Each week of the college football season offers a variety of games for fans to watch. I’ll start taking an early look at each week of the Big Ten season as a way to preview the 2012 campaign. Find my Week 1 schedule analysis in this post.

The Big Ten lost some good defensive linemen after last season. Four defensive tackles and three ends were selected in the NFL draft, highlighted by first-round pick Whitney Mercilus (Illinois). Also drafted were: Michigan State tackle Jerel Worthy (Packers), Penn State tackle Devon Still (Bengals), Michigan tackle Mike Martin (Titans), Nebraska tackle Jared Crick (Texans) and Iowa end Mike Daniels (Packers) and Penn State end Jack Crawford (Raiders).

Got a case of the “Mondays”? Read these Big Ten football links! They’re 100 percent guaranteed. And you’ll be cheerier because of it.

How could potential costs come into play when officials discuss a college football playoff? What about the idea of home games for potential playoff qualifiers? Could there be more conference expansion coming? These are the questions that came into our BTN reader mailbox this week.

I’ve been using the offseason to rank a number of units, including running backs and tight ends. You can find all of my ranking posts over here. And now I turn my attention to ranking of the Top 10 Big Ten offensive linemen.

Delivered my usual Big Ten news analysis and links this week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Now, it”s Friday. So before you try to cut out early to avoid this guy asking you to come to work over the weekend, check out these extra-super-terrific Big Ten grid links. Your life will be changed forever.

The tight end spot continues to evolve into a more prominent position across the football landscape, as teams are featuring them more often as vertical passing threats.

In my last Big Ten football schedule analysis post, I examine Wisconsin, your defending Big Ten champions. What will be the Badgers’ toughest non-conference and conference games? Where does the schedule get really rugged? Go ahead and guess which game I call their “must win” game, then read the rest of this post to what else I picked.

News continued to pour out of Chicago as Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and league’s athletic directors wrapped up meetings highlighted by discussions of a playoff—among other juicy topics. Let’s dig in.