OK, so we most likely know what the divisions are going to be, and that those divisions will apply for football only.  Still, there should still be some good information coming out of this special, and what else do you have to watch at 7 on a Wednesday night?  Tune into the Big Ten Network or bigtennetwork.com and follow along in this thread.

In the Big Ten Network's summer programming season finale, the two divisions for football will be announced at 7 PM Eastern, 6 Central. Jim Delany will do the announcing I assume, and Mark Hollis will be in the Big Ten Studios along with three other athletic directors. Andy Katz of ESPN is reporting from several sources that the divisions will be set up thusly (with the division names being entirely my creation):

Once again, this is not definite, but Katz seems pretty sure this is how everything shakes out.  For football that seems split pretty evenly, for basketball though, holy crap. If the Big Ten goes to an SEC 16 game model (10 games in division, 6 out), when does State lose that division for the first time, and how far does their RPI drop?  For that sake alone, I hope they stick with the 18-game schedule.

We'll have a live blog starting at 6:30 PM tonight of the Big Ten's announcement.  Until then, discuss away.

More photos » Don Ryan - AP

Couldn't have drawn it up any better.

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• Up Three, Time Running Out, Do We Foul? The First Comprehensive CBB Analysis " Harvard Sports Analysis Collective
  Fouling when down 3 not nearly as effective a strategy as TV announcers would have you believe. Looking into whether calling a timeout when you're down by 3 is a good thing or not next.  Intuitively, I think not; more likely to get a good look when the defense is scrambling.  Glad Izzo went against his usual instincts vs. Maryland, needless to say.
• 'GameDay' slate means even more longing - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN'GameDay' slate means even more longing - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN
  MSU the only team involved in two GameDay games--one home (Illinois), one away (Purdue).
• Izzo-Fife bond forged in respect | The Journal Gazette | Fort Wayne, IN
  Fluff, but you can't beat Izzo fluff.
• Robbie Hummel is back! - Hammer and Rails
  Purdue fans excited, obviously.
• Future Spartan Lawrence Thomas can do it all for Detroit Renaissance | detnews.com | The Detroit News
  Another reason Gholston at DE makes sense; we've got a pretty good linebacker coming in next year.
• Scout.com: Preview 2010 - The Top 100 Players
  Our current pretty good linebacker ranked as the best player in the entire country. Was skeptical when I first saw this, but you can make a plausible argument given that 2 of the next 4 players are also Big Ten guys (Clay/Clayborn). (HT: SpartyOn37)
• Opponent preview: Michigan State Spartans| NBC Sports - College Football - Inside the Irish
  ND blog seems fairly confident they'll beat us, although they point out it'll be Dayne Crist's first road game.
  
• Along The Olentangy - For Ohio St. Buckeyes Fans
  SBN back in the Ohio State blogging game.  "Along the Olentangy" doesn't have same ring as "On the banks of the Red Cedar" IMO.
  
• Alvarez: UW and Iowa to go separate ways
  Big Ten will not be keeping it simple, stupid.  Article implies they're taking the win-loss data very seriously; MSU in bottom 4-team tier.  Going to 9 conference games starting in 2015.
• Please, Big Ten: Set your championship game free - Dr. Saturday - NCAAF  - Yahoo! Sports
  Definitive take on the topic. Michigan and OSU should be in the same division, continue to play final week of the season.
• Tea leaves say Iowa in division with Nebraska, Michigan, MSU, Illinois and Northwestern | GazetteOnline.com
  [Added] Alvarez's comments, along with Brandon's recent comments about Michigan and OSU being split up, making this scenario look more likely.  A bit of a tough break if Wisconsin is really our fixed rival, as that would mean playing 4 of traditional 6 upper-division teams every season.
  

More photos » Al Goldis - AP

21 days ago: Michigan State linebacker Greg Jones runs a drill during an NCAA college football practice Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010, in East Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Al Goldis)

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• Spartans Baseball
  New sabermetrics-focused blog on MSU baseball, written by Bless You Boys (and formerly Fire Jim Leyland) writer Mike Rogers.  We'll be reading.
• Gholston, Bullough seek instant impact - Big Ten Blog - ESPN
  MSU football: Spartans just want Gholston on field | lansingstatejournal.com | Lansing State Journal
  MSU freshmen Gholston, Hicks getting up to speed | freep.com | Detroit Free Press
  Your weekly Will Gholston porn.  It was probably inenvitable that there would be lots of fawning stories about him once he started practicing, but the sheer number of them over the past week and a half, along with the completely unanimous "holy hell, he's really good" verdict is quite encouraging.  Notably, most stories refer to him as primarily a linebacker and not a defensive end.  Also, Bullough and Hicks . . . those guys look pretty good too.
• MSU sports blog: Battle to be MSU's starting kicker heats up | freep.com | Detroit Free Press
  Fearless prediction: Muma to kickoff, Conroy to handle field goals.
• Mark Dantonio hopes for Final Four atmosphere in Spartans' game at Ford Field in Detroit | MLive.com
  Nice sentiment, probably not going to happen.  Probably was never going to happen when the game wasn't included in the season ticket package.
• Spartans cornerback Chris L. Rucker says he's learned from his past, on and off the field | MLive.com
  Seems like he's grown up a bunch since last December.
• 2009: A Look Back at Offensive and Defensive Efficacy " JoePa's Doghouse
  Confirms that MSU was almost exactly average last season.  From a fantastically entertaining new Penn State blog.
• Michigan State is back in its old rut. Can it pass its way out again? - Dr. Saturday - NCAAF  - Yahoo! Sports
  Old storyline, but Dr. Saturday tells it better than most.
• Football: Geography won't drive Big Ten divisions, Delany says - Omaha.com
  . . . which I'm uneasy about.  Chris at Slow States (who you may know as Run Up The Score, late of Black Shoe Diaries) suggests that MSU might be placed with Penn State, Nebraska, Iowa, Purdue, and Northwestern, with Michigan as a protected cross-divisional rivalry.  That'd be a fun, interesting division on a yearly basis.
• Michigan State Athletics Announces 2010 Hall of Fame Class -- Michigan State University Official Athletic Site
  Quite a class this year: Ron Mason, Steve Garvey, Percy Snow, Lorenzo White, and Ed Budde, among others.
• Jay Vincent, former MSU, NBA player, indicted in employment scam | lansingstatejournal.com | Lansing State Journal
  . . . and in significantly worse alumni news, Jay Vincent may be a con man!  ::facepalm::
• Tom Izzo is winning the offseason - The Dagger - NCAAB  - Yahoo! Sports
  Even more so this year.
• I Feel Your Pain, Troy: A Personal Reflection on Troy Woolfolk's Ankle Injury - Maize 'n Brew
  Dave gets personal on an issue that strikes awfully close to home for me, too.  The injury is far too horrible to consider feeling schadenfreude, but Michigan's secondary is almost non-existent at this point.
• Zoltan Mesko—the NFL's Most Interesting Man - WSJ.com
  Nope, still the Dos Equis guy.

More photos » Kevin C. Cox - Getty Images

The MSU basketball's been pretty good there. How 'bout some MSU football?

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While we've been engaged in recruiting-commit-palooza (we haven't even talked about Darien Harris yet, by the way), the rest of the MSU/Big Ten sports universe has marched on.  Let's move quickly (but not quite laconically) through the news.

Barry Alvarez on Big Ten Divisions

Teddy Greinstein:

Most of the talk regarding Big Ten divisions has centered on the need to split up the "big four" -- Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Nebraska.

But that thinking might be flawed. Perhaps it's the "big six" -- adding Wisconsin and Iowa -- that needs to be chopped up.

"You have six teams that have separated themselves," Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez told the Tribune. "You can't have four in one division."

That thinking could pave the way for having Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State anchor the east (with Michigan State, Purdue and Indiana) and Nebraska, Wisconsin and Iowa man the west (joined by Northwestern, Illinois and Minnesota).

Boy, a simple East-West geographic split.  Who'd a thunk it?

Alvarez says the Big Ten is using a variety of measures to look at team performance since 1993.  The precise measure they use doesn't really matter much.  If you draw the line at 1993, as opposed to going back 3+ decades, the bottom line is that Iowa and Wisconsin aren't going to look that much different than Michigan, Nebraska, and Penn State.  Any "competitive balance" advantages from swapping Penn State for a westside team are then going to look relatively minor compared to the downside of at least two teams losing annual match-ups against their historical/geographic rivals.  Adding a 9th conference game, as Jim Delaney discussed at Big Ten Media Days, would help in terms of maintaining rivalries, but would also lead to a built-in scheduling disadvantage for, say, whichever team from the west has to play Ohio State every year.

You do have to take Alvarez's comments with something of a grain of salt, though, given that he has a vested interest in Wisconsin avoiding either of the outcomes that would result from moving Penn State to the west: (1) being stuck with Penn State, Nebraska, and Iowa all in its division or (2) getting moved to the east and having at least one of its natural rivalries (Iowa/Minnesota, plus a potential rivalry with Nebraska) disrupted.

Given that MSU would ultimately benefit from screwing with the natural geographic alignment, I'm OK with just about any plausible outcome here.  It'll just be interesting to see whether Delaney has enough confidence in his ability to project ideal championship game match-ups that he's willing to push for an alignment that clearly inconveniences a couple teams from a competitive/historical/travel perspective.

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The big news over the weekend, of course, was that Kenny Kaminski, a 2012 forward out of Medina, Ohio, verbally committed to MSU.  Building on intrpdtrvlr's earlier work, newcomer HeckDorland brought it hard to the hoop in his first FanPost, running down the scouting report on Kaminski.  That FanPost is effectively your "Welcome, [New Commit]" post.

Just so you don't think I'm not earning my money here, though, here's a quote from Kaminski on the decision to commit to MSU:

"It mainly came down to where I felt most comfortable at as a player," Kaminski said. "I have always felt really good with Michigan State and they have a great program right now."

Kaminski said he made the commitment now because he "doesn't like lying to the other coaches and not telling them 100 percent the truth," when he knew the Spartans are the team he wanted to play for.

I've updated the projected roster page to reflect the commitment.  Tom Izzo now has four scholarship slots left to use between 2011 and 2012.  In a perfect world, it seems like Izzo would be shooting for Jakaar Sampson or Branden Dawson in 2011 and Denzel Valentine (who reportedly picked up an MSU offer today), Gary Harris, and Matt Costello in 2012.  (On the topic of Valentine, check out these AAU highlights courtesy of UMHoops.  "Draymond on the wing" definitely seems like an apt description of Valentine's game.)  The roster going into the 2012-2013 season would be a little wing-heavy in that scenario, but there'd also be only one true point guard (Keith Appling), so one or two of the wings would need to play the point, as well.

Josh (I'm tired of typing "intrpdtrvlr") will have more on the recruiting outlook soon, I'm sure,   Now, back to your regularly-scheduled links:

Continue reading this post »

• Big Ten workout warriors for 2010 - Big Ten Blog - ESPN
  Is Eric Gordon really faster than Greg Jones (even if it's only by 0.03 seconds)?
• Q and A with Michigan State All-American linebacker Greg Jones | MLive.com
  Doesn't make it sound like the shift to a 3-4 defense is a for-sure kind of a thing: "I don’t think it’s going to affect what I do at all. If anything, it should help, and get some young guys in there who I think have great ability. And we can still run the same schemes if it doesn’t work out."
• Ex-Spartan Jeremy Ware signs with Raiders | freep.com | Detroit Free Press
  Also notes Twitter praise regarding Kirk Cousins' coaching/throwing at Elite 11 QB camp.
• Kirk Cousins – The Quiet One | Sparty and Friends
  Fluff, but well-deserved fluff.
• Preferred walk-on status has Ty Hamilton going green at Michigan State - MLive.com
  File the name away. QB turned linebacker.
• Big Ten Recruiting Class Rankings 7-25-10 | mgoblog
  MSU right up there in quality, lagging slightly in quantity.
• PSU's Curley reflects on last BT expansion - Big Ten Blog - ESPN
  Interesting how many times the Penn State AD manages to get the word "East(ern)" into his brief response on potential division alignments.
• Big Ten Network, ESPNews to carry football media days live from Chicago | MLive.com
  For those of you dying for new Big Ten-related sports broadcasting of any kind.
• Moneyball Pro-Am Update
  Korie Lucious lightin' it up from downtown.
• Draymond Green hits the links for charity
  Ignore the golfing (if you can call it that).  The man looks downright svelte, no?
• Hardcourt Happenings | Eleven Warriors
  Catching up with the Buckeye hoops players.  Defensive-oriented freshman Aaron Craft the favorite to start at the point?
• Competing against stars will help John Shurna earn his stripes - The Dagger - NCAAB  - Yahoo! Sports
  And by "stars," they mean "Kevin Durant and Lamar Odom." Heady stuff.
• Expose the NCAA, not the athletes - CFB News - FOX Sports on MSN
  Over-the-top rhetoric . . . that's hard to argue with logically. (HT: Rexrode)
• Joe Posnanski " Blog Archive " The Atomic Albom
  OT: Sadly, Mitch Albom has none of the class Posnanski does.  Post includes a nice round-up of the best anti-Albom screeds.