2018 Big Ten Media Days Primer: What You Need to Know
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Tom Allen will talk at his second Big Ten Media Day on Tuesday Image: Sammy Jacobs Hoosier Huddle
Written By Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
The 2018 college football season is unofficially here as Big Ten Media Days kicks off the festivities from Chicago on July 23rd and 24th. Hoosier Huddle will be at Media Day for the fifth-straight season and IUFB fans can follow Sammy Jacobs and Rylie Kyhn at @Hoosier_Huddle as they bring you everything IUFB from Chicago. The Hoosiers head coach Tom Allen will be joined by players Jonathan Crawford, Luke Timian and West Martin. Below is all the information fans need to follow the Hoosiers or whoever your favorite Big Ten team.
Event Information
Dates: Monday July 23rd (12:30 p.m. ET) and Tuesday 24th (9 a.m. ET)
TV: Big Ten Network
Radio: ESPN U Radio Channel 84 on XM
Schedule
Monday July 23rd
Jim Delany, Big Ten Commissioner 12:30 p.m. – 1 p.m.
1:00 p.m.– 1:15 p.m. Scott Frost, Nebraska
1:15 – 1:30 p.m. Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern
1:30 – 1:45 p.m. James Franklin, Penn State
1:45 – 2:00 p.m. Jeff Brohm, Purdue
2:00 – 2:15 p.m. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota
2:15 – 2:30 p.m. Chris Ash, Rutgers
1:30 – 1:45 p.m. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan
Tuesday July 24th
9:00 – 9:15 a.m. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
9:15 – 9:30 a.m. Tom Allen, Indiana
9:30 – 9:45 a.m. Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
9:45 – 10:00 a.m. Lovie Smith, Illinois
10:00 – 10:15 a.m. Paul Chryst, Wisconsin
10:15 – 10:30 a.m. DJ Durkin, Maryland
10:30 – 10:45 a.m. Urban Meyer, Ohio State
How the Odds Makers See 2018 Shaking Out
The Big Ten is, as usual, going to be lopsided in 2018: the East is replete with National Championship contenders while the West is home to Wisconsin and a field of unripened corn.
When it comes to the odds to win the conference, the Buckeyes (3/2) lead the way, followed by the Badgers (3/1) and then three more Ohio State rivals from the East: Penn State (9/2), Michigan (6/1), and Michigan State (10/1).
Aside from Wisconsin, no team from the West is shorter than 20/1 (Northwestern) and, in reality, the five-percent implied probability connected to their 20/1 odds overestimates the Wildcats' chances of winning their first Big Ten title since 2000 as we could confirmed on some of the betting sites of this page.
Storylines to Watch:
1. New Rules (Redshirt and Kickoffs)
Several new rules will come into play in 2018 and none will be more talked about than the new redshirting and kickoff rules. The Redshirt Rule will allow players to participate in any four games before they use that year of eligibility. This will have a massive impact on how coaches manage their roster throughout the season.
Another rule change that fans will notice in 2018 is that kickoffs can be fair caught inside the 25-yard line and be treated as a touchback. It was put in play to help with player safety, however the exact impact it will have on that and coaching strategies has yet to be seen. If there is a chance for a big return, I don’t see coaches telling players to fair catch the ball.
2. Streamlining Replay
One of my biggest issues with college football is the replay system. Too many times we have seen too many plays being reviewed and reviews taking too much time. Getting the calls correct is important, but at what cost. On a number of occasions, we saw plays that had no business being reviewed take several minutes to figure out. This is slowly killing the game.
3. Pace of Play
Point two has a lot to do with this one as well. Personally, I don’t mind seeing a four-hour college football game if there is great action. However, if it’s four hours of replays, commercial breaks and dead time it is a problem. Too many times we see a couple plays in a row, a replay review, another play, maybe a change of possession followed by a two-and-a-half-minute media time out. It should not take an hour to play a quarter unless teams are just scoring at will. What is the Big Ten going to do to fix this?
4. Player Safety
One of the most talked about topics at every level of football is player safety. It is vital to keeping the game around. College football has introduced the controversial targeting rule, adjusted kickoffs on a number of occasions and have changed practice habits. However, the sport is also introducing more mid-week games which cut down recovery time. Look, I love mid-week football, but you cannot claim to be all-about safety by doing this.
5. 5-7 Bowl Teams
While I don’t expect the Big Ten to limit or ban 5-7 teams from going to bowl games, it has been done at the Power Five level. Earlier this summer the Pac-12, the conference of amazing ideas, introduced a rule banning 5-7 Pac-12 teams from going bowling. They cited that leaving these teams out would protect the integrity of the bowl season. I get it, not everyone wants to see a 5-7 Cal team play a Sun Belt team but limiting yourself like this is just silly. First of all it’ll help a mediocre team get better with more practices and secondly, you’re getting national exposure for your conference. For a conference that sure complains a lot about bad TV times, this just is being stupid.
6. Injury Reports
Coaches hate to talk about injuries and will do just about anything to keep who is in and who is out a secret, but with the legalization of sports gambling nationally, Big Ten athletic directors would like to see every team’s weekly injury reports made public to protect the integrity of the game.
7. Reducing the Conference Schedule to 8 Games
Former IU coach Kevin Wilson was never a fan of the nine-game conference schedule, both for IU and the conference. It just guarantees that the conference will go 7-7 while other conferences have a shot to go 14-0. With 14 teams in the Big Ten, nine-games has its upsides, but for teams needing wins and conferences being judged on non-conference records eight games makes more sense to me.