Calm down, that's a little extreme. No, a lot extreme. Yeah, they are going to have to redo the rules at the end of the season. Obviously they didn't think that through...

Yeah it was extreme and of course when I say that I don't actually mean I want the person(s) shot, but still, it was a horrible, horrible decision.

We'll see what the 4th quarter brings, but I think you can stick a fork in this team today. Very disappointing season this year. Should have only had 2-3 losses.

Ball St. is giving Michigan all kindsa fits today, 34-26 Wolverines lead.

We have a kick ass defense, and one of the most inept offenses in the country. We have the weapons, for a change, but... I'm sorry, but some of the coaching staff needs a shake-up. This shit is really getting old.

2 yards away from a chance to tie.

Ball St. denied, but getting one last gasp shot at it all in the last :20

Just came up short it looks like, Michigan escapes with the win.


Illibuck time in Champaign. I'll be back in four beers...I mean halftime.

Our offense makes me want to bury my head under Mt. Nittany.

Meanwhile, the Ball St./UM game could do enough damage so that if Michigan loses a small amount to OSU, they will indeed drop below 2nd in the BCS.

UI kept it close with OSU with some outstanding defense in the second half. Unfortunately, offensive miscues by Juice and Brasic cost us the shot at the upset again. We just need to get over that hump...

= The offseason

Don't worry, your time is near.

Maybe even sooner, Purdue and NW are all that's left on the schedule. Three Big Ten wins sounds good.

No doubt (where's Dick Cheney when you need him ) -- but I'm surprised it took until November for a coach to exploit the rule. I thought Bielema's call was brilliant. And took JoePa by surprise -- he was calling for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, for heaven's sake.

Nah -- the purposeful offsides on the kickoff is akin to other perfectly fine clock manipulation and field position plays: spiking the ball to stop the clock; taking a knee to run out the clock; taking a delay of game denalty to give your punter a better shot of kicking the ball within the ten yard line. That sort of thing.

That being said the starting the clock when the ball is kicked rule needs to be changed. Barry Alvarez proposes that at least within the final two minutes of each half, the clock starts when the ball is received.

Well, it's nice to see the offense actually put points on the board for a change, even if it is against Temple. LOL 31-0 at the half. I'm guessing the 1st team plays a series or two in the 3rd quarter, and then we empty the benches the rest of the game.

Trivial facts of the day:

Penn State sits at 7-4 (probably will be 8-4 after MSU visits State College) -- their four losses were to the current #1, #2, #5 and #9 teams in the BCS standings. Shouldn't they be ranked??

From USA Today: Michigan has been on the lower end of the score in games for only 17:15 minutes this season. So I did some checking: 13:41 of that time (nearly 80%) was to Wisconsin. 'nuf said.

Indiana needs to win its last game -- at Purdue -- to qualify for its first bowl since the 1993 Independence Bowl. It's the longest current bowl drought in the league. But they haven't won in West Lafayette since 1996.

The Goofs also need a win (against Iowa) to become bowl eligible.

*cringe*

that was my reaction when I saw the MSU/PSU score when I turned on the TV this morning

You haven't seen the game though.

4 fumbles on our side.

ugh.

The trouble with Penn State is that while they have no bad losses, they also have no good wins. We know they're not as good as Wisconsin or Notre Dame but better than Minnesota, Purdue and Iowa. There's an awful lot of space in between those teams. As a side comment, another team that has only lossed to ranked teams is 7-3 Middle Tennessee, though Maryland probably won't be ranked after today.

Penn State will probably earn a ranking if they win their bowl game. It would be interesting to see how they would fare against the second tier teams from the SEC or PAC-10.

Who woulda thunk it Buckeyes/Wolverines a shootout, with Pittman just running right through Michigan's vaunted run D to take a 35-24 lead.

Michigan's on last gasp now, as a PI call on 4th down kept their latest drive alive .... 42-31 in the last 3 mins.

Now 42-39, but I think Michigan took too much clock off early in the drive.

Congrats to tOSU on a big win today.

Troy Smith wrapped up any further debate on the Heisman trophy today. Brady Quinn, Henne, and anyone else in the conversation might as well just show up at the Heisman and have a good time knowing they won't be gettin JACK!!!! Great Game and Troy shows the leadership needed to lead the Buckeyes to the victory. Michigan has nothing to hold their head down about though. It was close and the death of Bo had to add an element of inspiration as well as distraction to the game. I'm glad OSU won too because now their won't be any "Bo reached down from heaven and led Michigan to the win" kinds of statements.

Great game to watch. Finally a game that lived up to it's hype! I think Michigan deserves a second chance.

Now that the Big Ten season is over (just a Purdue game at Hawaii this weekend) -- I'll go back to the summer and say that I did a wonderfully awful job at predicting the finish. And I'm wonderfully happy about it!

Final 2006 standings

1. Ohio State 8-0

2. Wisconsin 7-1
Michigan 7-1

4. Penn State 5-3
Purdue 5-3

6. Minnesota 3-5
Indiana 3-5

8. Iowa 2-6
Northwestern 2-6

10. Michigan State 1-7
Illinois 1-7


My predictions were