B5Q Blogopean Union: we’re No. 1!

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.

• We forgot to mention this in the post yesterday, but Wisconsin and Hawaii have cancelled their two future matchups in football. They were originally planning on playing in 2022 and 2024, to complete a three-game series that had started all the way back in 2015. FBSchedules.com has all of the gritty details and is honestly a really good site to have bookmarked because they stay on top of this stuff.
• Coach Sheffield out here talking real spicy.

• Speaking of the volleyball team, it looks like they may have found a real good player out of Poland.

And a Badger alumna is doing work on the mean international volleyball streets.

• More men’s hockey players expected to be drafted in the first round of the NHL Draft.

• Bob will have more on the women’s hockey team later today, but the first preseason poll is out and the Badgers are ranked ahead of the Gophers and, well, everybody else too.

• Pat Fitzgerald is friggin’ ecstatic I bet.

• An important recent history lesson from BTN.

• Some more recent history courtesy of Drew Hallett:

Hold up...Michigan was an underdog to Northwestern in 2013 and then needed triple OT to beat them?!?!? Being a blue-blood sounds wild, man.

• Jim Harbaugh press conference roundup.
• How will Michigan slow down Jonathan Taylor? A good question that hasn’t really had a good answer yet.
• Penn State grabs a commit from an in-state 3-star DE.
• Purdue got their QB of the future with an in-state 2021 commit.
• Rutgers women’s soccer team hasn’t lost a game in non-conference play this year. They are a soccer school now.
• The Buckeyes added their first, and only, 2020 recruit for basketball with a 4-star shooting guard out of Georgia. Ohio State had a great 2019 class and already have a great 2021 class, so their weird 2020 class doesn’t need to be a home run.
• How is Northwestern’s defense looking heading into B1G play.
• The Gophers are feeling...ok going into their bye week.