BTN.com staff, December 5, 2012

Here's a look at the next week of live wrestling coverage on the Big Ten Digital Network, plus a few links to some wrestling updates from around the Big Ten. To learn more about the BTDN and to subscribe, go to our Big Ten Digital Network site.

Day Teams Time (ET) Link
Friday, Dec. 7 Michigan State at Wisconsin 8:00 PM (LIVE on BTDN)
Saturday, Dec. 8 Oregon State at Minnesota 7:00 PM (LIVE on BTDN)
Saturday, Dec. 8 Arizona State at Nebraska 8:00 PM (LIVE on BTDN)
Sunday, Dec. 9 Wisconsin at Nebraska 3:00 PM (LIVE on BTDN)

Don't box him in: Hawkeyesports.com did a nice story on heavyweight and outdoorsman Bobby Telford, who has opened the season with six consecutive victories, including a 3-2 decision against No. 15 Matt Gibson of Iowa State on Dec. 1. The first five bouts were devoid of drama: Telford won three by fall and another by 19-2 technical fall. Read more here.

Snap shots: Big Ten schools generally post a number of deep photo galleries off events like wrestluing matches. Hre'e s a good one from MGoBlue.com as they covered last weekend's Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas. The No. 14-ranked Wolverines posted three individual placewinners. Read the story here and see the photo gallery here.

Through Dec. 2 Conference Overall
W L T Pct. W L T Pct.
Minnesota 1 0 0 1.000 6 1 0 .857
Iowa 0 0 0 .000 6 0 0 1.000
Illinois 0 0 0 .000 3 0 0 1.000
Northwestern 0 0 0 .000 3 0 0 1.000
Ohio State 0 0 0 .000 3 0 0 1.000
Penn State 0 0 0 .000 2 0 0 1.000
Michigan 0 0 0 .000 4 1 0 .800
Purdue 0 0 0 .000 7 2 0 .778
Indiana 0 0 0 .000 5 2 0 .714
Wisconsin 0 0 0 .000 3 2 0 .600
Michigan State 0 0 0 .000 1 1 0 .500
Nebraska 0 1 0 .000 4 1 0 .800

Midlands alert: The 50th year of the Ken Kraft Midlands happens later this month in Evanston. For fans of wrestling history, this page has the entire history of brackets for every year of the event.

BTN/BTN2Go will have  live coverage of both the Midlands Championships. You can also get ticket information for the event, which runs Dec. 29-30.

Latest rankings: Nine Big Ten wrestling teams hold spots in the latest Top 25 Usa Today/NWCA/AWN rankings released Tuesday. Penn State owns the top spot ahead of top ten teams No. 3 Minnesota, No. 4 Ohio State, No. 5 Iowa, No. 6 Illinois and No. 9 Nebraska. Northwestern is No. 12, Michigan is No. 14, and Purdue is No. 21.

Given the recent news on Big Ten Conference expansion, it's fun to note that Maryland is currently ranked No. 17.

See the full Top 25 at NCAA.com. Individual rankings are over at theopenmat.com.

Twitter: Are you on Twitter? We've created a wrestling list to track the official accounts from Big Ten wrestling teams. It's all right here. Here's a story we were alerted to by the @Hawks_wrestling on Twitter. This is the first wrestling match for Jared Stevens at Sunset Middle School in Brentwood, TN. Jared has severe cerebral palsy but wanted to wrestle. Watch the video:

Penn State: GoPSUsports.com talks with defending NCAA champion David Taylor in the latest version of "This Week in Penn State Wrestling." See the YouTube video below: