Methamphetamine: a drug that is spreading like wildfire across Big Ten country, a drug that addicts countless individuals, destroying their minds, bodies and souls, and, hopefully, a drug that will hopefully be causing a little less destruction in Illinois next year thanks to an awareness-raising new uniform by Nike.

"We discovered two things during our research about Illinois," said Nike head designer Christopher Polyblend. "First: central and southern Illinois is absolutely crawling with meth labs, and second: meth manufacturers tend to be very lax about safety."

"Seriously, it's as if they have no respect for the chemistry at all."

The new uniforms will demonstrate good lab safety habits to the thousands of meth producers, or "cooks", inevitably in the viewing audience during an Illinois game, said Polyblend. "The rubber gloves, the ventilation mask, the Haz-Mat suit: all of these things are necessary to protect from chemical burns, incapacitation and even death. It's a sad testament to the decline of science education in this country that more crank producers don't enforce proper safety protocols, but we hope to do our bit to change things for the better."

The gloves accompanying the new uniforms emphasize the importance of mobile lab safety

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS CHANGING. You can watch Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany speak about Big Ten bowl tie-ins and the possibility of college football playoffs. Right now, it's about the "what" and the "where." According to Adam Rittenberg, Delany said "there's a very strong consensus among the league's athletic directors that the bowl-eligibility requirement should increase from six wins to seven wins." Those new requirements could mean new bowl tie-ins for the Big Ten. The contracts for the current lineup of Big Ten bowl tie-ins expires after 2013.

For the Big Ten meetings the issue of a playoff isn't a matter of if but how. Delany's previous stance was for semi- final games to be played on college campuses. That issue appears to be dead now. According to Delany,

"I had a conference call with our football coaches about a week ago. What they said to me was the 'how' is even more important than the 'what.' They were in favor of the Rose Bowl, the bowl system. They felt it was the least slippery slope. They understood on-campus events could be competitively favorable to them, but they were very clear that the events ought to occur in the context of the bowl system."

Another issue for Delany, besides the Rose Bowl tie-in, is how teams will be selected for a "Final Four" playoff. There's been a proposal for a selection committee or using a formula similar to the old BCS formula that gathers numerous polls and computer rankings. However teams are selected will be controversial. Delany wants transperency in how the system works. What's the formula, who is involved, etc.

While conference champions would be ideal Delany backed off his previous stance that was interpreted by some as a shot at Alabama. Delany says there could be a "hybrid model" for teams that don't win their conference championship. They'd have a pool of teams to select the four final teams. Six was the number floated previously.

The Big Ten will offer two playoff proposals. Conference commissioners will meet next month and Delany hopes to have something formalized by then. July 1st is the date conference commissioners hope to have a playoff format finalized for 2014. The meeting of Big Ten ADs will continue today in Chicago.

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(Bumping this up -- and reopening comments -- because it's Relegation Week at the SBN mothership this week. I also added 2011 data to this post. -- Ross)

If you've been following the action in European soccer at all over the past few weeks, you've likely been gripped by the drama of the annual promotion/relegation battles that pop up in every league. Relegation adds immense drama to games involving bottom-dwelling teams -- they're fighting to remain at their current level and not only maintain current levels of prestige, but (more importantly) maintain current levels of income; the drop in filthy lucre for teams that drop down a level can be immense. From the standpoint of pure competition, it's also a much fairer system than what we see in American sports, since strong play is rewarded (with opportunities to compete in more lucrative leagues) and poor play is penalized (by being forced to play in less lucrative leagues). Conversely, in American sports, poor play is either not penalized (i.e., college, where Indiana can flounder along for an entire decade but collect the same fat checks from the Big Ten conference as the teams that win the league) or actively rewarded (i.e., pros, where teams like the Pirates, Clippers, and Lions are rewarded with high draft picks to enable them to select the best incoming talent).

I freely acknowledge that relegation will, of course, never ever happen in American sports, at either the professional or collegiate levels. The formats of leagues here are simply too different and there are just too many entrenched interests working against it, no matter how much it might liven things up or create fairer overall systems. But that doesn't mean that we can't still imagine a parallel universe where relegation does exist in America.

College football works fairly well for this thought exercise, since it's already evolved into a heavily tiered system: there's a top flight of BCS schools, a second flight of non-BCS schools in the FBS, a third flight of FCS schools, and so on. Since this is an Iowa blog, I'm going to confine this exercise to the Big Ten and I'm going to use the MAC for the second division, since it's a collection of schools in Big Ten states that all play in that mid-major, non-BCS tier.

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Easy bump. -- Ross

College football is a simple game. It's not an easy game by any means, but it is simple and the formula for success is straightforward and well-known: (1) Bring in talent, (2) Develop that talent into football players, and (3) Win games with those football players. That may not be absolutely everything, but that is the gist of it, and it’s those three things that we pay our coaches the big bucks to do excellently.

In this article we are going to make things even simpler. We are going to focus on just one part of that formula: Player Development; Number (2); The ability of a coach to turn raw talent into football playing ability. What’s more, we are going to approach player development from the player’s perspective. We know, and the talent knows, what they can do for coach. Let's leave that aside for the moment and focus instead on the player's perspective: What can coach do for the talent? Where should a recruit go, and who should he play for, if he wants to maximize his development as a football player?

This article isn’t about recruiting, but it is part of what recruiting is about. Every prospect hears the happy talk from every interested recruiter about what that coach and that program will do for that player. But talk is cheap, and we can do better. We have a decade’s worth of data that we can use to measure the success that each program and coach has had at developing the talent that they attract, and we are going to use that data to put coach’s happy talk to the test. To be specific, we are going to match the outcome of the last decade of NFL drafts to the Rivals ratings of the incoming recruits of every BCS program from 2002 (when comprehensive rankings began) until 2009 (the last year for which most recruits have become draft eligible). Last year we used this same approach to look at the best (and worst) programs and conferences at developing recruits into NFL players, and had some interesting discussions on just what it all meant. This year we are going to reevaluate our programs and conferences with an additional year of data, and expand on last year's analysis by taking a look at the impact that geography and position have on player development.

This is Player Development 2012, where we provide the hard answers to the question of who’s doing the best, and worst, at turning talented recruits into football players that can play at the highest level of the game - the NFL.

Stars Matter, but the Program Matters Too

First off we have to get one thing straight: stars matter. The USCs and Ohio States of the world bring in higher rated recruiting classes and - on average - they win more as a result. What's more, the higher rated a recruit is, the more likely they are to excel as a football player. For instance, higher rated recruits are more likely to be drafted into the NFL, and when drafted they are drafted higher and stick with their NFL team with greater frequency. We can quantify the talent advantage that a higher rated recruit possesses by combining our two data sources: the Rivals recruiting database which ranks each BCS recruit every year going back to 2002, and the outcomes of the past decade of NFL drafts.

If we restrict our attention to BCS programs only, since the vast majority of NFL players come from BCS schools, the draft outcomes for each ranking of recruits from the 2002-2009 classes is as follows:

Let there be no further doubt: Stars matter, and recruiting - Number (1) in the college football formula - is vitally important. Let's be honest, we already knew that - but what about Number (2)? The second thing that this table makes very clear is that while stars matter, no BCS recruit is a lock to develop into an NFL player, and the vast majority aren't even a good bet to do so. Even the elite of the elite, the 5 stars that are drooled over by fan bases across the country, have less than a coin-flip's chance of ever hearing their name called in the NFL draft. Some of that can be marked down to individual motivation, and some to the difficulty in evaluating 17 years old kids, but there is another factor in play as well: the quality of the coaching these players receive. Stars matter, but the program matters too...

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[Earlier editions of the Pro Combat series can be found here: Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin]

Maroon and gold are out and the purple reign has begun: the University of Minnesota announced today that they would be undertaking a complete redesign of their uniforms. The new look will center around the style and music of Minneapolis native Prince, and will amount to a total reimagining of the Golden Gopher brand.

"Minnesota had a good run with Goldy Gopher," said Nike head designer Christopher Polyblend, "but let's face it, the 1934-36 dynasty was a long time ago. I mean, the team's last bowl win was in 2004. We at Nike figured: Let's go crazy, let's get nuts, let's look for the purple banana-- why not?"

The new uniforms feature Prince's trademark purple jacket from the album and film Purple Rain, knee-high leather platform cleats, and a lace shirt open to the navel. The design omits several traditional safety features, such as padding for the sternum and clavicle, but Polyblend believes the sacrifices are necessary in order to capture the essence of Minnesota culture.

"When one thinks of Minnesota, what comes to mind? For most people, the answer is obvious: raw, unbridled sexuality." said Polyblend. "Dance, music, sex, romance -- all of that. Just dirty, filthy, near-pornographic stuff. The kind of borderline obscene material found in so much of Prince's music."

The gloves accompanying the uniform honor head coach Jerry Kill, and can also be used to perform a terrific Señor Wences routine

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The Big Ten and ACC announced the matchups for the 2012 ACC-Big Ten Challenge today and our mighty Iowa Hawkeyes were drawn against the mysterious Hokies of Virginia Tech for a game in Blacksburg, VA on November 27, 2012. (TV is still TBA but let's assume it's another ESPNU shindig.) What the hell is a Hokie, anyway? Surprise! It has nothing to do with turkeys. But isn't their mascot kind of a turkey? What's with that?

The origin of the term "Gobblers" is disputed, with one story claiming it was coined in the early 1900s as a description of how student athletes would "gobble" up their more than ample servings of food. Another story attributes it to the fact that the 1909 football coach, Branch Bocock, wanted to stimulate better spirit amongst his players and initiated them into an impromptu and informal "Gobbler Club."

Thus, the name was already popular when Fred Meade, a local resident chosen by the student body to serve as the school's mascot, had a large turkey pull him in a cart at a football game in 1913. The school's president halted the cart pulling after one game because he thought it was cruel to the turkey. Meade continued to parade his mascot, which he had trained to gobble on command, up and down the sidelines--and did so until another "turkey trainer" took over in 1924 to continue the tradition. Enthusiastic fans and sports writers adopted the "Gobbler" nickname and began to use it regularly. In 1936, a costumed Gobbler joined the live gobbler for at least one game. The use of a live gobbler mascot continued into the 1950s, and the first permanent costumed Gobbler took the field in the fall of 1962.

College football used to be such a wonderfully strange sport back in the olden days. But enough about football! We're playing Virginia Tech in hoopyball! What should we know about VT when it comes to hoops?

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Assume the Position is our offseason guide to the Iowa Hawkeyes football depth chart. The math is difficult, so take it from us: As time moves on, we'll know more. That's why we rank the positions from most certain to least certain.

Previously on ATP2k12:

1. Quarterback
2. Cornerback

Today: Tight End

The Crown Prince of Prussia

C.J. Fiedorowicz (#86, Junior, 6'7", 265, Johnsburg (IL) HS)

He's only been here a couple of years, but I feel like we've been writing about C.J. Fiedorowicz's potential since the day we started. Now, finally, the Polish Hat takes the crown.

Fiedorowicz was the jewel of the 2010 Iowa recruiting class, a four-star genetic freak of a tight end who played seven different positions in high school and was enough of a talent to draw offers from programs that don't even use tight ends. He initially committed to one of them -- Ron Zook's Illinois -- before switching to Iowa. Since then, he shrugged off a redshirt, blew people up on special teams as a true freshman, won the second-string tight end spot for his sophomore year, left the initial starter -- a four-year letterman -- in the dust, caught sixteen passes for 167 yards and a handful of touchdowns (including a touchdown in Iowa's bowl loss), and drew rave reviews from his new offensive coordinator. Not a bad two years.

For 2012, Fiedorowicz is probably Iowa's most potent offensive weapon. He's too big for defensive backs, too fast for linebackers, and too tall for just about everyone. He can be lined up at the end of the offensive line, in the slot, or even split wide. His time last season at second-string tight end -- a role that places the utmost emphasis on blocking and little else -- squelched any rumors of his insufficient blocking ability. He's everything he needs to be, and there's nobody else that matches his ability, tight end or otherwise. He's no longer just the Polish Hat. No, Fiedorowicz is the building block for the entire offense.

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