Dear Mr. Delany,

I am becoming very concerned about what I'm hearing in the media about possible realignments of the Big Ten Conference and where that leaves our beloved Golden Gophers. 

I have been hearing how we could possibly lose the annual matchup with Iowa, sacrificing our yearly battle of the Floyd of Rosedale to maintain the (in many minds) slightly less historically significant Heartland Trophy game.  Being one of the founding members of the conference, I believe it's safe to say that one very big thing that this school prides itself on is its rivalry/trophy games.  NO ONE has more historically significant trophy games than we do, and half of those games are already not played annually, but now we might be playing even one less than that?

I understand the competitive balance.  I really do.  However, it's very difficult to predict future competitive balance over only the last 17 years of football records in the conference.  Tradition, something that is supposed to be so greatly valued in this conference, seems like it is falling apart unnecessarily, perhaps partially in the name of TV ratings. 

In a perfect world, I think all would greatly benefit from teams like Nebraska, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota playing each other on a regular basis. I'm sure you get suggestions all the time, but could you please tell me if my model is even close to what's being considered?

Div. 1  /  Protected X-Overs  /  Div. 2
-Minn  ---------------------------->  -WI
-Iowa  ----------------------------->  -Penn St.
-Mich. ---------------------------->  -OSU
-NW    ---------------------------->  -Illinois
-MSU   --------------------------->  -Indiana
-Neb.  ----------------------------->  -Purdue

I strongly believe that this is best possible scenario for not just us, but EVERYBODY collectively.

Reasoning:
-This divides the 4 top teams evenly as well as establishes a general competitive balance, giving both Iowa and Wisconsin two of the best teams to compete with annually.
-All of the most important rivalries of all schools are intact, with many being a protected crossover to possibly add exciting rematches in the title game.
-This alignment actually is somewhat geographical as well, although when I thought of this it was not intended. Geography is still important to all of us because of our ties to the schools in closest proximity with one another.

Downsides:
-Would lose continuity with Heartland Trophy (WI/Iowa) game, but I'd say overall the Floyd of Rosedale is more historically significant.
-Would lose Land Grant trophy game between MSU and Penn State (but many of their fans say its not really a rivalry matchup and is less significant in history)
-The Nebraska-Purdue crossover isn't that sexy of a matchup, but Nebraska does have MN, Iowa, and Michigan every year, and this is the best crossover scenario being that 5 of the 6 matchups are very significant rivalry matchups.

Also, this way the Big Ten has the annual matchups of Floyd, the Little Brown Jug, the Ax, the Illibuck, the Old Oaken Bucket, the in-state rivalries of Mich-MSU, NW-Illinois, Indiana-Purdue, AND of course you get The Game, Mich.-OSU, as well as the blooming rivalry between Iowa and Penn St. and Nebraska with Michigan, Minnesota, AND Iowa

If you could please ease my conscience about what is happening and take my model into consideration, I would appreciate it enormously. We've already lost an annual matchup with the Little Brown Jug; please don't allow us (or any of the other institutions) to lose another of the most important rivalry games in the conference's history.

--
Best regards,

XXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXX

Am waiting for a response to this..

http://community.foxsports.com/goodmanonfox/blog/2009/08/17/paulus_wins_starting_qb_job

I'm not sure whether or not to be scared or confident with this decision but am still leaning towards the latter.  What do you guys think of Marrone's decision? Does it help or hurt us?  I know that Paulus has absolutely no experience as a college gameday QB, but to me it's things like this that can sometimes seem crazy enough to work...

Innocently came across some valuable information, courtesy of Wikipedia (love this site):

Iowa head coaching career

On December 2, 1998, Ferentz was hired as Iowa's 26th head football coach to replace the retiring Hayden Fry. The team struggled during Ferentz's first two seasons with a combined 4-19 record, but the Hawkeyes earned their first bowl bid under Ferentz after a 7-5 season in 2001.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Ferentz

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I know, I know.... I became really bored, and ever since the stadium began to take shape I've been tortured by thoughts of what The Vault could look like when expanded to 80,000+ seats.  So, for your viewing pleasure only...

via photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net

 I was told from an insider that when the seating capacity is expanded there will be an upper deck stretching all the way from the north end of the horseshoe to the suites, so I think the representation would be fairly accurate.  I could definitely see this place easily being one of the most intimidating places to play in the Big Ten when the stadium adds those seats (barring whether or not all of those seats are filled of course).  It is very exciting to think of what it will actually end up looking like.  What do you guys think?

Also, because I know that the expansion itself is supposedly speculative, I'd like to poll the TDG audience by asking if and when this task will be completed.  I'm crossing my fingers, hoping that the demand will warrant it sooner rather than later.

(promoted ....)

So after reading up on the Hawkeye trashtalk at Black Heart Gold Pants, I decided that we need to either dig up some more dirt on that cornhole of a state (pun intended) or just state some of the obvious (they would probably call it making fun of them, but I regard it as fact).  Well, I did a little bit of both, in the form of YouTube clips and jokes, and hopefully others will follow suit.

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