Coach Tiller Thinks Maryland Doesn't Know How To Paint Their End Zones

No word on what Coach Tiller thinks of their helmets.

Mike Carmin of the Lafayette J&C has a piece up today about Joe Tiller's 20 minutes of "I can say anything I want because I'm an old man who won a lot of games here"-style comments at the National Football Foundation Dinner this week.

Tiller, when talking about the Big Ten's expansion, remarked than whenever he talked about it to Commissioner Delaney, the general rule was that any expansion had to make the conference better. Tiller clearly doesn't see how the Terps make the Big Ten better:

I’m thinking to myself, ‘Maryland?’ They don’t even know how to paint an end zone. How in the heck are they going to make the Big Ten a better conference?

I don't know if a 70-year-old former coach making such comments qualifies for the #shotsfired hashtag, but regardless of if it does, Maryland won't even have a chance to throw a punch in this one until at least 2016. (That is, unless the Boilers and Terps meet in the Big Ten Championship Game, which I think we'd all be fine with.)

Tiller also talked about his dislike of kickers, which is an interesting contrast to his successor, Danny Hope, who called one of his kickers "the most exciting kicker in America."

Tiller also discussed the future expansion of college football playoffs, disappointingly hopping on the "players should get a share of the pie" bandwagon. One assumes Coach Tiller means a bigger share of the pie than a full ride, lots of ancillary benefits, playing football on TV and being able to forever include "Division I college athlete at Purdue University" on their resumes.

Check out the rest of the always-solid Mike Carmin's article and learn more about Tiller's opinion on starting freshman quarterbacks, whether he would be part of the college football playoff selection committee, and more.

Ain't No Party Like A Pinstripe Party

Delany shows off his bland-ball.

The Big Ten agreed to a deal to be an (evidently willing) participant in a December bowl game in New York, as Jim Delany was on hand at Yankee Stadium yesterday. Delaney even spent some time in the booth with Michael Kay and Al Leiter, making sure to mention Urban Meyer, Mark Dantonio, Kirk Ferentz, "the coach at Wisconsin," and how great the league is.

Delany then threw three scoreless innings in relief of Andy Pettitte, who is actually nine years Delany's senior.

The Big Ten's partnership with the Pinstripe Bowl will run from 2014 through 2021, so you still have the '13 game to enjoy a titanic matchup of also-rans from the Big 12 and Big East. The Big Ten will officially replace the Big 12 in that pairing, but it also sounds like the Big East (now "American Athletic Conference") isn't long for the bowl game necessarily, either. According to Delaney's cryptic comments on-air last night, it sounds like that is still being negotiated. Whatever, nobody cares.

I actually attended the Rutgers-Iowa State Pinstripe Bowl in 2011. Yeah, I don't know why, either.

Yay, bowl games!

2014 Big Ten Football Schedule Welcomes Rutgers Rudely

Rutgers has had its share of challenges and missteps lately. They have to get their sh-t together for a variety of reasons, one of the less top-of-mind being the fact that they have just over a year before they jump to the Big Ten conference -- assuming the conference doesn't excommunicate them before they even arrive.

The conventional wisdom has been that while RU basketball was going to be pummeled (just like being in the Big East, only worse), their football program had advanced to the point where they could compete in the Big Ten.

Of course, they don't have Greg Schiano any longer and the jury is really still out on Kyle Flood. I have RU alum friends who are convinced that there was a possibility that the RU athletics department was going to wait things out and then once they were officially a Big Ten school instead of an afterthought pursue more "big time" coaches. Who knows. Mike Rice's behavior then was made public and Rutgers made one disastrous move after another. For now, since Flood doesn't appear to have abused any of his players, he's probably safe.

What's not safe, though, is Rutgers in 2014. The Big Ten football schedule was released and RU gets welcomed to the Big Ten with a four-game stretch that could make any lower-tier Big Ten program shudder. From October 4 to November 1, they go vs Michigan, at Ohio State, at Nebraska, vs Wisconsin. Whee! They also have PSU and MSU on that schedule. Have a ball, Rutgers.

Purdue, incidentally, has a conference schedule that goes like this for 2014: vs OMHR (do we have to retire that now that it's no longer a protected rivalry?), at Illinois, vs MSU, at Minn, at Nebraska, vs Wisconsin, vs Northwestern, at IU.

Purdue gets neither of the newbies, so the BS New Jersey tailgate will have to wait. Also of note, RU and Maryland will play in their final conference games of the season against one another -- perhaps they will be each other's forced rival. 

We now return you to your regularly schedule sneaker and IndyCar content.

To No One's Surprise, Logical Big Ten Divisions Approved

Wait...how many on each side?

Jim Delaney and the rest of the Big Ten came to the conclusion that fans, bloggers, students, homeless people and probably even Danny Hope came to three years ago -- the existing divisions and their names are dumb and should be scrapped.

Of course, people like Jim Delaney don't quickly admit to such mistakes. My favorite part of all this was that they came up with the division names and then, accordingly to Delaney, didn't think much about it after that. He also said things about how he wasn't sure everyone didn't like the names -- just people "who hit the send button." Errr, okay.

Anyway, it was voted on and the realignment will happen, beginning with 2014, so you're stuck with Legends and Leaders for one more season. Then Purdue moves to the West and deprives me of regularly seeing the Boilermakers in New Brunswick, NJ against Rutgers.

Brian Bennett of the EsPN Big Ten Blog has a column about the winners and losers, and includes this gem towards the end that melts a little bit of my cold, dark heart (bold emphasis, mine):

Winner: The SEC
The Big Ten joins the Pac-12 and Big 12 as major conferences playing nine conference games... The SEC remains at eight games. Playing more conference games is great for fans and TV, but it also means more losses throughout the league and makes it harder for teams to go unbeaten -- the Big Ten champ will have to run a gantlet of 10 conference games, including the title game. The SEC will continue to benefit from the perception that its teams beat one another up during league play while also playing fewer conference games. That could have big ramifications on the selection process for the upcoming College Football Playoff.

Heh. Get 'em, Brian.

Putting the WEST in West Lafayette

Without physically moving (to our knowledge), Purdue football will be part of the "West" in Big Ten land for the 2014 football season. At the Big Ten expands its footprint into New Jersey and Maryland, a geographical map of the conference puts Purdue in right about the middle. Reportedly, there was discussion over whether IU or Purdue should be in the West -- given that Purdue's campus is West of Bloomington, the decision sort of made itself. 

For 2014, the divisions will be this:

East: IU, Maryland, Michigan, MSU, OSU, PSU, Rutgers
West: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin

But for one more year, they'll remain the nonsensical (in terms of name or geography) this:

Legends: Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern
Leaders: Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin

One thing this does is put (or keep) some of the conference's historical rivals together. OSU and UM are obvious, though it does mean those two can't face one another in the Big Ten title game, something that was touted by some as a good byproduct of them being in separate divisions. Also in the same division are Iowa and Minnesota as they play for that slab of beef or whatever it is, as well as Michigan and Michigan State, who play for... I don't know, a barrel of auto oil or something.

You'll note that Purdue and IU are no longer going to be division mates. An interesting tidbit here is that the Old Oaken Bucket game will now be the only so-called "protected" rivalry going forward (or until further expansion necessitates three divisions or something). Obviously, the white-hot slap fight that is the Iowa-Purdue matchup does not need to be protected, as division rivals will all play each other every year. Also of note, now that Purdue-IU Big Ten Championship Game meeting can happen. I know we can all sleep better knowing that.

So after playing Nebraska once in their first three years in the league, Purdue will suddenly find themselves in Lincoln a whole lot more than they'd probably like. Same for Northwestern and Purdue, who are currently heading into their third consecutive year of not playing each other. Presto! Division rivals!

I've seen some Purdue fans on twitter noting that "I'll take it" in reference to ducking OSU, UM, MSU, etc. Well, if you've watched sports for a while, you know things run in cycles and Michigan was recently down -- wayyyy down, like losing to Purdue at home down -- and that Purdue seems to actually have OSU's number, despite being as unable to close the deal this past year as Boilerdowd in Cary Quad with future Mrs. Boilerdowd, circa 1995.

And let's be sure to remember something else -- right now, the members of the future West division are seeing Purdue and thinking the same thing: "Yeah, that works! A win!"

Let's hope by the time 2014 gets here that they're wishing Purdue was in East Lafayette.

Halfway-Handsome Appearance

Half of the Handsome Duo appeared this morning on the Wiscobadgers.com Badger Power Hour along with LJC's Mike Carmin, who we like quite a bit.

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