playing career in Evanston that saw him help NU reach the Rose Bowl in the 1995 season and win a pair of Big Ten titles.
Now, “Fitz” leaves out the backdoor, a once statue-worthy career clouded amid accusations of hazing. Lawsuits are being filed and fingers are being pointed for a school and a program in tumult.
This sordid tale continues to play out and has a long way to go before it is punctuated.
Things weren’t going well before the eruption of bad news. NU is an aggregate 4-20 overall and 2-16 in the Big Ten the last two years. Expect more misery in 2023.
Farewell, divisions
It began as the often-mocked Leaders-Legends and became the more logical West-East. Now, it’s all about to end. So, let’s raise our mugs and toast the final go-around of divisional play.
With USC and UCLA coming aboard in 2024 to make the Big Ten a 16-team conference, the league will ditch divisions, line up 1-16 and have the top two schools play in the title game.
Here come USC, UCLA
Kevin Warren took his share of criticism as commissioner during what best can be described as a “bumpy” tenure as Big Ten boss. His decision to cancel the 2020 season amid the pandemic, then reverse course, set off a firestorm of debate and forever cast a pall on his leadership.
But Warren deserves props for delivering USC and UCLA to the Big Ten, snatching the Pac-12’s two golden gooses from a mega media market. And, word is, Warren wanted more. Further expansion, however, will wait.
The Trojans and Bruins will come aboard in 2024 in a move that has left the Pac-12 reeling. Now, the Big Ten will have a presence in the Pacific Time Zone and in the No. 2 media market in the nation, to go along with being in the No. 1 (New York) and No. 3 (Chicago) markets. Not bad.
Hello, Mr. Commissioner
Jim Delany ruled the Big Ten for 30 years, becoming the most powerful person in college sports along the way as he helped grow his conference and college sports. When Delany spoke, people listened.
Now, the Big Ten is on its second commissioner in four years, as Tony Petitti takes over for Kevin Warren, who left to run the Chicago Bears.
Petitti brings an extensive background in TV to the big leather chair in suburban Chicago, serving in senior executive roles at ABC, NBC and CBS. He’s part of a new breed of commissioners who bring a non-collegiate background to the job, including the Pac-12’s George Kliavkoff and the Big 12’s Brett Yormark.
When Petitti walked through the office doors, a massive TV deal that will generate $1 billion annually already had been worked out–though he had to do some big clean-up work. And, expansion is on hold.
So, what does Petitti want to accomplish? This will be the first time he has faced the assembled Big Ten/national media. He has our rapt attention.
Key new rule
Each year, the game introduces rules tweaks. This season, a big tweak is being added. The game clock will no longer be stopped to award a first down except with less than two minutes remaining in the second and fourth quarters.
The reason for the change: Decision-makers want to decrease the length of games.
“The Football Rules Committee anticipates the adjustments will modestly reduce the number of plays in the game, something it will study closely during the 2023 season” the NCAA said in a statement.
College football games have increased slightly in length over the last five seasons, from 3 hours 16 minutes in 2018 to 3 hours 21 minutes in 2022.
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