Big Ten Divisional Alignments – yay or nay?

Wednesday the Big Ten Conference announced the divisions they will be using for football starting next season when Nebraska joins the league.

They are:

Division 1 – Wisconsin, Ohio State, Penn State, Illinois, Indiana and Purdue.

Division 2 – Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota and Northwestern.

On first glance, the divisions look a little unbalanced and certainly not particularly based on geography. However, a closer look reveals that Division One has seven national championships (OSU 3, PSU 2, MSU 1) while Division Two has six (Nebraska 5, Michigan 1).

The biggest disappointment for Badger fans is the loss of a rivalry game with Iowa. Coming in close second is that fans will find traveling to away games a big more difficult. The new divisions aren’t geographically conducive to road trips

The biggest challenge will be facing Ohio State every year. They have won the conference five years running and have lost just four conference games over that stretch.

The flipside of the Ohio State coin is that you have to play (and beat) great teams to be considered great. If Wisconsin can’t consistently compete against the likes of Ohio State and Penn State, they don’t deserve to be credited with a top-tier program.

The splitting into divisions brings about a league championship game. It will be held on Dec. 3 in Indianapolis.

Nebraska will play its first ever Big Ten game at Camp Randall Stadium in 2011.

The divisions didn’t take the East and West split that many thought they would. Wisconsin is kind of an island in the middle of Division 1 and both Michigan schools seem to be out of sync with the rest of their division.

So why did the divisions fall this way? Do you agree with them or disagree?

What about the conference name? Will this stay the Big Ten? Or will Nebraska’s addition next season bring about even more change?

15 Yards for Fugliness: A Photographic Survey of Nike’s New Football Uniforms

Over the last few weekends, Nike has been previewing their latest attempt to “improve” athletic apparel on several premiere NCAA Division I (yeah, that’s what I still call it) football programs.  Now, perhaps these uniforms, designed to be ultra light and form fitting, are functionally a worthy advance, but from a sartorial viewpoint, well, my inner Tim Gunn was making this face. A lot.

A brief survey of some of Nike’s designs after the jump.

1-2-3-4, Get Your Booty on the Dancefloor

Who among us is immune to that damn “Jane Fonda”song? Musically, it’s somewhere between “Barbie Girl” and the Teletubbies theme song but if you’ve heard it, I’ve just guaranteed that it’ll be pingponging around your head while you try to watch House.

We’re down to our Final Four hotties here, so enjoy this week’s bracket. And yeah, sorry about having to create a Jonathan Mitchell-Gator hybrid. You try finding any other pictures of him online.

We Ladies try to be objective (save for our undying desire to cover Bryce Taylor in syrup and devour him like a Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity), but if the Bruins could prevent this from ever happening again, we would certainly appreciate it.

Now. Work it out. Shake it, little mama. Let me see you do the Jane Fonda.