Joe Paterno is out of the hospital after injuring his right shoulder and pelvis at practice two days ago. Yes, a coach has suffered the most significant injury of training camp so far and, yes, it was everyone's favorite octogenarian.

Paterno was back at practice Wednesday and was happy to put attention back to his team, trying to improve off a 7-5, 4-3 season last year that had inconsistencies at quarterback, injuries and just general disappointment all around. The Nittany Lions lost to the Gator 

As always, though, the story early in the year is about how long Paterno can patrol the sidelines in his trademark black shoes. Until the first kickoff that is the story.

Paterno's most recent injury resulted in a hospital stay as a precautionary measure, but he was out of the hospital very quickly and back to action. He was in contact with his assistant coaches and his son (and quarterbacks coach) Jay Paterno to keep planning two-a-day practices.

This is not the first time Paterno has been injured on the sideline. He broke his leg while standing on the sidelines against Wisconsin in 2006. He coached the rest of the season from the booth (as he has done from time to time).

The NCAA's all-time leader in wins has always been very coy about his future, but the issue is coming to something of a fork in the road with Paterno's contract expiring at the end of the season. If there was a time for Paterno to step down cleanly -- or for Penn State to sever its link cleanly -- it might be after this season. There is no telling what the future will hold.

"I'm back to doing a lot of things I used to do, walking a lot more," Paterno said at Big Ten Media Day, noting his injury from 2006. "I've been watching what I eat. I feel good. I enjoyed this spring, have a lot more enthusiasm. 

"I've got an old saying that I had forgotten. They asked Marv Levy one time when he was coaching, he was a great coach, he said, 'How about your age?' Marv said, 'I don't think age is a factor.'  He said, 'I'm old enough to know my limitations and I'm young enough to know how to handle 'em.'"

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Since we are talking rankings and getting excited for an upcoming season, why don't we talk about the upcoming basketball season? It is only in late November and December, right?

ESPN officially announced the schedule for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, giving us blogger types an idea of where the teams stand within the conference. Not that we didn't have a clue about that from the matchups the two conferences and ESPN came up with.

Judging by the schedule, Wisconsin (vs. North Carolina, Nov. 30 at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN) and Ohio State (vs. Duke, Nov. 29 at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN) are the clear favorites in the conference. The next best teams -- or most intriguing matchups if you will -- might be Illinois (at Maryland, Nov. 29 at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN) and Michigan State (vs. Florida State, Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN).

That seems to make the most sense based on last year's finish. Those four teams were all tournament teams and everyone expects the Spartans to improve. The Illini might be another matter with Demetri McCamey leaving. Then again, Maryland has not been much of a team to fear the last few years. ESPN might have been picking a name in featuring that matchup.

Football camps are opening, but there already seems reason to be excited for basketball season. The Big Ten is looking for its third straight ACC/Big Ten Challenge after going winless in the first 10. With many of the major matchups taking place on Big Ten courts, it certainly feels like it could happen.

Game on ACC. 

Big Ten favorites Wisconsin and Nebraska highlight the five teams from the Big Ten ranked in the preseason Coaches' Poll. The Badgers clocked in at 10 with the Cornhuskers coming in at 11 in the preseason poll.

As always, take preseason polls with a grain of salt. Most of the time they mean nothing, but it is easier to suffer losses if you are at the top. Your margin for error gets smaller toward winning a national championship the lower in the rankings you are. That is the unfortunate way NCAA football is set up.

Ohio State is 16, Michigan State is 17 and Penn State rounds out the Big Ten's representation at No. 25 in the preseason poll.

Nebraska's former conference rival Oklahoma netted 42 first place votes and is ranked No. 1 to start the season. Alabama, Oregon, LSU and Florida State round out the top five.

Iowa, Northwestern and Michigan also received votes in the preseason poll.

For reference, last year's Big Ten champion, Wisconsin, started the season No. 12. Michigan State, which finished tied for first and went to the Capital One Bowl, began the year with 10 votes and outside the top 25.

Yes, preseason rankings matter little more than to get us writers and media-types talking. If you win your games, you will win the Big Ten and, likely, the national championship.

Of course the release of the top 25 means we are one day closer to the season beginning. 

Photo via DayLife.com. 

Change is coming to Michigan. Well, maybe change is the wrong word. The Wolverines are returning to a more conventional offense.

The only problem is Michigan has perhaps the most unconventional quarterback in the nation, certainly in the Big Ten. And you cannot really contain Denard Robinson. He is too much like lightning in a bottle. He needs to be unleashed and allowed to run amok on Big Ten defenses. That is what made Michigan so tantalizing and exciting during the 2010 season.

Brady Hoke is going to change that... at least some of it.

Michigan is going to spend a lot of its offense operating under center rather than in the wide-open spread offense Rodriguez featured. That is going to be a change for Robinson as he adjusts more to an offense similar to what he ran in high school. Except this is not Deerfield Beach. This is the Big Ten. And moving under center is a sizeable adjustment.

"I can tell you, he ran the same offense in high school, which is a plus," Brady Hoke said of Robinson's transition at Big Ten Media Day. "One of the big differences is the mechanics of taking the snap from center, the footwork, the run game, the foot patterns, the play-action game. He was ahead of the curve a little bit."

Hoke added that there will be some elements that will take advantage of Robinson's running skills and his ability to read defense from the shotgun.

You do not want to change too much of what Robinson does. Robinson seemed to hit the Big Ten by storm, especially early in the year, with his running ability, wild hair messily waving past defenders and his untied shoelaces. He rushed for 1,702 yards and 14 touchdowns, averaging 6.6 yards per carry. He added 2,570 yards passing on a 62.5 completion percentage and 18 touchdowns against 11 interceptions.

Obviously, Robinson, as a rising junior, has a lot he can improve upon in his remaining years in Ann Arbor. This is especially improving as a passer, something most option quarterbacks have to work on when they get to school.

Hoke said part of his thoughts in changing the offense is to give the defense something to practice against to give them an edge. Most fans of the Big Ten though will want to see Robinson continue to improve though.

And it will be difficult to do so while learning a new offense and a new offensive style. The learning curve may be small, but Robinson is still learning. The Wolverines do not want to waste too much time "rebuilding."

The media tabbed Wisconsin its favorite to win the Big Ten's Leaders Division earlier this week. After last year's run to the Rose Bowl and Big Ten championship, including a home upset of then-No. 1 Ohio State, it is not so crazy to think the Badgers will not be back near the top of the Big Ten. After all they fell four yards from Montee Ball short of three players rushing for 1,000 yards. That is quite amazing.

With wide receiver Nick Toon returning along with Ball, the offense seems set. The defense should be the typical Wisconsin strong, even with the team looking to replace the 62 tackles and team-best seven sacks that came from J.J. Watt.

The Badgers should still be one of the best teams in the country, let alone the Big Ten. There is just far too much talent on the team, but Bret Bielema will have his work cut out for him with a new quarterback in tow.

It always is something of a struggle to introduce a new quarterback. But the Badgers might be even further behind the 8-ball. The likely starter is transfer Russell Wilson.

Wilson started the last three years for N.C. State before signing a minor league contract with the Colorado Rockies. The baseball thing was not working out and so he elected to use his extra year of eligibility to play for the Badgers this year while pursuing a graduate degree. Thus he did not have to sit out a year.

Wisconsin is seeing a quarterback battle where one of the quarterbacks is going to be very new to the system, much like Purdue saw Robert Marve step in last season before going down to a torn ACL after transferring from Miami.

The quarterback battle will be one to watch in training camp as Wilson steps in and tries to win the quarterback spot.

"It's a work in progress," Bielema said during Big Ten Media Day. "He obviously picked Wisconsin. . . . You kind of have to let him do what he does. The players have been very positive. You'll have three of my guys here in the next couple days, they've been around him a lot more than I have.

"What Russell brings to the table is an opportunity for us as coaches to see what we can do. We'll get him in fall camp, like every one of our players. We have 105 players coming to campus. We'll see who can give us the best chance to win football games in the fall and figure it out from there."

Wilson is certainly among those who figure to help the 11 total returning starters repeat the Rose Bowl trip of 2010.

The Big Ten announced last week that it would not solicit media members to pick division and conference champions. It was somewhat disappointing because we love discussing these predictions knowing they are going to be wrong. The media's track record has not been good since the Big Ten started doing this.

The coaches made the decision in May at their spring meetings and Brian Bennett of ESPN.com speculated that part of the reason might have been to get rid of the unneeded and unnecessary pressure that media expectations (that are often wrong) heap on these teams.

Just because the conference did not ask media members, did not mean the media did not go ahead and poll each other ahead of the Big Ten Media Day. Let the debate begin.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer polled Big Ten media members and released its results Monday. The favorites? Wisconsin out of the Leaders Division and Nebraska out of the Legends Division with the Cornhuskers getting the most votes for the Big Ten title. The Wisconsin-Nebraska matchup in the Big Ten Championship Game was on 17 of the 24 ballots.

Your sleeper might be Michigan State, which received four first place votes in the Legends Division. So keep an eye on that.

These are not scientific results at all. In the past 15 years, only seven of the preseason favorites have gone on to win at least a share of the Big Ten title. That either speaks to how close the top of the Big Ten is or how bad the media are at predicting it.

Here are the full results from the Plain Dealer's Big Ten Media Poll:

Legends
1. Nebraska (19)
2. Michigan State (4)
3. Iowa
4. Michigan (1)
5. Northwestern
6. Minnesota

Leaders
1. Wisconsin (22)
2. Ohio State (1)
3. Penn State (1)
4. Illinois
5. Indiana
6. Purdue

Title Game Winners: Nebraska (over Wisconsin 10, over Ohio State 1, over Penn State 1), Wisconsin (over Nebraska 7, over Michigan State 3, over Michigan 1), Michigan State (over Wisconsin 1)

So there you have it. Some early predictions on the Big Ten as Media Day is set to begin tomorrow in Chicago.

Photo via DayLife.com. 

Trophy games make the Big Ten unique. What other conference do two teams battle for a giant wooden turtle? There is something pure about about college athletes battling for the pride of their state, university and team and a really sweet trophy.

The Cy-Hawk Trophy is not one of the prettiest or most unique of the Big Ten's many many trophies. It does not have as much history as say the Little Brown Jug but it is not the newest trophy in the Big Ten either.

Iowa and Iowa State have played for the trophy since 1977. The Hawkeyes lead the Cyclones 23-11 in the series. Iowa won the last game in the series 35-7 last September in Iowa City.

That apparently will be the last time the trophy will be passed around. Randy Peterson and Andrew Logue of Hawk Central received confirmation from Iowa associate sports information director Steve Roe on Friday that the Cy-Hawk Trophy will be replaced in 2011. Roe said the new trophy is expected to be revealed in August.

There appears to be no reason for this change. At least no "pure" reason for this change. It is not like Northwestern and Illinois agreeing to retire the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk in 2009 to respect the Sioux tradition. The Land of Lincoln Trophy is a neat-looking hat, but hardly a tomahawk.

Rather, it appears the Cy-Hawk Trophy is being replaced for something that has, well, a sponsor.

Peterson and Logue reported that the schools told Bob Uetz, the co-creator of the original Cy-Hawk Trophy, they beginning a new promotional effort with the Iowa Corngrowers Association. If that is the case, Uetz did not seem so happy about it.

"I know this is the era of corporate sponsors," Uetz said. "I can't imagine them doing this with Floyd of Rosedale (which goes to the Iowa-Minnesota winner). Why they're doing it with the Cy-Hawk? I don't know."

The Iowa Corngrowers Association sponsors the CyHawk series between the Iowa and Iowa State teams. There is just still very little information about the switch.

So get ready for the Cornfield Maze Trophy or something like that when the Hawkeyes battle the Cyclones on September 10 at Ames, Iowa.

Photo via DayLife.com.

Big Ten media day is coming upon us at the end of next week. The media, coaches and players will gather to show how optimistic they can be about the upcoming season. It is a fantastic time where we learn... well, we really don't learn much. It just shows us how close we are to actually having Big Ten football back.

One thing that does come out of Big Ten media days is an early handicap on who the coaches and media think will be the front runners for the Big Ten title and awards and who might surprise. It can be used as inspiration for the teams forgotten and overlooked. Or it could be just fun stuff for us blogger-types to comment on.

The Big Ten coaches voted at the conference meetings in May to discontinue the media vote of the top three teams in the Big Ten annually released at Big Ten Media Day. The conference also will not release a preseason offensive and defensive player of the year, but instead a 10-member Players to Watch List, five from each division.

"It's pretty easy to understand why the coaches don't want a preseason favorite named," Brian Bennett of ESPN.com writes in response to the decision. "From their perspective, all it does is add pressure to the coaches and players who are expected to win the league before play starts. Given that the media poll was batting less than .500 on preseason picks since 1996, perhaps they have a point. Preseason polls are pretty worthless except to drive interest, and the Big Ten is hardly lacking for attention."

Yes, predictions from us part-time pundits are hardly ever correct. These predictions are pretty much an exercise in hype.

Still, wouldn't it be nice to know where people think Ohio State will finish -- Athlon Sports has them ninth in their preseason poll and tops in the Leaders Division? What does the media think about Nebraska -- again, Athlon has them tenth and atop the Legends Division? Don't you want to know these things?!

One less thing to get excited about for Big Ten media days. Wait, what am I talking about, we are one week away from the unofficial start of college football.

Photo via DayLife.com.

Indiana will have a new look for the 20111 football season. Well, it is hard to do much to change an already plain jersey.

The Indiana color scheme of cream and crimson has always pretty simply been put to use in the team's uniforms. The 2010 uniforms were a simple crimson with two white stripes on the shoulders and over the top of the helmet. Simplicity is the Indiana mantra when it comes to uniforms.

The new Hoosiers uniform is even simpler than that.

The stripes are gone so the Hoosiers will sport a plain crimson jersey with Hoosiers written in white across the top at home and a plain white jersey with Hoosiers in crimson across the top on the road. The helmet also gets rid of the stripes.

It will not be hard to spot Indiana in a crowd this year.

Adidas designed the new jerseys and this is where they get pretty unique. The TECHFIT technology is designed to weight 30 percent less than the previous version, have tighter seams and fit the players much tighter. the Indiana press release says it should make the Hoosiers tougher to tackle.

Anything to help a team that has been to just one bowl game in the last 17 years.

Indiana is going to have to do more than add new jerseys to turn that around. But new uniforms are always fun. So buy 'em up Hoosier fans!

 Photo via IUHoosiers.com.

Ohio State knows the allegations against embattled former coach Jim Tressel and the football program will get worse before they get better. New information will be uncovered revealing exactly how deep the violations went and how intricate the cover up might have been.

The Associated Press added to the intrigue, reporting that Tressel had previously received "unacceptable" ratings when it came to reporting potential violations and phone and unofficial recruiting visits in a timely manner. AP also reports Tressel was given a written reprimand six months into his tenure for giving an Ohio State jersey to a recruit, a violation of NCAA bylaws.

There were also reprimands for allowing a recruit's mother to make a phone call charged to the university and for brining in a coach to work with the team's kickers before a team practice.

These were all minor incidents that received reprimands but no sanction. But they sure sound like some of the impropriety that has left Tressel without a job.

Tressel's personnel file was released as part of a public records request. It should be noted that Tressel, in his 2005-06 personnel review, received "Excellent" marks in the other 10 categories of the personnel review. It should also be noted that Ohio State switched to verbal reviews rather than written reviews when Gene Smith took over as athletic director in 2006.

These appear to be minor revelations as Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com notes: "While some of the documents are notable given Tressel's forced resignation May 30, I doubt he was the only college football coach receiving letters and reviews like these. Nothing in the file is in the same ballpark as the cover-up that ultimately ended Tressel's time at Ohio State."

These are minor incidents, but they are indicative of the kind of program Tressel may have been running. Yes, other teams likely commit similar transgressions. But to see and hear "unacceptable" ratings at any point in the recruiting process should maybe raise some red flags. Tressel appeared to be skirting around some recruiting rules very early on in his tenure at Ohio State.

It did not reach the massive cover up that ended with his resignation, but his failure to report violations repeatedly might have been a disturbing pattern before the end came.

Rittenberg also notes that in the files released through the public records request was record of Tressel endowing a scholarship with money he made from bonuses.

To be sure, there will be plenty more trickling out as reporters try to get to the bottom of what happened in Columbus during Tressel's tenure. 

Photo via DayLife.com.