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We got a lot of stuff! We got a lot of stuff! We got a lot of stuff for these Wednesday Sips! (Sing that to the tune of whatever song you want, I didn't really have one in mind.)
HATERS (including me): We amongst the SB Nation college football network polled each other about how we expect each conference to finish. Northwestern finished fourth. In the division. I'll release my ballot later, but suffice it to say, I had them higher, I think.
SHURNABUCKS: He's with the Bucks in Vegas. Best of luck, we'll be watching.
WHO WATCHES THE WATCH LISTS: Venric Mark is on the Maxwell Award list, which is the one for the best player in football that pretty much only rewards quarterbacks and sometimes Manti Te'o. NU has nobody on the Mackey watch list, because WE DON'T HAVE TIGHT ENDS, WE HAVE SUPERBACKS.
Update: We now have #BUDZIEN4GROZA, written by me with an impassioned speech.
Otto-RT: This thing on Otto Graham from Inside NU.
SAVE BECKMAN: Stewart Mandel made a list of the 10 best and five worst coaches in college football -- I see you, Fitz, peering outside the top 10, which sounds about right -- and Kirk Ferentz and Tim Beckman are on there. Black Heart Gold Pants and The Champaign Room each VICIOUSLY came to the defense of their coaches, using the "bad and overpaid, but not THAT bad" and "well, it was only one year" arguments. They're right, but, still: bhahahahahaa.
(Oh, and while we're at it: you should read INDEPENDENCE DAY, starring Kirk Ferentz, where he punts instead of delivering Bill Pullman's speech.)
GAMBLING!!!: LGHL's breakdown of conference bettin' shows Northwestern is good.
It's that time of the every two weeks again: BSD's recruiting roundup. Northwestern's now at 13 after Noah Westerfield's commitment, but he wasn't super highly rated. A lot of the guys who could end up in Northwestern's last two spots, though, are.
worst. play. ever: The Only Colors thinks they've found it, in a Michigan State-Minnesota game. I seem to recall a Mike Kafka pass going 23 yards backwards for a fumble, that's gotta be close. And of course, this:
UNDER ARMOUR HUH: BTN ranked all the Big Ten uniforms, with a bunch of SBN people contributing, and we finished seventh? The Illini finished last, and The Champaign Room doesn't disagree.
The Terp stay the Terp: One of our new conference brethren, Maryland, has a player who got arrested for illegal wiretapping (amongst other things, related to a non-fatal shooting), and our very own Testudo Times actually broke the story. Insert your "The Wire" joke here.
While we're talking about new B1G teams, SBN's Rutgers blog has new management, and you might want to read Dave White's story about how he has grown alongside Rutgers football.
MUCH MUCH MUCH worse than Chris Collins: John Groce sang "Take Me Out To The Ballgame," and sorta botched some of the lyrics and just generally isn't good at singing. Show him how it's done, Chris. (That said, Chris was at a Justin Bieber concert with his kids last night.)
Dusty: The Ohio State boy who named his brain tumor "Michigan" so he could beat Michigan... and then did. blame Illinois: Our stateis bad at tweeting about college football.