When the Blue Band gets more air time and play time in an opposing team's stadium, the "Great Show" has become a bit too canned. When my post is less than 75 words long, my next few sentences will be a bit canned. Or Perhaps caned, you know, like in Singapore.18 more words will do it, aged like my favorite Scotch - The Macallan. 5 more now, 5 more.

Sincerely,

Lifelong Fan

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...and it has nothing to do with NBC.

The Big Ten is not strictly an athletic conference, but also an academic consortium which share research funding, much like bowl game revenue gets shared.

Several Big Ten schools are leaders in stem-cell research.

No catholic organization is going to allow any research revenues be shared for the purpose of stem-cell research.

That being said, I need 13 more words to make this post official.

Did Joe Paterno's replacement just win the CFL's Grey Cup?

NFL coaching credentials, Head Coaching Credentials and definite PSU ties.

It's 12:07 PM and Pitt still sucks! WE ARE WE ARE WE ARE WE ARE WE ARE WE ARE WE ARE WE AREWE ARE WE ARE WE ARE WE AREWE ARE WE ARE WE ARE WE AREWE ARE WE ARE WE ARE WE AREWE ARE WE ARE WE ARE WE AREWE ARE WE ARE WE ARE WE AREWE ARE WE ARE WE ARE WE ARE

Before everyone wonders why Kelly can't make a 30 yarder... consider the situation.

Kelly's head was up, he saw the blocker coming from the left right for him. If he puts that ball on the line toward the goal post, it gets blocked and who knows what happens. Instead, he yanks it right, prevents the sure block and happens to draw the penalty.

Blame coverage for that non-miss miss, not Kelly.

The Big Ten Network that is... and the more I think about it, the more I don't like it.

In case anyone hasn't noticed, ESPN has already dropped significant "face time" for anything Big Ten. Now, obviously they can't advertise handling most Big Ten games because the BTN is picking up all those not already claimed by other networks. However, this doesn't seem to bode well for subsequent seasons where the TV schedule hasn't been set yet.

Say the BTN resolves all the issues and everyone who wants to see Big Ten games, gets to see them. What does this do to coverage of Big Ten football on other national outlets? Especially with ESPN, who has a history of dropping coverage of sports with which it no longer has much interest (Hockey) and hyping sports it has an interest in (NASCAR).

I'm not sure how much national attention plays into recruiting, but I know it has some part. I just see the Big Ten Network only bringing regional coverage to marquee programs of national interest like Michigan, OSU and Penn State. I can definitely see ESPN downplaying the importance of Big Ten schools because they don't have the rights to cover the games anymore.

I can see College Gameday never visiting a Big Ten school again.

The concept behind the Big Ten Network just seem so remarkably short-sighted in this regard. It wasn't broken... why try to fix it?