Corn Flakes: Big Ten Baseball Weekend Series And More!

Your Big Ten baseball weekend series are as follows:

Indiana at Illinois

The Illini stand at second place in the conference. This is the chance for the Hoosiers to get knocked down a notch. The pitching matchups aren't bad, at least for the first two games:

Game 1 Pitching  Matchup	ILL: Drasen Johnson (RHP, r-Jr., 4-4, 2.30 ERA) IND: Joey DeNato (LHP, Sr., 8-1, 2.12 ERA)
Game 2 Pitching  Matchup	ILL: John Kravetz (RHP, Jr., 4-1, 3.00 ERA) IND: Christian Morris (RHP, So., 2-2, 2.49 ERA)
Game 3 Pitching  Matchup	ILL: Ryan Castellanos (RHP, So., 4-2, 4.43 ERA) IND: Brian Korte (LHP, Sr., 0-0, 1.77 ERA)

Add to this that Illinois has won their last six of seven against Indiana at home, and you might believe the Illini have a chance.

After this, Indiana has series against Purdue, Penn State and Minnesota. Barring an "end of the world" slump, the Hoosiers will walk away with the Big Ten regular season title.

Nebraska at Michigan

If you have a question about what your team needs to or keep it's RPI up, note this at Boydsworld.com.

Nebraska's RPI stands at 48, and they do NOT want to drop any farther. You'd hate to call this a "must win" series, but let's label it that way anyway because if they're not moving forward, they're moving backwards and Husker baseball fans will go nuts (or stop paying attention, which is worse) if they lose this series.

Starting Pitchers:

Game 1: RHP Christian DeLeon (4-2, 2.52 ERA) vs LHP Evan Hill (2-4, 3.49)

Game 2: RHP Chance Sinclair (5-1, 1.85)  vs LHP Trent Szkutnik (0-5, 3.88)

Game 3: LHP Aaron Bummer (4-2, 4.59) vs LHP Logan McAnallen (2-3, 3.09)

Nebraska's offense fell flat against Northwestern and needs to come out with a vengeance against Michigan, if for no other reason than to show how much they love their own pitchers.

Bottom line: Nebraska is third in the Big Ten. Michigan is fourth. You want to move up, or you want to move down?

Northwestern at Michigan State

This is a pretty big series for both teams. Northwestern proved they could play on the road. Michigan State is above that bottom tier, but they certainly don't want to lose this series.

Ohio State at Purdue

Right now Ohio State's record won't get them into the Big Ten tourney. That should start to turn around this weekend as they've already played the tougher teams in the conference (they don't play Illinois).

The Buckeyes shouldn't have trouble here. If they do, you might actually see some people in Columbus wonder how long head coach Greg Beals will be sticking around.

Penn State at Minnesota

This weekend marks the start of a new era at Minnesota as Friday's game will be the first ever night game at the new facilities at Siebert Field.

Another big series when you consider where Minnesota stands with regards to the Big Ten tourney. A series loss would leave the Gophers (most likely) below Ohio State.

South Dakota State at Iowa

Doesn't affect that much as Iowa should make the Big Ten tourney, but realistically has about a zero shot at the NCAA tourney. SDSU's RPI is 217. This series is about Rich Heller continuing to move the Iowa program forward.

NEWS!

The American Cancer Society: CVC Hoops For Hope

At the Coaches vs. Cancer -Hoops for Hope benefit, the coaches from the three Division I college programs in Nebraska will team up to host this event. They will provide the perfect opportunity for basketball fans to meet their favorite coach.

This is an event in Omaha, and perhaps one thing that Creighton and Husker fans could agree on.

DI Board of Directors endorses restructuring process, seeks feedback | NCAA Public Home Page - NCAA.org

Division I moved one step closer to a new governance structure Thursday when the Board of Directors endorsed a restructuring plan that has the ability to be more nimble, streamlined and responsive to needs from throughout the division – particularly the needs of student-athletes.

As expected, the BIG FIVE will get more autonomy. Will this change a lot? Actually, I doubt it does, since the Big Five get most of the coveted athletes anyway. Will it make life better for student-athletes? Yes, IF THEY DO IT RIGHT.

Will the NCAA's 'Big 5' reform be enough to save amateurism? - SBNation.com
The NCAA recognizes the need for changes. But after waiting until 2014 to make them, its window of opportunity might have passed.

What do college football players do between spring and fall practice? - SBNation.com

Spring games are signaling the end of college football's first major offseason period. Fall camp doesn't start until August. So what do players do now?

Note that no where in here does he mention "get arrested for acts of stupidity". NOTE THAT!!!!