It’s been a fast handful of years, and on Aug. 30, BTN will officially celebrate its fifth anniversary. Crazy to think, huh? To celebrate – not to mention kill time before the season kicks off – I’m spotlighting some of the great football careers during our existence. I’ll do it in the mold of “Big Ten’s Best,” our popular countdown show that returns this fall for another season of ranking the best in Big Ten history. My second list ranks the top five running backs of the last five seasons, aka the BTN era.

We’d seen Michigan’s 2012 Sugar Bowl rings online well before Big Ten Media Days last week in Chicago. And now we’ve seen them in-person. Take it from us, they are impressive – not to mention rather big. Michigan safety Jordan Kovacs proudly wore the ring on his right ring finger throughout the two-day event. See a close-up picture of the hardware Michigan earned with its victory over Virginia Tech in this post.

Everyone, it seems, enjoys mock drafts. And it’s easy to see why. Not only do they create interest and offer predictions, but they often elicit passionate responses. You know the complaints and arguments: that guy’s too high, this guy’s better than that guy, etc. Well, we thought it would be fun to do a 2012 Big Ten football mock draft. How does it work? We invited a writer from all 12 Big Ten teams to conduct the six-round draft, consisting of QB, WR, RB, TE, Defensive player and K.

Isn’t late July great? Football is in the air, with kickoff a little more than a month away, and all the teams – even the perennial cellar dwellers – are tied for first place. Coincidentally, when coaches descend upon media days, everyone’s very excited. The Big Ten is no exception. According to The Wall Street Journal, Big Ten coaches uttered some form of the word “excited” 43 times during Thursday’s question-and-answer session at Big Ten Media Days. See who used “excited” the most in this post.

We capped off our coverage of the two-day Big Ten Media and Kickoff Luncheon with the 90-minute TV show Big Ten Football Kickoff Luncheon Special, with Dave Revsine, Gerry DiNardo and Howard Griffith. It included various interviews and analysis from the event in Chicago. Watch a number of video clips from that Friday night show in this post.

Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson spoke to Friday’s Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon crowd, and you can watch his speech right here in this post. People attending the luncheon quickly turned to Twitter and applauded Robinson’s performance.