Article of the day

I generally try to feature an article each day from another Big Ten blog. Usually they're from Penn State blogs, sometimes from other sites. Please check out the author's Web site. I always supply the link in the introduction.

Today: RUTS analyses The Sporting News' pre-season top 25.

Never Too Early For Preseason Polls, Right?

Although the validity of these things is somewhere between 2010 mock fantasy football drafts and the Magic 8-Ball, Matt Hayes took the time to compile an early(!) 2008 college football preseason poll.

(Is it a poll if only one guy writes it? No? Okay, be put together a top 25.)

Anyway, Hayes slots Penn State at #11, along with this delicious one-liner: “11. Penn State: Eighteen starters return and QB Anthony Morelli doesn’t. A nice combination.”

You’ll see a lot of this over the next six months. A writer will be forced by his editor to make a preseason top 25, he’ll look at Penn State’s returning starters, and say, “Well, crap! They must be good this season!” Since I can’t allow any optimism around here, let me remind everyone of Penn State’s rather beefy road schedule:

September 27 Illinois
October 4 at Purdue
October 11 at Wisconsin
October 18 Michigan
October 25 at Ohio State
November 8 at Iowa

If Penn State is remotely within striking range of the top ten by the end of the season, it will have been a tremendously successful season.

The other Big Ten teams in Hayes’ top 25, you ask?

7. Ohio State: If the Buckeyes go to USC in Week 3 and win on the road, they’re not that far away from winning the Big Ten and getting to the national title game again.

14. Wisconsin: QB Allen Evridge steps in, Wisky rolls to another 9- or 10-win season.

19. Illinois: The loss of TB Rashard Mendenhall will be big, but coach Ron Zook’s top recruiting classes are quickly developing.

24. Michigan State: Sparty coach Mark Dantonio is changing the culture; tough defense and gritty TB Javon Ringer good for eight wins.

As you can see, we’re also setting up for another edition of “If we can’t beat Michigan this year, it’s never gonna happen”. Which is fun.