The University of Michigan women’s rowing team found itself in third place in the standings heading into the final two races of the Big Ten Championships on Sunday at Eagle Creek Park, but wins in the first and second varsity eight races earned the Wolverines a conference-best fifth Big Ten title. The championship marked the first league crown since 2004 for Michigan. Read full recap at MGoBlue.com and see the final standings and All-Big Ten teams in this post.

Iowa basketball legend Don Nelson made a name of for himself in the NBA but he was back at school on Saturday to accept his college degree at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. We touched on this story earlier this week but it’s worth revisiting. Nelson left Iowa in early summer 1962 to pursue his dreams as a professional basketball player but he left 10 credit hours short of a degree in physical education.

For the first time in 103 baseball seasons, the Purdue Boilermakers are at least Co-Big Ten Champions after beating Michigan, 14-3 on Saturday. The 1909 Boilermakers won the seven-team Big Ten with a 7-2 conference record. Purdue has come up short before finishing in second place in 2001, 2005 and 2008.

The No. 22-ranked Michigan softball team is now the first Big Ten team to win five straight conference titles after sweeping a doubleheader with Purdue (8-0 in game one, 8-5 in five innings in game two) on Saturday at Wilpon Softball Complex. Click inside for Saturday’s schedule, links to school team pages,  or go to the national softball scoreboard for all the games.

Now I turn my attention to Northwestern as I take a closer look at the 2012 football schedule for the Wildcats. They’ve got two challenging home games and a back-to-back set on the road that rivals any two-game stretch in the Big Ten. I circle the game on the calendar that could be the toughest and easiest for Pat Fitzgerald and his team this fall.