Around the Empire: News and links from across Big Ten country and beyond

It’s been a hell of a week in the Big Ten and in college sports more broadly! Between the West Division’s Puntoberfest this weekend, the Michigan sign stealing story, and the massive #1 v #2 matchup in volleyball on Saturday, we have a lot to catch up on. To steal a bit from MNWildcat, think of this as Don’t Read This; Read That. There’s only so much time in a week and too many bad sports articles to dig through. We at the AtE desk trawl through all of the junk out there so that we can point you in the right direction.

Here’s what you might have missed from around the Big Ten and beyond.

Scores:

Michigan Wolverines 49, Michigan State Spartans 0

Ohio State Buckeyes 20, Penn State Nittany Lions 12

Minnesota Golden Gophers 12, Iowa Hawkeyes 10

Rutgers Scarlet Knights 31, Indiana Hoosiers 14

Wisconsin Badgers 25, Illinois Fighting Illini 21

Nebraska Cornhuskers 17, Northwestern Wildcats 9

Football coverage from Off Tackle Empire:

• Clink the link for GoForThree’s typically astute analysis, but stick around for Kind Of...’s stream of consciousness reverse jinx of the Badgers in this week’s Sunday Morning Coming Down.

• MNW surveys the landscape of the other sort of football and asks for your best (and worst) questions for inclusion in this week’s mailbag request! Get your questions in by Tuesday evening; we might even consider answering them.

• Only two buys in this edition of Dead Read’s Stock Report. Hint: it’s not Northwestern.

• Another bleak week in the Hoosier State. BuffKomodo breaks down the beatdown by Rutgers and provides context for how the Hoosiers got here.

• BoilerUp89 reviews the B1G coaches that are most feeling the heat right now. Unsurprisingly, the West is well represented!

• Vaudvillain compares the offenses across the conference against the infamous Ferentz Line. Only three of the 12 teams with a game this week cleared the threshold!

• And you might have heard about some Michigan news this week. OTE responds to the initial allegations of illegal sign-stealing by Connor Stalions, a Michigan staffer.

• Don’t forget to get your choices in for Survivor and for the ATS picks games. Green 96 and Ziowa09, thank you for continuing to organize those! And thank God I didn’t take Iowa this week like I had originally planned.

Off Tackle Empire previews the upcoming basketball season:

• OTE continues its basketball preview series with the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Maryland Terrapins! If you missed the previous previews, check them out here: Michigan, Penn State, Rutgers, Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.

• BoilerUp89 continues his review of the Big Ten’s non-conference scheduling with the programs honored with a B, as well as the three schools receiving Cs, like the cowards they are. And if you missed it, catch up with the three schools receiving Ds. At least they didn’t get Fs like Penn State and Minnesota. Just a few more weeks until basketball season mercifully begins.

Two Truths and a Lie: Harbaugh Edition

Still stealing a bit from a blogger from damn near a decade ago (shoutout to @clubtrillion), but it’s back after popular demand! I’m going to present three real Harbaugh quotes from this past week, along with one made-up quote. See if you can spot the lie!

Big Ten Football:

• L.C. Norton at The Crimson Quarry provides a stark and poignant review of the state of Indiana football. He pulls a quote from Carl Sagan: “In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.”

• An instant classic volleyball matchup between #1 Wisconsin and #2 Nebraska lived up to the hype on Saturday night. Check out the post-match analysis from BVBMerry at Corn Nation and Bremen Keasey at Bucky’s 5th Quarter.

• Jerry Scherwin at Black Heart Gold Pants takes a deep sigh after the Floyd of Rosedale game. It’s irrational. It’s insanity. It’s fandom. It’s why we’re all here.

• From Ryan Nanni at Homefield’s Buried Treasure newsletter, and just in time for a 7-0 Air Force squad, a look back at that span when Air Force beat Notre Dame four years in a row. The details are predictably absurd.

• The Only Colors writer Oren Basse was there live to take in the Battle for Paul Bunyan. It’s been a rough year for Michigan State, but I enjoyed his take from the ground in East Lansing.

• Chris Lucia at Black Shoe Diaries looks back at the close game at Ohio Stadium and takes stock of the Nittany Lions and their playoff hopes.

Have a good week, all. It’s almost Saturday.