The quintessential Big Ten smoking room.
I will pay any amount of money to be free of your shitty driving for ten minutes. Also, Tulane-Memphis is my game of the week. Breaking with my (current) tradition and actually getting DWT;WT posted on Thursday for two reasons: Please note: enthusiasm should not be shared by YouTube TV users. However, I’m told YouTube […]
4 months ago | 6 reads
Indiana #1 or we riot. Who has the most impressive win of the season? It’s Indiana at Oregon, and it isn’t particularly close. Will that matter? Likely not, and all the College Football Playoff committee is going to do is make Curt Cignetti angrier and angrier. College Football Playoff Rankings Show When: 7pm CT Where: […]
4 months ago | 5 reads
This is a column to check in on the rest of the football world, but since it’s 2025 in America I will beat you over the head with The Agenda, which in case you’ve forgotten is “Big Ten Superiority Unless It’s Funny.” THE AGENDA MVP: Illinois Fighting Illini, Minnesota Golden Gophers, USC Trojans Three teams […]
4 months ago | 7 reads
This week I will review Purdue’s loss at Michigan and preview the upcoming loss game against Ohio State. About last week … From the perspective of a Purdue fan, the Boilers showed some grit in hanging around and not giving up in Ann Arbor against the more talented Wolverines. As Coach Barry Odom said after […]
4 months ago | 7 reads
Here so we don’t get fined. Hi! Welcome to Off Tackle Empire—now third in the blogosphere for Big Ten basketball content. …you might’ve noticed we dont’ have any! Well, this is a Big Ten football site, and we have always only been able to cover shootyhoops as volunteer contributors and my schedule permit. My schedule […]
4 months ago | 5 reads
Dylan Raiola is out for the year, and now Nebraska—and the Mailbag—will regroup. The Huskers’ signal-caller will miss the rest of the year with a broken fibula, and now it falls to frosh TJ Lateef. Best of luck to the Huskers on that transition. Here’s your mailbag call for the week. What would you like […]
4 months ago | 5 reads
Ten Fourteen Eighteen B1G Things The Rundown Ohio Sate does what it always does, Penn State edition The Nittany Lions went into the half down 17-14, in what looked like a typical game between the two teams. Then, the Buckeyes learned their lesson from the Michigan loss last year, stopped trying to run the ball, […]
4 months ago | 7 reads
All Saints here. Good morning. Time to make the donuts. Need to know what to watch? Try Don’t Watch This; Watch That. Want answers to all your pressing Big Ten questions? We’ve got you with our Midweek Mailbag: Is the Indiana Experience Replicable? Oh, and don’t forget to make your picks on the Obligatory Predictions […]
4 months ago | 2 reads
D2 and D3 football rankings are here, now let’s appreciate some good games and silly rivalries. I’m fairly confident this was an accident by the ESPN schedule crew, but scrolling the D-II and D-III schedules for this week, I stumbled upon this: And what a world it would be if, instead of having to watch […]
4 months ago | 5 reads
USC-Nebraska! Penn State-Ohio State! Uh…football! We’ve done about all the pre-Halloween prep in the MNW household. The pumpkins are gutted, with just a couple left to carve, we’ve taken the obligatory “infant in a pumpkin” photo (she sat great, totally unperturbed, happiest six-month-old ever), candy’s bought, pumpkin seeds ready to be roasted, pizza dough purchased […]
4 months ago | 5 reads
Where We Be and What We Be Drinking is BAACCCKKKK!!!!! And unlike Texas, we’re back for realz. Your overworked “writers” needed the newb to pick up the slack and I am here for it. So, welcome back to our weekly recurring (cough cough) Where We Be, What We Be Drinking column, where we pull back […]
4 months ago | 4 reads
On life, love, and chasing that next Cig. Even if he gets to six wins, does Braun survive? New stadium coming at some now-undefined time “next year.” –NUDave Buffkomodo: I mean, they’ve given you much more to cheer for than they did last season. They’re better and more competitive than I thought they’d be. You’d […]
4 months ago | 4 reads
We’re back! Sorry for not getting this out last week, some personal stuff came up and I dealt with that instead. For those interested, here are Week 8’s rankings: And last week’s inspiring lead-in: Given that I’ve ended up shouldering nearly all of the Power Polls this season, I admit I’m starting to burn out […]
4 months ago | 7 reads
This is a column to check in on the rest of the football world, but since it’s 2025 in America I will beat you over the head with The Agenda, which in case you’ve forgotten is “Big Ten Superiority Unless It’s Funny.” THE AGENDA MVP: Michigan Wolverines By defeating the fearsome Michigan State Spartans, Michigan […]
4 months ago | 6 reads
The Michigan-Michigan State rivalry might not jump to mind when you think of college football’s greatest rivalries, but it’s certainly one of the most intense. With no love lost between the teams – or fan bases – the annual matchup is a game that’s circled on each team’s calendar. Regardless of records, there’s a lot […]
4 months ago | 4 reads
This week I will review Purdue’s heartbreaking 27 – 24 loss to Rutgers and preview the upcoming game at Michigan. About last week … This was a tough loss for Purdue because there were several opportunities for them to firmly take control, when they had the momentum, well before the bizarre end game where Purdue […]
4 months ago | 3 reads
Which current Big Ten coach should be YOUR team’s next coach? A very pleasant good morning to you all. Iowa sits atop the Big Ten West, Indiana is an unstoppable jugglenaut, and, as such as the sun rises in the east, we never got you Mailbag answers for last week. As your benevolent overlord, I […]
4 months ago | 6 reads
Ten Fourteen Eighteen B1G Things The Rundown Holy Fuck Purdue! Knights 27, Boilers 24 With the ball and a chance to either win or play for overtime, Purdue chose to instead fumble in its own territory, letting Rutgers kick a field goal for the win. BoilerUp89: Purdue and finding new and exciting ways to lose […]
5 months ago | 4 reads
Floyd of Rosedale, Paul Bunyan, the Real NU, and more. Come talk about it! UCLA Bruins @ (2) Indiana Hoosiers 11AM | FOX | Indiana -24.5 | O/U 54.5 Northwestern Wildcats @ Nebraska Cornhuskers 11AM | FS1 | Nebraska -7.5 | O/U 44.5 Rutgers Scarlet Knights @ Purdue Boilermakers 11AM | BTN | Rutgers -2.5 | O/U 59.5 (23) Illinois Fighting […]
5 months ago | 5 reads
Help me pick my lunch. Or learn what’s wrong with Minnesota. Or something. MNW’s Lightly-Plagiarized Trivia Anyway. I am having lunch with WSR and a band of associated Minnesota miscreants today. (The other three are all Iowa fans, actually. We in Minnesota really need to end our acceptance of refugee resettlement. I’m tired of all […]
5 months ago | 3 reads
We spent most of Sunday preparing a shopping list for the week, given all my work travel—I schedule out the week’s meals, buy the stuff, and then we do similar things that start here: We also package up the rest of the pork bowls, which is meant to serve as lunch for the next few […]
5 months ago | 7 reads
This is a column to check in on the rest of the football world, but since it’s 2025 in America I will beat you over the head with The Agenda, which in case you’ve forgotten is “Big Ten Superiority Unless It’s Funny.” THE AGENDA MVP: Carson Beck, QB, Miami Hurricanes For the first time this […]
5 months ago | 3 reads
Michigan came into Saturday’s game against Washington with its season at a bit of a crossroads. After losing – and losing badly – to USC the previous week, the knives have been out in Ann Arbor. Fans and media alike have not only been critical of Michigan’s performance in Los Angeles, but of the state […]
5 months ago | 8 reads
This week I will review Purdue’s 19 – 0 loss at Northwestern and preview the upcoming Rutgers at Purdue game. About last week … This game was a huge disappointment. After the fight shown in Minneapolis, I thought Purdue might play a competitive game against Northwestern. Boy, was I wrong. Northwestern was definitely better prepared […]
5 months ago | 6 reads
You have questions about the Big Ten, life, the universe, and everything. We have snark. Good morning from a doctor’s office. Kid #2 has what I’m betting is an ear infection and will not sleep, so last night I drive her to St Michael and back because it was 11:15pm and damnit, she needed to […]
5 months ago | 4 reads