What follows is definitely not sanctioned by above labeled authority.

I have a theory I'm not really sure I believe in but made sense to me one Saturday afternoon while talking over the pre-Penn State games with a friend.  The theory? That Big Ten teams are built a bit differently than those in other conferences is order to survive in the unpleasant conditions of the late season.  Now, for the first half of the schedule Big Ten weather isn't much different than the rest of the country, but what happens when your high flying Texas Techish attack is playing in 25 degree, 30 mph winds?  I'm not suggesting that the Big Ten is "slow" or "old" or any of the other crap that comes with that line of conference blather, but it is almost a certainty that, playing in the midwest, you will face a situation where talent advantages are marginalized by mother nature at least once during the season and the winning team will be the one with the bruteness and balance that always seems to prevail on the muddy, wet, cold, windy gridiron.  The chances of the Big Ten's leader stumbling to an inferior team in these conditions is higher than it would be in, say, southern California. 

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From the Big Ten Conference media room.

Daryll Clark, Penn State
JR, QB, Youngstown, Ohio/Ursuline
Clark accounted for a career-high five touchdowns and 341 passing yards to lead Penn State to a win over Michigan State and a share of the Big Ten title. The junior quarterback completed 16-of-26 passes (61.5 percent) with a career-best four touchdowns and added a one-yard rushing score against the Spartans. Clark averaged 21.3 yards per completion, connecting on throws of 70, 49, 37, 33 and 32 yards. The Ohio native opened the scoring with a five-yard toss in the first quarter and his one-yard touchdown run and 32-yard scoring strike in the second quarter pushed the hosts ahead 28-0. He added touchdown passes of four and 70 yards in the third quarter before sitting out the final stanza. Clark’s 341-yard passing performance marked the most yards through the air for a PSU player since 2003 when Michael Robinson compiled 379 yards against Wisconsin. Clark picks up his second weekly accolade this season and for his career after being honored on Oct. 13.
LAST PSU OFFENSIVE POW: QB Daryll Clark on Oct. 13, 2008.

Wow. Not bad for a guy that a lot of people were saying should have been benched last week.

While I normally am not one for bye weeks, I have to say that for the first time since I can remember I'm rather looking forward to this one.  Maybe it was the high strung nature of Saturday's game, or maybe I just like knowing that nothing bad can happen.  This doesn't mean, however, that we can't get worked up about something this weekend.

Now that Penn State's #3 ranking has been solidified, we need to figure out how to remedy the problem of not being in the top two.  So in this week's episode we'll look at what conference teams we want to win, and the chances of them doing it.  Playing ranked teams down the road will help Penn State's perception in the human polls, and make sure to check out In Defense Of Statistics (One and Two), written by the excellent reader Bleed Blue 'n White, for an understanding of how this might help the team's status in the computers.

Within the conference, there are three general goals:

• Keep the eight teams we play in the big ten winning, aka root against Minnesota and Northwestern.
• Keep the "good" teams good, aka don't root for the teams that have already proven themselves poor.
• Root especially hard for the two quality teams left on the schedule, Iowa and Michigan State.

After the jump we'll look at the match-ups, then point out in the 'Verdict' the colors we would be wearing to that game:

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After taking last week off, this week's Vegas segment will look at preseason expectations and determine how badly "we" misjudged based on against-the-spread numbers.  The conclusion will be that preseason expectations are crap, but you already knew that.

One way to judge a team against prior expectations is to look at their record against the spread. Vegas' lines aren't designed to totally split betting as is sometimes reported, but they do adjust true linesmakers' odds (ie the "true spread") if one particular school is being bet on too heavily (often the result of the general public being very high on a particular team).

First, we should review some preseason expectations in order to see where each team was pegged in August. Next to each preseason rank is the current Big Ten rank based on in-conference record. This is clearly not any type of predictor as to how they will finish because, obviously, there are more games to play.  But it's what we have so far and, honestly, probably not that far off from how things will end.

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Let's do a quick comparison of coaching styles. Austin Scott gets accused of rape and he's off the team despite the charges later being dropped. Maurice Evans and Abe Koroma get caught with less than an ounce of marijuana in their room and they sit for three weeks. Illinois backup quarterback Eddie McGee pushes a girl twice to the ground and Illinois coach Ron Zook doesn't see a problem with that.

Eddie McGee's status as Illinois' No. 2 quarterback will not be affected by his arrest in connection with an incident at a dance last weekend, coach Ron Zook said Wednesday.

McGee has continued to practice with the team and will back up starter Juice Williams on Saturday against Indiana (7 p.m., BTN, 560-AM).

''If there was an issue with Eddie, something would be done,'' Zook said. ''I'm not going to punish him for something that I feel very comfortable with [as far as] the outcome. We have good kids. Sometimes they get into situations you wish they wouldn't, but that's life.''

That's life? Something he feels "very comfortable" with? I guess sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do, and apparently sometimes a man has to get in a fight with a woman and put her in her place if you ask Ron Zook and Eddie McGee.

This is utterly despicable. I hope Illinois fans are enjoying their newfound success, because they are paying a heavy price for it. We here at BSD are not big fans of Rich Rodriguez, but at least he made the right decision in kicking Mike Milano off the team for beating up a Michigan hockey player.

And before anyone says "apartment fight" or "HUB fight", let me remind you most of the characters involved in those incidents were suspended for some period of time. Some were reinstated while some never put on the PSU jersey again. None of them went back to practice the next day as if nothing happened.

Congratulations to Daryll Clark for winning his first career Big Ten Player of the Week award.

OFFENSE:
Daryll Clark, Penn State
JR, QB, Youngstown, Ohio/Ursuline
Clark compiled a career-best 244 passing yards and drove his offense past 40 points for the fifth time this season in a 48-7 triumph at Wisconsin. The junior quarterback completed 16-of-25 passes with one touchdown and also tallied two rushing scores for the first time in his career. After the Badgers pulled within 17-7 in the second quarter, Clark guided PSU to touchdowns on its next three drives. The scoring streak started with his two rushing scores and was capped by a 44-yard strike to give the visitors a 38-7 third quarter lead. Clark picks up his first career weekly accolade.
LAST PSU OFFENSIVE POW: RB Evan Royster on Sept. 8, 2008.

And congratulations also go to Aaron Maybin for his first career Big Ten Player of the Week Award.

Aaron Maybin, Penn State
SO, DE, Ellicott City, Md./Mount Hebron
Maybin filled the stat sheet with six tackles, a career-best 3.5 tackles for loss, one sack, two forced fumbles and a pass breakup to spearhead a Penn State defensive effort which forced four turnovers and held Wisconsin to one touchdown. The sophomore defensive end picked up his eighth solo sack on the year, which tops the Big Ten and is tied for the national lead. Maybin’s first forced fumble was recovered just 16 yards from the endzone and led to a touchdown and a 24-7 lead while his second forced fumble occurred on a fourth quarter sack. He collects his first career weekly laurel.
LAST PSU DEFENSIVE POW: LB Navorro Bowman on Sept. 22, 2008.

Personally I think Maybin got robbed on Saturday. I counted three occassions where he tackled the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage, but I was shocked to see the final stats where he was only credited one sack. They called one tackle a two-yard-loss rushing attempt even though Evridge was clearly dropped back in passing position and stepped forward in the pocket to avoid the pressure. And the scorer gratiously called another tackle a "no gain" instead of a one yard loss. There's hometown scoring for you. Wouldn't want to jeopardize our OMG AWESOME linemen their NFL draft picks.

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You thought you could hide, didn't you JJ?  You thought that just because you wrote for a college paper called The Maneater that you could get away with this.  I can't totally blame you, it was probably a fair assumption.  I mean, to put it bluntly, (d'oh!) WTF is the University of Missouri - Columbia?  Know this, though: even though your paper is unrecognizable to the layman, the power of Google News Feeder knows no bounds.

It's time for the FJM treatment.

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*I mean this in jest, of course.  See explanation here.

Whether you are sitting at your desk, at home in your living room, or reading from some type of outdated computer lab, I think a collective fist pump is in order.  The 45-degree version is recommended.

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Canada, huh?  Almost made it.  Stuart Mandel, with just two weeks until kick-off, broke down and put together a Great Conference Debate story over at SI.  The actual story is everything you hoped you'd never have to hear again, but because I too am wearing thin, I've read almost the entire thing.

Getting a little bored after the second of the mythical 'pages' that SI is so fond of, I decided to skip ahead to the 'hard facts' section and gain a better understanding of how the Big Ten managed to come in 4th over SI's arbitrary time period: 2003-2008 (conveniently beginning the year after an OSU MNC, also following a draft in which 15 Big Ten players were selected in the first two rounds, Penn State sent four in the first round alone).

What stood out:

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