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The Reads: Big Ten Will Schedule No More FCS Teams

Your set of reads for today, including an analysis of the Battle of Hoth in Star Wars and Barry Alvarez stating that the Big Ten has agreed to no longer schedule FCS teams.

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Jon Johnston

Let's start the day with a Star Wars article! Everyone loves Star Wars..... or they used to before they realized that none of it really made much sense.

Inside the Battle of Hoth: The Empire Strikes Out | Danger Room | Wired.com

From a military perspective, Hoth should have been a total debacle for the Rebel Alliance. Overconfident that they can evade Imperial surveillance, they hole up on unforgiving frigid terrain at the far end of the cosmos. Huddled into the lone Echo Base are all their major players: politically crucial Princess Leia; ace pilot Han Solo; and their game-changer, Luke Skywalker, who isn’t even a Jedi yet.

A break down of the Battle of Hoth. It's no wonder the Empire fails in the long run. They couldn't even manage squashing the Rebels on a frozen, barely inhabitable planet.

Ask a compliance officer: Your NCAA recruiting violation questions answered - SBNation.com

4. I am a successful obstetrician who has never given a dime to any university, but I yell, "WOO BIRTH SOOIE," during every delivery.

I'll skip this one.

4a. During surgery, I've also used modern technology to brand the uterus of an unknowing patient with my favorite college team's logo. (Note: This one actually happened in real life. SEC! SEC! SEC!).

And I'll skip this one.

5. I own a live representative of my favorite school’s mascot.

Not a booster, but congratulations on getting a collie!

I am disappointed that not a single question included a ventriloquist dummy, but it's nice to know that if you have questions about compliance that SB Nation has a qualified resource to answer your questions no matter how silly-assed they are.

2013 spring college football practice schedules: National start dates and spring games - SBNation.com

All that's left to do is read a steady stream of sunshine-pumping about how your new strength program is more intense than ever, your new defensive coordinator is gonna turn these bulls loose and chips adorn every shoulder in sight.

Your team will go 5-7. But disregard that for now! It's spring time, baby!

Spring football always leaves me cynical about how much sunshine-pumping goes on.

Big Ten Realignment: Shaping The Divisions - Hammer and Rails

Screw Everyone else and have Ohio state and Michigan meet in the title game.

I mean this is what everyone wants, right? There is rarely a legitimate champion in the conference unless it is one of these two. Nevermind that both have managed to dick-trip out of the title game each of the first two years. The Big Ten is "Up" when they are playing for titles and "down" when anyone else is, so for conference perception have them play for the title every year. Bonus that we can hear about how awesome they are twice!

The Big Ten divisions have been named and renamed in every possible manner, but WAIT, there's more!

DeLoss Dodds spinning madly, out of touch, or both - Burnt Orange Nation

Between athletic director DeLoss Dodds and head football coach Mack Brown, the two have said some tone-deaf things recently. It's just another sign of how out of touch they've become.

Nothing like feeling better about yourself than watching an ex fall down and vomit all over themselves in a drunken stupor without actually drinking anything that contains alcohol. Maybe it's cough syrup instead?

Creditors allege fraud by former Arkansas coach Smith

Former Arkansas football coach John L. Smith has been accused of using his employment contracts with Razorbacks to defraud several of his creditors, according to two complaints filed this week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Columnist succeeds in trolling for page views by suggesting that Jadeveon Clowney sit out 2013 - Garnet And Black Attack

Let's talk about why not playing football for a year isn't a good idea if you're pursuing a career in football.

Clowney is a freak job and he's made it clear that he's playing again this year, but that doesn't keep anyone from implying what happened to Marcus Lattimore could just as easily happen to Clowney.

Kent Pavelka: Potluck: Back in Indiana: 39 Seasons Later

About 2 hours before the game started, a wet-behind-the-ears radio play-by-play announcer roamed the corridors of Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana. It was December, 1974. He worked by himself in those early years with no help from an analyst or color-commentator.

39 years later.... that we may all have such wonderfully long careers.

Lawyers differ on events that led to former Husker's arrest - Omaha.com

With the NFL draft a week away, former Husker cornerback Alfonzo Dennard was out celebrating with his brothers visiting from Georgia. Things turned sour as that April night came to a close, with Dennard under arrest for assaulting a police officer and another bar patron, as well as for resisting arrest.

And the Alfonzo Dennard trial is underway....

Barry Alvarez: Big Ten agrees no more FCS opponents - JSOnline

According to Alvarez, Big Ten officials recently agreed to stop scheduling nonconference games against FCS programs.

"The nonconference schedule in our league is ridiculous," Alvarez said on WIBA-AM. "It’s not very appealing… "So we’ve made an agreement that our future games will all be Division I schools. It will not be FCS schools."

It hadn't occurred to me how bad Big Ten scheduling was until we started harping on the nine or 10-game Big Ten conference game issue.

What will Ohio State do to assure they don't leave the state of Ohio until the conference season? What will teams like Minnesota do to make sure they make a bowl game? What will everyone do to make sure they get enough home games to make their $$$?

It's a good move by the Big Ten Conference, but it's going to make building a program that's down a helluva lot harder than it was before. It's one more sign that we're entering a new world order, one that's even more unknown than Nebraska leaving the Big 12 and joining the Big Ten.