The Big Ten conference is the big time. Not only is it the U.S.’ oldest NCAA Division 1 college athletic conference, ten of the eleven schools are considered public ivies—cream of the crop public schools. So playing in the Big Ten conference is a big deal.

Even though it’s called the Big Ten, don’t be fooled by its name. There are eleven college members. Its member institutions are mostly located in the Midwestern U.S. and include the University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Penn State University, Purdue University and University of Wisconsin. 

Northwesten is the only private one and Penn State only joined in 1990.

The conference is all about promoting athletic achievement and academic excellent. So you have to be athletic and smart to get into these schools.

The Big Ten sponsors 25 different championships—12 for men and 13 for women. And the conference is known for popularizing football and basketball. The Big Ten football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division 1-A), the highest level of NCAA competition in that sport.

Big Ten News
Michigan won the Big Ten Baseball Tournament championship with a close 3-2 victory against Purdue in in Ann Arbor on Saturday night. The Wolverines will be the Big Ten’s automatic qualifier to the 2008 NCAA Baseball Tournament.

llinois, Penn State and Indiana along with Dan Woltman of Wisconsin, will represent the Big Ten Conference this week at the 2008 NCAA Men’s Golf Championships. The event will be held May 28-May 31, on the Kampen Course of the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Ind.

In 2007, Cole Konrad a wrestler from the University of Minnesotta and Jessica Davenport, a basketball player from Ohio Sate were named athletes of the year.

Think you got what it takes to make the list?

Do you know the Big Eight from the Big Ten Conference?

Well the NCAA and the NAIA have different Atheletic conferences with a collection of college sports teams that play competitively against each other. Then conference winners go head to head to crown a national championship.

So if you are planning on becoming a college athlete, you’ve gotta know what you’ll be up against. So we are going to give you the details about the different types of athletic conferences–including which colleges, teams and sports participate in each. That way you’ll know your opponents before you even get on the field.

Are college football playoffs on or off?

The debate to include playoffs in college football has reached its end zone. Having a four team playoff was rejected this month at the 11 Football Bowl Subdivision conference.

But not everyone unanimously agrees. Penn State football coach Joe Paterno wants to lobby for a major college football playoff. Only the Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference commissioners favored continued discussion for the playoffs.

The rest of the 9 commissioners are against the playoffs. They said players would be forced to miss too much class time and could also extend the season into a second semester.

Paterno said these were bogus excuses and pointed out that Division 1 men’s basketball is more disruptive to its players.

For now, college football is going to stick to its old system. It has a series of bowl games, the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl to determine conference winners. Then the annual national champion is determined by a vote of sports writers and other non-players.

And some think that method is unfair. The college football playoffs would have the top four teams in the two Bowl Championship series play against each other and then the winners would go head-to-head a week later for the national championship.

What do you think?

• Should college football have playoffs? Why or why not?
• How can student athletes balance classes and the game?
• Do the coaches have responsibility to the players academic career or only their sports career?