With ND/Stanford, Penn State and UNC standing in NU's way to the championship, they won't have to face the likes of Syracuse, Florida, or Maryland before the final. Seems like the best draw that NU could have hoped for.

TKOE closed for good on Sunday. I, for one, never climbed over its fence to gain entrance, but I did (coughloseafakecough) always make sure to gain legal admittance. Pourin' a little out for The Keg tonight.

SBNation's doing a cool look at seeding the top 64 teams in college football--complete with auto-bids--into a March Madness-style tournament! Check it out for yourself, but NU garnered a #6 seed, facing Arkansas State in round 1, with a potential date with South Carolina waiting in round 2!

ESPN posted this article the other day about recruiting needs around the B1G, but this stood out to me: Biggest recruit: ESPN 300 dual-threat quarterback Matt Alviti had offers from some big programs including Notre Dame, but he chose nearby Northwestern. The Wildcats have an unsettled situation at quarterback, and as a local product Alviti could be called for by the fans if the quarterback play does not improve. Now, I know that Alviti is probably the best recruit in this class, but I consider myself a fan and are we actually disappointed with the QB play to the point of calling for Alviti right off the bat? This just seems like an incredibly naive statement, but I guess I should expect nothing less from the WWL.

I offered my input with a guest post on Breakfast with the Big Ten on the history of Northwestern football misery and pessimism slowly turning into cautious optimism with each win in our fight to stay relevant.

Despite the success of the team this fall that plays what Rodger would call "real football", the team with the best chance to take home a Big Ten title is still the men's soccer squad who took home the crown last season. The 'Cats are struggling for the first time this season with consecutive non-conference midweek losses sandwiching a sloppy Big Ten win over Michigan State to maintain a first place tie with Indiana. They have the weekend off of Big Ten play, but play the tenth ranked, Notre Dame Fightin' Irish Tuesday. See how I think the Wildcats will do and what's on tap for the rest of the Big Ten this weekend.

I breakdown this weekend's men's soccer contests and group the conference of 7 teams into 3 haves and 4 have-nots. Northwestern is in the former group and are still favorites to repeat their Big Ten title at 1-0 in conference play and 6-1-2 overall, despite having their 17 game regular season unbeaten streak snapped Wednesday night. The Wildcats have their first nationally televised game Sunday at 3:30 PM (ET) on BTN vs Michigan State.

Big Ten soccer starts this weekend. See who has the necessary ingredients to win the conference based on my experiences and observations over the last five years. Northwestern and Indiana are the early front-runners.