Nitt Picks Is Going Out With A Bang

It's been an off season no one will forget for a long time in the Big Ten, and Commissioner Jim Delany appears poised to put an exclamation point on it today.

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune:

Remember the 30-to-45 day timetable Commissioner Jim Delany laid out regarding the announcement of Big Ten divisions?

Well, Wednesday marks Day 30. And sources indicate the league is ready to move.

A Wednesday announcement would allow fans to digest the divisional breakdown a day before the season kicks off with three Big Ten games: Marshall- Ohio State, Towson-Indiana and Minnesota-Middle Tennessee.

Big Red Today says the announcement will come in prime time on the Big Ten Network.

With the leak last week that Iowa and Wisconsin will be split, it looks like a geographical break is unlikely. That obviously leaves a lot of possibilities, so today could be pretty interesting. The potential collective meltdown in Columbus and Ann Arbor could be a bonus if Ohio State and Michigan are split and "The Game" is moved to October.

BYU Bolts MWC

BYU has decided to go independent in football, and has moved it's other sports to the West Coast Conference. This obviously shakes things up big time out west, leaving the MWC, once considered a lock to gain BCS status, out in the cold.

The MWC is known to still have a few targets on the radar after already adding Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada earlier this year, so the conference merry-go-round continues to spin.

Basketball Scedule

Alumnus Justin Casavant, founder of Nittany Nation, sent a message to those upset with the basketball home schedule in Daily Collegian Tuesday

"Penn State students love to boast how they are the No. 1 student fans in the country. If they truly mean what they say, they will turn those words into actions and pack the [BJC] this winter in support of Penn State basketball," he said.

Bingo. It certainly stinks that the Michigan State and Purdue games will both be hosted over winter break, but if the students really want to be at these games, they will be. State College is a reasonable drive from most of the major cities, and especially if you have off campus housing, the game dates are close enough that they could make for a fun mid-break trip.

New Captains

The Collegian has video of Brett Brackett and Ollie Ogbu after being named co-captains.  Here's the Ogbu cut. Check out the Footblog link for the Brackett video.

In Scores Of Other Games

• Boise State is evil. [Dan Wetzel]
• Bob Flounders talks about Evan Royster's weight issue [PennLive]
• The Patriot-News unveils its state high school football rankings [PennLive]
• Add our Facebook and Twitter pages today and spread the word.