Day two of the Big Ten's annual Joint Group Meetings between athletic directors, senior administrators and faculty representatives is in the books and although the sessions have been absent major news, plenty of topics worth discussing have trickled out.
Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez, who either doesn't receive the league's talking points, or just doesn't care for them, told reporters that the Big Ten could release its 2014 schedule – the one featuring Rutgers and Maryland in B1G play – today, but that was quickly refuted by a league spokesman. The consensus seems to be that the schedule will be out later this week.
Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon, when asked about his football coach, Brady Hoke, blasting Notre Dame for "chickening out" of its rivalry with the Wolverines, said it sounded like something Brady would say and that he wouldn't necessarily say the Irish "chickened out," but expressed his disappointment in diplomatic terms.
Penn State AD Dave Joyner told reporters that he's still actively working on setting up a game between the Nittany Lions and UCF in Dublin, Ireland for the 2014 opener. O'Leary vs O'Brien for all the buttered biscuits.
Interestingly, several Big Ten athletic directors "seemed to have no idea" about the parity-based scheduling commissioner Jim Delany keeps bringing up with future schedules. Michigan's Brandon is one of the ADs aware of the push and is not a fan of it, expressing his concern that playing every team in the league over a four-year period should be a priority.
The Big Ten's bowl lineup for 2014 and beyond is clearing up, and it looks like the league will ink deals with the Pinstripe Bowl in New York and the Holiday Bowl in San Diego in addition to the relationships with the Rose, Orange and others already known. The new lineup hopes to accomplish a few things: provide attractive matchups, give fans more diversity in travel destinations (the rotating deal with the Orange Bowl is a great example) and diversify a bit from the SEC heavy lineup the league has played under for the last decade.
The Pinstripe Bowl is attractive because it will bring a warm weather team into New York City in the dead of winter, satisfying the desires of many fans in the Rust Belt. The Holiday Bowl is nice because San Diego. Drink it in. It always goes down smooth.
The playoff selection committee? Alvarez later said that no one from the league has been approached about it yet, for what it's worth.
The highlight of day two, however, was Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas's plea to bring the sexy back to Memorial Stadium:
#Illinois AD Mike Thomas on dipped attendance at big schools: "We’ve got to do our part with in-game sexperience and also who we’re playing"
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerCBS) May 14, 2013
Flawless typo victory.
QUICK! SEND A BAT SIGNAL TO FRANCO HARRIS! Due on newsstands today, the latest issue of Sports Illustrated features an article from David Epstein, "Special Report: Do Athletics Still Have Too Much Power at Penn State."
The report comes on the heels of the reassignment of longtime football team doctor Wayne Sebastianelli in late February 2013. The move of Sebastianelli out of the football program was made with the strong support of second-year head football coach Bill O’Brien. At the time, Penn State issued the following statement: "The change in physicians was made after a review of procedures and personnel by Coach O'Brien and is part of an ongoing reorganization of the football staff.''
On Tuesday night, a source who received an advanced copy of the article told StateCollege.com that the article will call into question Joyner's athletic administrative experience. The source said unnamed Board of Trustees members are featured as well as a few named members of the Penn State community. Those board members left unnamed will be "easy to figure out," according to the source, who also said that the article's “one-sided nature” may be considered a "hit job" by some.
Penn State, knowing a thing or two about developing scandals, attempted to get out ahead of this one:
"Questions and rumors about the head athletic trainer were investigated by an outside law firm in January. The trainer and supervisory physicians were interviewed. The legal team's report concluded there was no credible or substantial evidence to support the allegations or rumors, and there was no wrongdoing or violation of any professional standards. The report also concluded that none of the physicians who supervise the head trainer had made or documented any contemporaneous complaints to anyone or discussed with the trainer any concerns about overstepping bounds of care. Mr. Bream is a respected and dedicated professional who provides care to hundreds of our student-athletes.”
Time to start up another round of Bill O'Brien to the NFL rumors?
BUT WHO WILL WE BOO AT THE SCHOTT NOW? Single-plays for Big Ten basketball teams surfaced Tuesday and the two coaches Buckeye fans love to hate the most, Wisconsin's Bo Ryan and Indiana's Tom Crean, will avoid trips to Columbus during the 2013-14 season.
The Hoosiers and Badgers will get the Buckeyes just once, in their own buildings, while Ohio State will get Michigan and Northwestern just once, at home.
Bo Ryan upon hearing he that won't visit Columbus next season.This is a Big Ten rotation thing and is outside anyone at Ohio State's hands, but that doesn't mean we have to enjoy it. Ohio State last met Michigan just once during the 2004-05 season, and although basketball divisions or protected hardwood rivalries would guarantee two meetings with the Wolverines (and, at least in the case of the former, the Hoosiers) per year, we'll have to wait to see how things shake out once Rutgers and Maryland come online.
You can find the full list of Big Ten single-plays for the 2013-14 season here (once again, Bo Ryan comes up aces at home).
SOMETIMES YOU CHOOSE THE RAP GAME. SOMETIMES IT CHOOSE YOU. Twitter had a bit of fun with Tuesday's news that Michigan State wide receiver Jay Harris chose to embark upon a rap career instead of returning for his senior season.
Twitter, for as fun as it is, can also be pretty lousy at distilling news and it wasn't until later that the real reason for Harris' career change emerged: Dantonio pulled his scholarship after a series of "profanity-laced" rap videos appeared on YouTube.
WELCOME, BRETT LARSON. New Ohio State men's hockey coach Steve Rohlik made his first hire Tuesday when he tabbed fellow Minnesota native Brett Larson to work with Ohio State's defensemen.
Larson and Rohlik have known each for some time, working together on the staff at Minnesota Duluth most recently.
It's as if all of the Wisconsin chillwaves surrounding the program are being replaced with more temperate Minnesota chillwaves.
You can read up on Larson here.
TRACK'S FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT. The Big Ten announced the conference's award winners for men's and women's outdoor track and field and a pair of Buckeyes were named freshmen of the year.
Bill Stanley, a native of South Park, Penn., dominated his event throughout the season, breaking a 12-year-old school record in the javelin at his first career meet and then breaking it two more times, most recently when he cleared 75.23m at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships Sunday in Columbus.
Alexis Franklin, a freshman from Millersville, Md., was honored for a breakout campaign in the 400m hurdles. She won gold in the long hurdles with a time of 58.31 at the league's outdoor championships.
Meanwhile, redshirt senior Michael Hartfield was honored as the league's Field Athlete of the Championships for capturing his third-straight title in the long jump, clearing 25-2.75 (7.69m) on his first attempt.
ETC. Hawaii to become "Rainbow Warriors" again... Baseball drops another game against a ranked team... Don't worry, Bob, Charlie has your back (wait, that's not a good thing)... Hangout with the stars of Ohio State's 3rd-ranked men's lacrosse team... Pitchfork wins the longform game with this beautiful piece on Daft Punk... Shouldn't have laughed at this, but I did.
