Wha. So guess who's joining the party?
We talked about this questionably logic'd story before, but I never expected the Conference's own trumpet to do their part to spread the word that our OOC slate is weak. Besides, the headline doesn't even say "weak OOC schedule", leaving the door open for the Big Ten bashing that separates Paterno's weak slate from the weak slate of all the "contenders" in the SEC and Big XII.
Hindsight is 20/worthless. The Big Ten is ramping up their CYA.
The Big Ten has a command center in Chicago where every play is scrutinized. Carollo doesn't expect to see 30 questionable plays from one coach. He will have full-time people grading each game from every angle. "I said, 'We'll know that we screwed up a pass interference at the end of an Illinois game before you call Coach. Let me sort through that a little bit and I'll give you some answers or I'll call you if it's really bad.' "
I mean I guess this is a good thing, but being able to review things like this and having the ability to say: "Yes Joe, the ref appears to be staring right at the ball as it bounces several times off the ground" doesn't actually make the officiating any better. It's like when you get screwed by Comcast your cable company and the poor bastard at the call center just keeps saying "We really are sorry we double charged you again this month." [/true story]
Desperate time call. Even the players are realizing the implications of media spin and its grasp on their destinies:
When Penn State gets finished destroying Syracuse in the afternoon on Sept. 12, the Nittany Lions will gather around TVs later that night and do the unthinkable.
They will be rooting - very hard, in fact - for their archrivals from Ohio State.
"We don't necessarily like Ohio State because you want to beat them so bad," PSU offensive tackle Dennis Landolt said, "but you always want to see the conference do good simply for national respect."
As Joe would say, let's focus on destroying 'Cuse first, but after that, yeah, another blowout could be trouble. USC is "rebuilding" so to speak, but the preliminary lines I've seen still have the Trojans favored by 6 points on the road.
In Scores Of Other Games. MSU working on an All-Ohio line?...Rittenberg calls Green and Moye two of the Big Ten's nine best "home run threats"...Speaking of PR, those interested might want to check out this multi-blogger interview. Highlight from Mgo: "I wish they’d offer me money (that would be disclosed, obviously) more. And I wish they’d email me about Purdue less."...and the sooner this show gets cut the better my life will be.