Tom Dienhart, BTN.com Senior Writer, November 30, 2015

Yes, Ohio State can?t win the Big Ten. But, it still could get into the playoffs–maybe. The key: Florida must topple Alabama in the SEC title game. Could it happen? Sure. Will it? Not likely. But, the Buckeyes can cling to that hope.

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Mark Dantonio deserving of national coach of the year consideration? Interesting. I can?t say that I disagree.

Mlive.com points out that this 2015 campaign might represent the best coaching job of Dantonio's tenure in East Lansing when one considers the rash of injuries, difficulty of schedule and staff adjustments without former coordinator Pat Narduzzi. Now, the Spartans are in the Big Ten title game playing for a spot in the playoffs. Pretty impressive.

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No doubt, Michigan has made great strides in Year One under Jim Harbaugh. But, work needs to be done. Hey, Harbaugh has this job for a reason. The offensive line still needs work, and improvement is needed from the running backs. Overall speed/athletic ability needs enhancement, as well.

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Penn State suffered a beat down at Michigan State on Saturday. How bad was it? One scribe called it the worst loss of the James Franklin era. Yep, there is a big gap between the Nittany Lions and Spartans.

"We've shown it in flashes, but whenever we've played the top-tier teams in this conference and in this country, we just haven't been able to get it done yet," Franklin said. "We improved on our conference record from last year (2-6 to 4-4) but we still need to close the gap on the upper-tiered teams in this conference."

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How close is Penn State to catching East division heavies Michigan State, Ohio State and even Michigan? Not very, if you believe the great David Jones of Pennlive.com. The biggest difference between PSU and those teams? In the trenches.

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Good read from Henry Bushnell of InsideNU.com on how Northwestern finally has become Pat Fitzgerald?s team.

Busnell points out that ?it took 10 years. It took flirtations with various schemes and philosophies. It of course took struggle and failure. But in 2015, for the first time, from early September through late November, we have seen Pat Fitzgerald's Northwestern.?

"[Fitz] knows what it looks like, being a two-time All-American, and playing on great defenses," defensive end Deonte Gibson said Saturday. "He knows what it looks like to be a great defense … He understands defense is a dirty, gritty, grimy position to play, and you have to understand that."

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There is much to like about the 12-0 Iowa Hawkeyes. But here are five underappreciated aspects about the Hawkeyes from Chad Leistikow of the Des Moines Register you may not have considered. He compares the Hawkeyes to the team-oriented San Antonio Spurs, an unselfish bunch that epitomizes sacrifice for the better of the whole. Perfect.

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The book has closed on the 2015 Minnesota season. And, that?s probably a good thing.

Tom Powers of the St. Paul Pioneer Press sums it up well: It was a season in which their head coach retired because of illness, games were frittered away and injuries gutted the roster.

"There's always two ways to look at it," coach Tracy Claeys said. "To people on the outside, you don't go to a bowl so you're not very good. Had a bad year. That's their right to say that.
?On the inside, injuries and all that are part of the game. Can't use the excuse, but it is a year in which we've had a lot of kids miss multiple games."

Going 5-7 was a big fall back from consecutive 8-5 records. But some nice talent will enter the fold in February, and this program still has a nice base.

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With its first trip to a bowl since 2007, has Indiana turned a corner? Perhaps. At the least, this is a building block. Great job by Kevin Wilson and his crew, which was so close to going 8-4.

I love this quote from Indiana A.D. Fred Glass: ?A bowl game is like some other things I could mention, like cold beer,? Glass said. ?There aren?t any bad ones. We?ll be happy wherever we end up.?

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