Michigan wideout Bo Dever posted the above photo out this morning. For those who don’t know, Wilson’s football factory is in Ohio. 

Being an Ohio State fan, I think this is hilarious. The Michigan football team has many players from Ohio, so why are they making such a big deal about their footballs not being made in Ohio?

Michigan needs to start working on beating Ohio State, rather than focusing on making the public aware that their team footballs are not made in Ohio.

[Eleven Warriors]

These days, if your favorite college athletics program isn’t all over social media, it’s playing the game at a disadvantage. Players routinely use and check Twitter, Facebook and Instagram more than ever before.

While many schools have just one main athletics account on Twitter, others go the extra step to create separate handles for each of their teams. Someone has to monitor each of these accounts, so it’s a lot of work and manpower for a program. 

Per usual, some schools are better at it than others. Some of it is purely based on the program’s reputation, but much of it is boils down to putting the time and effort into building a readership.

Below are the 20 men’s basketball programs with the largest Twitter followings.

A few quick notes:

• There are no “former” Big East teams in the top 20
• There are no Pac-12 teams in the top 20
• The Big Ten, ACC and SEC have the most representatives
• The school in first place has over 50K more followers than the school in second place
• Many programs, like NCAA champ Louisville, don’t even have a team-specific handle

20. Miami (FL) - @CanesHoops – 12,823 followers

19. Wisconsin - @BadgerMBB – 13,941 followers

18. Baylor - @BaylorMBB – 14,855 followers

17. Florida - @GatorZoneMBK – 14,892 followers

16. Alabama - @AlabamaHoops – 15,148 followers

15. Iowa State - @CycloneMBB – 15,237 followers

14. Butler - @ButlerMBB – 15,708 followers

13. Iowa - @IowaHoops – 19,072 followers

12. NC State - @PackMensBball – 21,271 followers

11. Tennessee - @Vol_Hoops – 23,395 followers

10. Illinois - @IlliniHoops – 23,438 followers

9. Ohio State - @OhioStateHoops – 23,799 followers

8. Memphis - @UofMTigersHoops – 28,528 followers

7. Indiana - @IndianaMBB – 31,588 followers

6. Duke - @Duke_MBB – 31,906 followers

5. Kentucky - @KentuckyMBB – 34,220 followers

4. Michigan State - @MSU_Basketball – 45,346 followers

3. Kansas - @KU_Hoops – 47,773 followers

2. Michigan - @umichbball – 67,555 followers

1. North Carolina - @UNC_Basketball – 126,091 followers

Siva was honest about the situation. From mlive.com:

“I told him today, it was a good block.”

“I just walked to the free throw line, sunk my two free throws and went about the game. … (I told him) ‘afterward I was going to tell you, but you looked a little upset.’ “

Here’s a GIF of the play (via Fansided) if your memory is failing you this morning. Needless to say, Burke got all ball.

The call was made with just over five minutes to go and the Wolverines trailing by three. They never got any closer the rest of the way.

Flickr/lisatozzi

When the latest round of conference realignment was all said and done, Rutgers and Maryland had both pledged themselves to the Big Ten. Today, the conference gave us a look at what the football schedule will look like for 2014 – the first year that both officially move over.

For reference, remember that the Big Ten also changed around its two divisions. The East Division consists of Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers. The West Division includes Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin. Thankfully, the conference did away with “Legends” and “Leaders”.

Here’s a look at the 2014 football schedule – complete with all 14 teams.

East:

West:

Hoke says Notre Dame is “chickening out” of its series with Michigan. Notes ND is still playing Michigan State.

— Kyle Meinke (@kmeinke) May 13, 2013

Notre Dame and Michigan have one of the best rivalries in college football. These two universities have taken the field against each other every season since 2002, and 40 times total. According to MLive Michigan football beat writer, Kyle Meinke, the teams have been on a three-year contract in which either program could cancel the series. 

From what we can see, it looks like series won’t be continuing past 2014. 

[mlive.com]

Flickr/Annemarie Mountz

Earlier this week, USA Today released its annual financial breakdown of public NCAA athletics programs. The results, while predictable, greatly exemplify the current state of college athletics. Five of the top ten schools reside in the SEC, yet Texas, Ohio State and Michigan still reign supreme.

Here are the findings. Remember, this is public schools only – calm down Notre Dame fans.

1. Texas – $163 million
2. Ohio State – $142 million
3. Michigan – $140 million
4. Alabama – $125 million
5. Florida – $121 million
6. Texas A&M – $120 million
7. LSU – $115 million
8. Penn State – $108 million
9. Oklahoma – $106 million
10. Auburn – $106 million

One surprising result is Penn State’s inclusion, given the Jerry Sandusky scandal – it would appear that it hasn’t had too much of a lasting effect on the university’s ability to generate revenue. The other is Texas A&M, though between the school’s move to the SEC and Johnny Manziel’s Heisman run, we all knew the Aggies would make a jump. 

Flickr

One of the best regular season college basketball events, the Big Ten – ACC Challenge, is getting a facelift in 2013. The additions of Syracuse, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh to an already-loaded ACC lineup means more marquee matchups than ever before. 

This afternoon, the twelve games for this year’s competition were announced. While each member from the Big Ten gets a slot in the affair, only the top 12 teams in the ACC were awarded games. That means that Clemson, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest were omitted, since they had the worst records in-conference last year.

We’ll keep this as simple as possible. There are some great games scheduled, some good games scheduled, and some marginal games scheduled. Here’s how we think they stack up: 

Marginal games:

Illinois at Georgia Tech
Miami at Nebraska
Boston College at Purdue
Northwestern at NC State

Not sure how Miami, after winning the ACC last season, wound up with a trip to Nebraska, but that’s what happened. On the surface, these four games don’t look too intriguing. But while these matchups may not be as sexy as their brethren’s, they all count the same in the win column. 

Good games:

Notre Dame at Iowa
Penn State at Pittsburgh
Florida State at Minnesota
Maryland at Ohio State

Iowa actually went 9-9 in the Big Ten last season, but the Hawkeyes could never beat any foes on the top half of the conference. If things don’t change this year, Notre Dame could have its way with them. Penn State vs. Pittsburgh matters because it’s a war for bragging rights in Pennsylvania, while the Florida State vs. Minnesota matchup highlights two under-the-radar squads. Maryland having to play on the road again (punishment?) is amusing, as is the fact that next year, the Terps will be playing for the other side.

Great games:

Indiana at Syracuse
Michigan at Duke
North Carolina at Michigan State
Virginia at Wisconsin

First and foremost, Indiana visiting the Carrier Dome in the first year that Syracuse is involved in the competition is must-see TV. Throw in the fact that the Orange knocked the Hoosiers out of this year’s NCAA Tournament and you’ve got the makings of an instant classic. Michigan traveling to Duke is another exciting game, though without Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr., the Wolverines may have a tough time overcoming the Cameron Crazies. UNC vs. Michigan should be a great tilt between two powerhouses, while UVA vs. Wisconsin smells like a grind-it-out type game between two sneaky-good teams.

FIRST LOOK — Cover of EA Sports NCAA Football 14, featuring Denard Robinson: twitter.com/umichfootball/…

— Michigan Football (@umichfootball) April 23, 2013

As mgoblue.com points out, Robinson becomes the third Wolverine to grace the cover – Charles Woodson and Desmond Howard being the first two. Robinson won the distinction after many rounds of voting, eventually taking the crown in the finals over Texas A&M’s Ryan Swope. 

Robinson is currently preparing for the 2013 NFL Draft, where he is projected to be picked somewhere between the fourth and sixth rounds. 

The statue was also vandalized in March with Valparaiso gear, the night before the men’s basketball team played in the NCAA Tournament.

Over the years, Sparty has been victimized numerous times. The week leading up to the Michigan vs. Michigan State football game, members of the MSU band take turns protecting the statue from vandals.

RT if you think this suspect should be found/arrested. #GoGreen twitter.com/MSUpartystorie…

— MSUpartystories (@MSUpartystories) April 20, 2013

If I find the guy who vandalized the Sparty statue, Liam Neeson’s character in Taken would be jealous of the things I’d do to this guy.

— Trevor Upchurch (@Trevor_Upchurch) April 20, 2013

Notre Dame has to be one, right? Flickr/Glenn~

In college football, unlike most other sports across the nation, the weekly rankings matter a great deal. There is no NCAA Tournament (though thankfully we are moving to a four-team playoff soon) that allows the players to decide it all on the field, meaning a margin of one or two spots in a poll can be the deciding factor as to whether your team gets to play in a BCS bowl game. And so, fans, analysts, coaches and writers are constantly trying to determine which teams are overrated, and which teams are underrated. A great deal of the time, the pollsters are right on the money. 

But not always. The most troubling fact of all? It’s often the same schools which are overestimated. 

Proving that a program is overrated is rather difficult, as teams are ranked in different spots throughout each season, and it’s been 15 years since the BCS was adapted for college football’s postseason. Any one team can be overrated at any given time. But to say a program itself is overrated, you need to back it up with facts that show a pattern. 

We ran through the AP Polls (we realize the BCS uses the Coaches Poll, this was done on purpose) since 1998 and came up with a system to determine which programs were consistently overrated between the Preseason Poll and the Final Poll after the bowl games. 

The scoring is rather simple. If your school started the season ranked No. 1 and finished No. 14, it would lose 13 points. Since only 25 teams are ranked at any given time, all teams unranked were assumed as No. 26. So, if a given squad started the season ranked No. 3 and finished out of the poll, it would lose 23 points. The points for each school were added up and divided by 15 to obtain an average +/- per season. Would it be better if every team was ranked throughout the season and we had a cleaner set of numbers? Of course. But when you’re just looking for the top 12 most overrated programs in the BCS era, this method does the job.

WIthout further ado, here are the top 12 most overrated college football programs of the BCS era. The school ranked No. 1 won the distinction in a landslide.

Next: Schools Ranked 12-7 >>>