Big Ten Officials' Bad Week

Here is one of the controversial plays from Saturday's Indiana-Iowa game. Receiver Terrance Turner scores a touchdown that would have given the Hoosiers a 28-14 lead, but the score is nullified by the replay official.

The reversal helped the Hawkeyes rally for a 42-24 victory, and although Indiana coach Bill Lynch didn't raise a stink afterward, others were doing it for him.

Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star wondered if fans should direct their anger "at an inept group of officials who took 14 IU points off the board with bogus calls on obvious touchdown passes?"

He added: "If IU fans thought they got pick-pocketed at Michigan, this felt more like the Brinks robbery."

(Continue to The Wiz of Odds)

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Buckeye Faithful Hangs on Pryor

You can’t be a Buckeyes fan without walking around with expectations as grand as that canyon in Arizona, even while they're staring at a mountain of evidence to the contrary. For what do people who shed Scarlet and Gray tears expect this season -- a National Championship?

That is, of course, what the faithful expect; it is always so at Ohio State.

They share the same inflated dreams as men and women who root for Florida, Southern Cal, Texas, LSU or any of the other college football powerhouses. It’s BSC title or bust, which explains why OSU fans -- and even sportscasters -- are so hard on Terrelle Pryor.

(Continue to Justice Is Served)

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A New Level for Harassment

Normally, Iowa fans are into harassing players from the opposing team, but Hawkeye defensive end Adrian Clayborn learned that's not always the case.

An Iowa City woman was arrested last Saturday during Iowa's game against Arkansas State for harassing Clayborn from the stands. Brittney Mears was seated in the front row of Kinnick Stadium behind the Hawkeye bench.

Clayborn told police he was "distracted and annoyed" by Mears' actions and she was eventually removed from the stadium and charged with third-degree harassment, a simple misdemeanor. It's not the first time Mears, left, has targeted Clayborn.

In June, Mears was warned against making contact with the player, but she continued to drive past Clayborn's workplace while staring at him.

(Continue to The Wiz of Odds)

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College Football: Week 3 Rankings

Hmmm... four conferences bunched at the top, all within 2.5 points of each other. But this is still week 3 - let's examine these to see if those points are gonna get higher or lower.

#1 SEC: A perfect weekend for the SEC - 6-0 in nonconf play. But there was probably only one decent win among them, Auburn over West Virginia. The rest were another win over the BigEast, 3 wins over the SunBelt, and a win over a I-AA cupcake. Their BCS opponents (West Virginia, Louisville, UCLA, NC State, Virginia Tech, & Washington) will probably cancel each other out, while their nonconf opponents and I-AA cupcakes will probably drag them down a bit as the season goes on.

#2 Big10: They took a bit of a hit this week, going 6-4 against so-so competition. Some of their losses don't look to bad, Cal & Notre Dame, but none of their wins look like they'll help in the long run. Overall, they're 5-6 against BCS teams, which isn't great. The only decent wins were over Notre Dame and proably Air Force, though some of their losses (USC, Oregon, Cal) aren't too bad. The cupcakes & losses to Northern Illinois and Central Michigan are gonna hurt.

#3 BigEast: A solid 6-2 this week with wins over Baylor & Oregon State which may help. The loss to Auburn won't be too bad, but losing to Kentucky could bring them down. The conference is perfect against the cupcakes & non-BCS teams, going 13-0 (of which only the win over East Carolina might be good), but they're only 3-5 against BCS teams. Their losses to Penn State, Auburn, & North Carolina won't be too bad, but Minnesota could hurt.

(Continue to The National Championship Issue)

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