Big Ten at Ten 9.27.12: Where We Pretend Noon is Ten

Alright, I'll just go ahead and start with the reality that I am ridiculously behind at work and probably overextended my belief in being able to wake up this morning. On an upside, I ate a delicious meal last night at The Grey Plume in Omaha that I really recommend for anyone in the area or who comes to town. Seriously, the food and drinks there are crazy delicious, albeit a bit higher priced than most Omaha fare, and as my wife pointed out, it definitely was a Top 5 meal all time. Alas, this is not a food blog, but a football blog so I digress...

As you can see above, the SBN Overlords are pushing video production as the next step in taking down the WWL, and by taking down, I mean providing intellectually driven media... and by intellectually driven, I mean Nebraska let SBN produce videos about how awesome our school is. I know I posted this as a Fanshot earlier, but I wanted to put the video front and center so you can see ALL THE ROWS OF IPADS in the locker room, and then drool over the fact that the players lounge may, in fact, be a 'players lounge' for the football team. That last part is not confirmed...

In other news, it's conference football week and while we've been trying to get things all converted layout wise here on OTE, none of us has forgotten. It's just that we've also been bombarded with BREAKING NEWS, that is, Michigan and Notre Dame hate each other now, so much so that they will apathetically scoff at the other team for the next two years as they hurdle towards relevancy AND Tom Osborne, he of Big 8 fame and now BIG TEN LEGEND fame, is retiring. So that's kept the games as a secondary concern. However, I am now going to give my predictions with some links because Graham and Jon gave me a platform to talk. (Also because the piece I intend to write about Nebraska-Wisconsin probably gets sidetracked tonight as I delightfully indulge in Ben Folds Five live. Yes, Ben Folds Five is back together and I could not be happier about it).

Team-ish Links

Early Games:

Indiana at Northwestern BTN

First things first. Go check out previews at The Crimson Quarry and Sippin on Purple because both of them know this stuff way better than I do, as far as actual players on the team and such. Once you have done that, unless you are a fan of either team and have already done that in which case you should have ignored me in the first place, let's make some predictions. I do not see Indiana winning this game at the intimidating Ryan Field. While I have not been there, I have heard rumors of some angry chairs that aren't afraid to give you the silent treatment... Seriously, though, Northwestern is 4-0, Indiana lost to Ball State, and Northwestern appears to have a defense. Northwestern wins.

Penn State at Illinois ESPN (because of course Penn State is on ESPN)

Alright, relevant previews are here at BSD and IlliniHQ. As previously mentioned, this is another Penn State game on the WWL proving that they really care about the redemption story to the teardown story they so humbly created. As for football, I still believe Penn State is not the worst team in the history of football. With that said, Illinois is an absolute mess right now and the homefield advantage thing barely works at this point (after last week at least). I have no idea what to predict in this game. How about Penn State wins with a semblance of a real offense over Illinois quickly spiraling out of control defense? Sure, we'll go with that.

Minnesota at Iowa ESPN2

The Daily Gopher and BHGP are already previewing the game, and in case you missed it, JDMill and Mike Jones did too. It is a strange world where the Gophers, by all accounts, should win this game. I irked a bunch of Minnesota fans last year when I said Nebraska would destroy them and have learned you do not take teams lightly (although my predictions for Minnesota last year were on point). As much as I wouldn't mind seeing Minnesota win, if for anything to watch the fires rise from the east, I think Iowa gets their act together and wins the game tomorrow.

Purdue is playing another Non-con game. They should win. You can look at this article from Hammer and Rails about the Marshall game, but I won't talk about it too much because I'm trying to write a preview of the Conference Play weekend and Purdue is ruining my narrative.

Afternoon Games

Ohio State at Michigan State ABC

I am excited for this game as it should clear up where the top tier stands. Michigan State will go up against another elite (relatively speaking) defense and Ohio State will go up against an actual defense (that is probably elite). Relevant links at The Only Colors (featuring LGHL) and LGHL (featuring TOC). I am leaning Michigan State in this one actually. I do not believe they have an offense and LeVeon Bell is literally going to pass out from exhaustion one of these games, but Ohio State has played way too close of games against pretty mediocre teams. Michigan State is in EL, and I think they might just be the better team from a consistency standpoint. Now the offense needs to score a few points to prove me right.

Night Games

Wisconsin at Nebraska ABC

Let me start with saying that talking trash before a game rarely helps your team's cause, so I am excited that Wisconsin's DL is already talking trash about Taylor Martinez. While he might 'still not be able to throw it' he is definitely doing just fine at home this year and has a lot of weapons to throw to. Relevant links to Corn Nation and B5Q. Note, please contain mocking of both uniforms to that day and that day only. It was all Adidas' fault, and while I like the idea, the execution was just not there. As for a pick, I'm going to stick with my preseason Nebraska pick. I will also be praying like heck that doesn't blow up in my face later.

Alright, that's all I got today as time is super short. Have a great afternoon and we'll get this whole links at ten thing back under control soon...