The Michigan men’s basketball team will try to defend its 2011-12 Big Ten championship in new uniforms this season. Michigan unveiled its new adidas threads Monday afternoon at Crisler Center.

With Week 5 behind us, it’s time for my latest Big Ten Player Rankings. Again, I’m doing these a little different this year. Whereas I used to rank the top 10 players – a practice that was tough due to all the talent on both sides of the ball – I’ll rank the top six offensive and defensive players each week.

Before we turn our complete attention to Week 6, we need to review how BTN.com fans, Tom Dienhart and yours truly did with our Week 5 predictions. BTN.com fans went 5-1 and Tom and I went 4-2, meaning the fans have moved into sole possession of first place in the season standings. After five weeks, BTN.com fans are 41-11, one game ahead of Tom. I’m bringing up the rear, at 39-13.

Every Saturday night during the college football season, BTN.com web editor Brent Yarina hands out his weekly Big Ten game balls. The series is called “U.S. Marines Corps: Leaders of the Week,” and it’s designed to spotlight the Big Ten’s top individual performances. Who took home the honors from Week 5? Find out in this post.

Losers of two of its last three, the Illinois football team is going with a new look for Saturday’s Big Ten opener against Penn State. It’s a combination the program has never worn, and it includes a new blue matte helmet, an orange jersey and blue pants.

Saturday marks the beginning of Big Ten play. For the next eight weeks, Big Ten teams will be battling for their respective division crowns and a berth in the annual Big Ten title game. Who will make it to Indy? We’re only four weeks into the season, but BTN.com senior writer Tom Dienhart and BTN.com web editor Brent Yarina decided to share their best guesses.

Add a Twitter hashtag to the growing list of new features we’ll see during Saturday’s highly anticipated Wisconsin-Nebraska Big Ten opener. That’s right, “#Huskers” has been added to the field at Memorial Stadium. And the hashtag should get plenty of play on the social media site, what with the two teams wearing much-talked-about adidas alternate uniforms and special cleats.

Every week, BTN.com’s Brent Yarina (@BTNBrentYarina) and Tom Dienhart (@BTNTomDienhart) offer their predictions for each Big Ten football game. We also provide a poll for all of the games so fans can vote for their winners.

We knew it was coming. After all, we’ve seen it on every Big Ten football jersey and field this season. Heck, we even saw it added to the floor of Indiana’s iconic Assembly Hall. Now, we have visual proof of the “B1G” patch on a Big Ten basketball jersey.

Saturday, Michigan State hosts Ohio State in one of the week’s top games. Remember what happened the last time these two teams met? Aside from the absolutely putrid offensive effort, that is. Michigan State linebacker Denicos Allen provided one of the best highlights of the 2011 season, when he went all “Waterboy” on a sack of Joe Bauserman, pictured above.

Not a fan of the adidas alternate uniforms Wisconsin and Nebraska will wear Saturday night? Perhaps you’ll like the footwear more. On Friday, adidas announced the Badgers and Huskers’ black adiZero cleats will turn silver under the lights of Memorial Stadium.

Every Tuesday morning during the NFL season, Brent Yarina singles out the best offensive, defensive and special teams performances by Big Ten products and links to their NFL.com highlights. View all the former Big Ten players on NFL active rosters. See Brent’s Week 3 winners in this post.

In sports, we constantly hear the phrase, “What a difference a year makes.” It’s a cliche, no doubt about it. But, often times, it’s so true. And that’s the case when one compares the first four weeks of the 2012 Big Ten football season to the first quarter of the 2011 campaign.

Saturday night’s Wisconsin-Nebraska Big Ten opener didn’t need a gimmick to prove it was a big game. There’s one anyway, thanks to adidas and its inaugural “Unrivaled Game,” an annual matchup of top adidas programs. The company has dubbed the tilt, “The Quick and the Red,” and, as we’ve reported (Nebraska & Wisconsin), the two teams will wear new alternate uniforms.

Before we turn our complete attention to Week 5 and the start of Big Ten play, let’s see how BTN.com fans, Tom Dienhart and yours truly did with our Week 4 predictions. Everyone involved went 8-2, meaning Dienhart and BTN.com fans remain tied for first, at 36-10, one game ahead of me.