More Great Effort Going Into Previews

Another gem:

Who's the second-best team in the Big Ten? Ohio State is the prohibitive favorite in the Big Ten. Indeed, a case can be made that the Buckeyes are the biggest favorite in any league – and we're including USC in the Pac-10.

So, who's the second-best team in the league? Is it Wisconsin, which has a manageable schedule and looks to be strong except at quarterback and in the secondary? Is it Illinois, which should have a fast, aggressive defense, but also has a huge hole at tailback and questions about its passing game? Is it Penn State, whose offensive and defensive lines look strong but who has some issues elsewhere?

Our early bet is it will be Wisconsin. But another early bet is that there's no way the Big Ten is going to have two teams in the BCS.

What do you mean by "issues elsewhere"? Like how all of our starting WR's are back? Or how Royster has shown to be a great back, only to be matched in quality by a redshirt freshman in the Blue-White Game? Or how our probable starting QB averaged 8.3 ypc against A&M? Or how we've been recruiting the hell out of LBs the last couple of years and, even with the devastating loss of Sean Lee, will probably have one of the more solid cores in the Big Ten?

Listen, I know we have issues. The QB situation is more complicated because whoever starts can't simply be a role player like Clark was in the bowl game. Our secondary loses players and they weren't even that good last year. But can you at least make an attempt at an informative comment if you are going to, you know, publish the thing? Is anyone really better off by you simply reading down the 2007 Big Ten standings and then calling it a 'preview'?