2007 was definitely a crazy season for the Big Ten, and 2008 could prove to be just as chaotic, with only Ohio State being pegged as a potentially elite team. In a 12-part series leading up to the start of the college football season, Jaymes Langrehr will preview each team, culminating with a conference overview previewing the biggest match-ups on the schedule and predicting where each team ...

The Fighting Illini were quite the surprise in college football last season, going 9-4 overall and 6-2 in the Big Ten a year after finishing 2-10. The quick turnaround in Champaign resulted in the first Rose Bowl berth for the Illini since 1983, and the team celebrated by getting their butts kicked 49-17 by USC. Still, despite the embarrassment handed them by the Trojans, the 2007 season ...

Well, I just got my copy of Phil Steele’s 2008 SEC Football Preview Magazine , to go along with the “ big ” magazine — which covers the entire landscape of college football — that came out a month or so ago. Once again, Phil doesn’t disappoint. All I can say is this: if you ever consider buying a single preview / analysis magazine for college football, make sure ...

This was way more difficult than it appears. Overrated players are usually at glamor positions on glamor teams; with Beanie Wells definitively not overrated, Penn State's general lack of star power, and everyone predicting doom for Michigan there was little to go around. So, like, I had to go with concepts. But not for #1. 1. Curtis Painter , QB, Purdue  ...

2007 was definitely a crazy season for the Big Ten, and 2008 could prove to be just as chaotic, with only Ohio State being pegged as a potentially elite team. In a 12-part series leading up to the start of the college football season, Jaymes Langrehr will preview each team, culminating with a conference overview previewing the biggest match-ups on the schedule and predicting where each team ...

When Big Ten teams got blown out in the Rose Bowl and Not Fiesta Bowl in 2006, it was embarrassing and annoying. Very annoying, as sports commentators from sea to shining sea used it as a foolproof indicator the Big Ten was a dinosaur conference, destined for irrelevance and the scrap heap. This, of course, was the worst sort of overreaction, one that assumed that What Had Just Happened was ...

With the start of a new season in the Big Ten comes new faces. Whether they're the hot new freshman on campus, the juco transfer, or the new head coach, here are five new faces in the Big Ten guaranteed to have a large impact on how this season will play out. 1. Rich Rodriguez -Head Coach-Michigan: Everybody's favorite snake-oil salesman hits Ann Arbor this fall and he has quite a task ahead ...

2007 was an interesting season for the Big Ten, to say the least. After getting shocked in the BCS National Championship game by Florida to end the 2006 season, Ohio State returned to the title game last season against LSU, only to lose once again at the hands of a team from the SEC. Michigan was on the wrong end of one of the biggest upsets in the history of college football. Ron Zook took ...

If someone had said just a few years ago that the Big East was one of the best and most competitive conferences in college football, they likely would’ve been laughed into rescinding their comments, or committed to a sanitarium. After Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College defected to the ACC, it looked like the Big East might fall into the abyss. However, the exact opposite has ...