Jon Joseph

Death, Taxes, and more teams in the playoffs? Two out of three are bad. https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/march-madness-2026-cbs-sports-viewership-records-ncaa-tournament/?ftag=SNL-04-10aaa0b&ET_CID=536536&ET_RID=52482716&eid=c7d8647c6247db8d08c59fe44bc30380a147aa90b9e330

Show OBD the B1G money! 🤑 22 units (22 games played) earned by the B1G, with five Sweet 16 games coming, and at least one Elite 8 game for the winner of Iowa vs. Nebraska. That's $46 million to date and counting. $2.55 million per team over six seasons with more to come. I reiterate. Oregon not joining the Big Ten would have been gross financial negligence.

One thing that you should know (perhaps 🙃) about the teams with 16 candles. (Only eight will make a lovely light 😁) AP NewsMarch Madness: Here's one thing you need to know about ea...Florida isn’t around to defend its title anymore, but all the other top seeds in this year's NCAA Tournament are still around. And many of them are winning convincingly.

Don, thank you for a great B1G look at football in one of CFB's top two conferences. Three in a row for the B1G is nice, but in today's wired world, I'm wary of recency bias. The Power 4 conferences in 2025 all had six teams that did not win more than five games. I line these teams up in hypothetical games, and I think the SEC is the deepest conference top to bottom. The ACC and B12 have sub-basements, and I think it would be closer than most football fans, and the media think, but that the SEC's basement would be better than the B1G's. With the SEC playing nine conference games this season, we will have an apples-to-apples comparison. Indiana among the Givens and rightfully so? I still have difficulty acknowledging that football is excellent in Bloomington and suspect in Lincoln. Vice versa when it comes to basketball. (Credit to The Athletic for coming up with the comparison.) For as long as Brett Bielma is coaching Illinois, the Fighting Illini will be a tough out. If we have learned anything over the last three seasons, it's that the middle of the B1G is not inferior to the middle of the SEC. Illinois, as Don so noted, has led the way with wins over 9-3 South Carolina and this past season's win over a close to season long ranked Tennessee team in Nashville. The 8-4 Hawkeyes bowl win over 10-2 Vanderbilt in Tampa this season, put a stamp on the B1G middle not being second fiddle to the SEC, and also gave support to the B1G's 24-team playoff plan. Purdue. Unlike Right Coast teams, Maryland and Rutgers, Boilermakers fans show up and sell out the stadium, whether inebriated or not. This is the school that produced Bob Griese, Drew Brees, and Rod Woodson. I think Purdue hired the right guy in Barry Odom. Can another school located in Indiana become a power in football? I doubt it, but I think Purdue doubles its win total in 2026, from two to four, and is .500 or better beginning in 2027. Wisconsin. A year after year Rose Bowl contender with a terrific fan base and an AD who walked the walk and came with the money in 2026, after promising to invest more in the football program. The Badgers finished strong in 2025 with home upset wins over No. 23 UW and No. 21 Illinois. Yes, it was in a torrential downpour, but Wisconsin had many players on the defense out with injuries and still battled OBD to the wire in a 21-7 loss. And the game in Madison in 2024 was as close as it can get. The Wisconsin schedule in 2025 was the most difficult in the conference. In 2026, notwithstanding an opening game vs. Notre Dame in Green Bay, CBS Sports ranks Wisconsin's schedule as the easiest in the conference. One would think that the football gods would not take out Wisconsin's starting QB early in the season for the fourth year in a row. (Especially when the QB's name is Colton Joseph! 🤪) This team played solid D in 2025 with many young players getting valuable minutes. I think the Badgers bounce back in 2026 with a shot at winning eight or more games. Nebraska left the B12 because of Texas, and the way in which the conference kissed Texas's Longhorns. No school in the conference has more zealous fans, as recently evidenced by Big Red fans taking over the arena in Oklahoma City for the basketball tournament game against Vanderbilt. And also selling out the football stadium for a record attendance volleyball game. I agree that cool is not the Ruhle in Lincoln. The football head coaching firings and hirings post-Osbourne have been baffling. I look for the Cornhuskers to again finish no better than slightly over .500. (Off the wall, I can see Dan Mullen coaching this team in 2027.) I expect UCLA under Bob Chesney to be much improved. I don't believe UCLA will be an easy out. Oregon blew Chesney's team out in the first half of the first-round playoff game in Autzen, and JMU never stopped competing. I'm leaving all things Iowa and the discussion of other B1G programs in your more than capable Hawkeye hands. Thanks again, Don, and well done, Sir, well done.

Thank you, Oregonjoneses. Please keep this terrific coverage of OBD's Softball squad coming. It's good to see the conference scheduling series that has OBD in Bloomington, then playing @230 miles from the Hoosiers campus in a ballpark near Chicago. With your coverage of softball and Charles coverage of baseball, well, I'm jonesing for more of the same. 😁

I'm not certain OBD and Dan belong on this list of teams under pressure in 2026 - 10 College Football Teams Under the Most Pressure Entering Spring Practice for 2026 - Yahoo Sports

Yep, if I'm Dana, I'm leaving the hardwood for the fairway, metal woods, and the 19th hole. 😎

Michigan is the No. 1 seed in the Men's NCAA Hockey Tournament. ESPN.comNCAA men's hockey roundtable: Teams to beat, players to w...Our experts analyze the NCAA bracket, including making their picks for the Frozen Four. Wisconsin won the Women's Ice Hockey Tournament https://uwbadgers.com/news/2026/3/22/womens-hockey-Wisconsin-claims-ninth-national-championship_ Badgers coach Mark Johnson extends his record with his 9th championship, all at Wisconsin, where he played college hockey before playing on the Miracle on Ice team in 1980, and then in the NHL. Penn State won its 5th consecutive Men's Wrestling title, scoring a record 181.5 points, which broke Penn State's 2024 record of 177 points. https://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/article/penn-state-wins-fifth-consecutive-wrestling-national-championship-with-4-wrestlers-earning-individual-titles-134637093.html 1 seed UCLA, 2 seed Michigan, and 4 seed Minnesota advanced to the Women's Tournament Sweet 16. In baseball guru Charles Fischer's world, UCLA baseball is ranked No. 1, with USC 10th and Oregon No. 17. In college softball, at 17, Oregon shares the same ranking as the baseball team, and No. 6 Nebraska, No. 8 UCLA, and 16 Washington are also in the Top 25. ESPN.comCollege softball rankings: 2026 NCAA Week 7 Top 25 pollCheck out our Top 25 poll, plus the player of the week. Track and Field - Oregon's Men's and Women's both finished 2nd in the NCAA T&F Indoor Championship. https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/oregon-men-women-finish-second-004113935.html Even without CW network coverage, it's great to be B1G! 😍

Fingers crossed and wood knocked - YardbarkerBig Ten has golden opportunity to end 26-year title droug...The Big Ten's never had a chance to end its men's NCAA Tournament championship drought quite like this.

Returning Production for B1G teams - Note that in 2025, Penn State and Clemson were among the leaders in returning production. Maryland is No. 1 in the B1G and 2nd in the nation. But other than QB Washington, what team wants the 2025 players who turtled back in 2026? Twerps do not = Terrifying Terps. https://duckswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/ducks/football/2026/03/24/oregon-football-big-ten-returning-production/89294693007/?utm_source=smg-duckswire-strada&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SMGbaseline&utm_term

Interesting, slightly tongue-in-cheek article up on The Athletic's ($ Wall) Until Saturday. Basketball power Indiana has become Tom Osborne's Nebraska football, and Nebraska has become Bob Knight's Indiana basketball. Like Curt Cignetti at Indiana, Nebraska basketball coach Fred Hoiberg used transfers to build the program, starting before the portal came into existence. Fred's son Sam, who played high school basketball in Lincoln, Nebraska, did not receive a D1 offer and walked on to play for his Dad. Sam is now a Senior and an effective starter at point guard. Nebraska is a slight -1.5 favorite over Iowa. The two teams split during the regular season, with both teams winning close games at home.

Interesting back story on coaches Tom Izzo and UConn's Dan Hurley. AP NewsTom Izzo gave Dan Hurley advice after Lakers offered UCon...Tom Izzo has turned down multiple opportunities to coach in the NBA, including with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks.

Point spreads for and a discussion of the eight Sweet 16 match-ups - https://sports.yahoo.com/mens-college-basketball/betting/article/2026-ncaa-tournament-odds-picking-every-sweet-16-193944870.html

Thank you, NJ. Roster management in today's CFB is, in itself, a full-time job. Not losing a starter with poachers on the prowl is a rare accomplishment. If you are only picking from the portal, you can go 13-0 as did FSU in 2023, but you can also crash and burn like FSU in 2024 and 2025. Rather than deal with the roster turnover and the demands from parents and agents, one of Dan Lanning's mentors, Nick Saban, walked away from the game. Dan is wisely following the model of another mentor, Kirby Smart, who uses the portal as necessary to fill holes in the roster. Thanks for another terrific post.

Thanks to H Duck for the detailed and spot-on takes on the Tournament to date. And other Forum friends who have corrected my errors. Six B1G teams in the Sweet 16 is a conference record. We will see one of Iowa or Nebraska in the Elite 8, matching up with Houston, not on the Cougars' usual home court, but just minutes away from campus. As friend H has noted, many of the Blue Blood basketball programs are not in this Sweet 16.