B5Q Blogopean Union: this is an AJ Ferrari blog now

Good morning! This is going to be a daily(ish) post that discusses the goings on of the rest of the Big Ten Conference, and the country as needed. Much like the European Union, the Big Ten is a loosely confederated group of entities that sometimes have the same goals (like free movement of people between countries or not winning national titles in football or basketball) and sometimes accept new members that they later regret (Estonia or Rutgers).

We hope that you will use this post to comment on things happening around the conference and also as a sort of daily open thread to discuss breaking news or argue about Spotted Cow.

• Just as an FYI: all of our preseason basketball coverage can be found in this one spot which will be pinned next to the podcast info until the season starts. All of our opponent previews will be there as well as the Wisconsin previews that we end up writing.
• Grace Loberg getting some love from the NCAA volleyball Twitter account for her dominant display on Wednesday night.

• Madison Duello is ducking me in my The Office trivia challenge but still, somehow, excelling at other aspects of her life.

• To be 100% honest, this clip should probably be posted here every single morning but I don’t want y’all to get bored.

• 2 Greek Guys coming this fall to CBS!

• I like that Andy North is basically an honorary basketball coach. I wonder if he gets to call any plays during the non-conference part of the season? Like, what can he hurt when they Badgers are up by 25 on McNeese?

• Dani Rhodes cannot be stopped, cannot be reasoned with and your Earth weapons only make her angrier. Badgers now sit alone in first place in the Big Ten.

• It was Rose Lavelle night at the game and she sadly couldn’t make it because of USWNT duty. She did send along a video to thank the fans for their support. I like that she introduces herself at the beginning.

• The men’s hockey schedule is almost all finalized. When they are on TV, they should be appointment viewing.

• The new football hype video is out. Per request, here it is from YouTube and not Twitter. You can say a lot of things about me, but you can’t say I don’t read the comments.

• I’m thinking about renaming the blog AJ Ferrari’s 5th Quarter because he is now my favorite college wrestler ever. Look at that cake! Where do you even get something like that made?!?!?

• The mental gymnastics that Nebraska fans are now participating in to get everyone to just “give Scott Frost some time to get HIS guys in there in a few years and then we’ll be back” after spending all offseason crowing about being the team to beat in the B1G West is, quite frankly, delicious.

I’ll admit, even I drank way too much of the Kool-Aid this offseason. I’m sure most of us did. Let’s face it, we don’t have the players for B1G football yet. Frost and co. need time to recruit the players for their system.

Mike Riley hurt this program, and he will continue to hurt this program for the next few years until his players are gone. Nothing against those players, but not all of them fit what Frost is trying to do.

• Purdue stud freshman safety Marvin Grant will miss the rest of the season with an injury. The Boilermakers have had AWFUL injury luck this season. Although, Grant only played in three games this year so he’ll get to keep his redshirt.
• A film breakdown of Bob’s favorite B1G QB, Hunter Johnson, and how he fared against Wisconsin’s fearsome defense.
• Michigan State has a pretty solid track record of ruining Ohio State’s season.
• It’s crazy to hear, but the Michigan/Iowa game will probably come down to who controls the line of scrimmage.
• The next Rutgers coach needs to have an offensive plan.
• That plan, however, probably shouldn’t include Rutgers QB Artur Sitkowski. He is contemplating redshirting this year so he can transfer.
• Illinois needs to beat Minnesota this weekend or they might not win a game all month.