The 2012 NFL Draft came to a close Saturday night. Forty-one former Big Ten stars were selected during the three-day event in New York, including four first-rounders: Iowa’s Riley Reiff, Illinois’ Whitney Mercilus, Wisconsin Kevin Zeitler and Illinois’ A.J. Jenkins. Mercilus and Jenkins were the first of four Illini drafted in the first 48 picks. Even more impressive, four of the Big Ten’s first six players off the board were Illini. Catch up on the entire draft with FoxSports.com’s Draft Tracker and see all the Big Ten picks in this post.

Illinois softball used a disciplined approach at the plate to secure a 5-1 victory over No. 22 Michigan in eight innings at Alumni Field on Saturday afternoon. While the Illini lineup worked eight walks over the contest, the most issued by the UM pitching staff on the season, Illinois broke through for five runs in the top of the eighth to earn the win against the Big Ten-leading Wolverines, who entered the day with a 12-3 conference record. Watch our highlights from the game and read the full recap at FightingIllini.com.

Northwestern rallied for four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning but came up a run short in the end as the Wildcats dropped a 5-4 decision to Illinois Saturday afternoon at Rocky Miller Park. See the RECAP & BOX SCORE and check out our Saturday Big Ten baseball roundup, courtesy of BigTen.org in this post.

The next stop on our Twitter Tips series takes us to Nebraska. We’ve already featured other schools (see them all here), but now it’s time to turn our attention to the guys who tweet about the Huskers in our 12-installment series that spotlights every Big Ten institution, in alphabetical order. The goal is simple: to share some of our favorite school-specific Twitter accounts with our fans. That said, let’s get to the Nebraska handles.

Be prepared to say good-bye to the old Bowl Championship Series system. Or, perhaps you feel more like uttering “good riddance.” Either way, get ready to say “hello” to a college football playoff.