This just in from the Big Ten Basketball Media Day: Defending Big Ten Champion Ohio State has been chosen as the conference favorite heading into the 2011-12 season, as voted on by a panel of Big Ten media. The media also tabbed Buckeye sophomore Jared Sullinger as the Preseason Player of the Year. Wisconsin and Michigan State were selected to finish second and third, respectively. Joining Sullinger on the Preseason All-Big Ten team are Michigan State’s Draymond Green, Minnesota’s Trevor Mbakwe, Purdue’s Robbie Hummel and Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor.

Michigan State women’s volleyball team earns their 6th win of the Big Ten Conference season on Wednesday night against Indiana Hoosiers, 3-1. The Spartans came out firing on all cylinders, taking the first set 25-19. The Big Ten leaders in hitting percentage, Michigan State hit .387 in the first set, led by Jenilee Rathje and Alexis Mathews who combined for 11 kills on 13 swings. Indiana (8-15, 0-11) fell in four sets to Michigan State (17-6, 6-5) in five sets (19-25, 25-21, 15-25, 22-25). Watch the highlights of the game now.

BTN.com is covering Thursday’s Big Ten Conference Basketball Media Day live from Chicago with a live video stream of the Big Ten men’s coaches and another live video stream for the Big Ten women’s coaches. Right now you can watch the men’s coaches talk here and you can watch the women’s coaches talk here. Looking to follow more live coverage?  The show’s producers for BTN’s The Journey will be posting YouTube videos and tweeting via @BTNJourney. And BTN.com web editor Brent Yarina will be on site updating @BTNBrentYarina. Yarina already released his 2011-2012 predictions and all-Big Ten teams and his Big Ten player rankings.

Have a Big Ten football question you want answered? I’m Tom Dienhart and I want you to fire off an email to me. This is a great place for us to interact with each other, sharing our passion for all things Big Ten as the season prepares to hit the home stretch. This week, readers want to know if Purdue will qualify for a bowl, what the tiebreaker procedures are for divisional play and how Russell Wilson was able to be eligible right away at Wisconsin, among other subjects.

Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins has a sense for history. He knows his 44-yard desperation touchdown heave to Keith Nichol with four seconds hanging on the clock was an instant classic. The epic play that knocked off an unbeaten and top-10 ranked Wisconsin team will go down in Big Ten lore. And the play will loom even bigger among Michigan State fans if Cousins and the 2011 Spartans are able to deliver the school its first trip the Rose Bowl since the 1988 season. I caught up with Cousins earlier this week to get his thoughts on his epic pass—as well as a few other subjects.