B5Q Blogopean Union: have you ever played quarterback? Wisconsin needs you!

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 (which we NO LONGER DO).

• Let’s start with some positive news and not, like, positive in the sense of a COVID-19 test, positive like good! If you didn’t see yesterday, Graham Mertz cleaned up in the Week 1 Big Ten conference weekly awards.

That’s impressive!

• Wisconsin’s Week 3 game against Purdue was announced as a 2:30 p.m. CST start on ABC. Also of note, a clash for first place in the B1G East in primetime between Ohio State and...Rutgers!

• Look at QB1 in the top left picture showing confidence!

• The women’s hockey team is basically a US (and Canada to a lesser extent) National Team factory.

• ::puts on dad hat:: It is always nice to see the young people take an interest in the future of our country.

• It looks like the NCAA will take a look at suspending APR (Academic Progress Rate) penalties for the next two years. That seems like a fair and reasonable thing to do so it’s kind of shocking the NCAA might adopt this.

• Nine options to fill Penn State men’s basketball’s open coaching position including Brett Brown! Go Sixers!
• A recap of Nebraska’s weekly press conference ahead of their game against Wisconsin.
• Interim Purdue head coach Brian Brohm was named coordinator of the week by Athlon Sports. Good recognition for him after what was surely a difficult week.
• Dare I say Northwestern’s offense looked good on Saturday?
• A deep dive into how Ohio State QB Justin Fields almost had as good a game as Graham Mertz.
• It sounds like the players at Michigan have lost faith in Jim Harbaugh and have taken matters into their own hands! (Just kidding, but DE Aidan Hutchinson said this offseason was integral in the players taking ownership of the program.)
• Rutgers has a far more potent offense than they did last year.
• Maryland sophomore QB Taulia Tagovialoa is working hard to correct his mistakes from Week 1.
• Illinois QB Brandon Peters gets a vote of confidence from Lovie Smith after poor performance against Wisconsin.
• An in-depth film analysis by Crimson Quarry on how Indiana expertly allowed Penn State to score a touchdown but still beat them.
• The Gophers have had some recruiting holes on defense which led to a number of young and inexperienced players seeing the field against Michigan.
• This doesn’t affect the Badgers, but it is notable that some preseason basketball tournaments are being cancelled.