Big TeN

Mirage5.1-\"FANTASTIC PRODUCT!\"

2010-12-21T09:49:00.001-08:00

Pros: Beautiful and clean sound. The aesthetics are different but then become way cool to the eye.

Cons: The NANO S8 sub I feel was very weak and I replaced this with something that had a lot more power. An 8inch sub with 80 watts I feel is just not enough. Especially for me.

Also, I\'m not too much of a fan of having such a small center speaker.

Summary: I\'m consider my self some what of an audio enthusiast and reviewed and listened to a lot of different satellite speakers. For the price, and search around, you can\'t go wrong. I spent $500 on vanns.com.

\"FANTASTIC PRODUCT!\"
The sound stage is great. Once you enjoy the omni directional sound you won\'t want to go back.

I knocked off 1/2 a star because the sub was weak. For most it may be fine.

I\'m a little particular about my sound so I\'ve upgraded my sub to something a lot better and also upgraded my center channel to the Mirage OS3-CC and use my extra speaker for 6.1.

Can\'t go wrong. Buy it!

Big 10 division names released

2010-12-13T14:13:00.000-08:00

And they're pretty crappy: Legends and Leaders, per Jim Delany. Also, the logo is a noticeable step down from the old one:

By the way, in case the picture above didn't make it clear, we're Legends from now on... and Followers, I suppose, logically-speaking. MGoBlog has proposed not using these names at all and just sticking with East and West, which I imagine most people would support. But Legends and Leaders, really? Can't we do better than that? And that hideous teal logo? Feel free to propose your best division names/logo ideas in the comments.

Michael Arace commentary: BCS system is no friend of Big Ten

2010-12-13T12:25:00.000-08:00

The BCS system worked this year. That is what the commissioners of the power conferences are trumpeting between sighs of relief. Two human polls and six computer-ranking formulas have matched undefeated Auburn against undefeated Oregon for the national championship. Where's the problem?

Where do we start?

Dan Wetzel, a college football fan who lives in Big Ten country, can supply 200 pages of answers. Wetzel is a Yahoo! sports columnist and co-author of Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series. Published in October and already in its third printing, it is exhaustively researched, well-presented and compelling.

"Competitively or financially, I don't see how (the present system) helps the Big Ten," Wetzel said. "There are other teams with weaker schedules who are ahead (in the rankings) right now. This is no longer an aberration. And the SEC can get away with a one-loss team, but not the Big Ten."

The Big Ten's new trophy names and honorees

2010-12-13T12:23:00.000-08:00

Championship Game Trophies

Stagg-Paterno Championship Trophy: Honors University of Chicago coach (1892-1932) Amos Alonzo Stagg and current Penn State coach Joe Paterno (1966-), the winningest major-college coach ever.

Grange-Griffin MVP: Honors legendary Illinois RB Harold "Red" Grange (1923-25) and Ohio State RB Archie Griffin (1972-75), the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner).

Eddleman-Fields Punter of the Year: honors Thomas "Dike" Eddleman who was a three-sport star at Illinois (1946-48), starring in football and also being named the Big Ten's MVP in basketball, and Michigan State (2003-2006) and current NFL P Brandon Fields, a first-team All-Big Ten selection in 2003, 2004 and 2006 now playing for Miami Dolphins.

New Big Ten Logo Looks Like It Took 25 Seconds to Make

2010-12-13T12:15:00.000-08:00

Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin are a combined 33-3 this season, so it's not like the Big Ten is lacking in the football talent department. But my goodness, who is the conference's graphic designer?

The Big Ten unveiled a new logo on Monday, and it looks, well, it looks like someone was assigned the redesign, completely forgot about it and then scrapped something together on Microsoft Paint a few minutes before it was due.

It is very blue and very plain. It's not as if the old one was all that awesome, but at least it didn't look like a 12-year-old put it together.

Oh wait -- make that two 12-year-olds. They go by the names of Michael Bierut and Michael Gericke, they work for a design firm called Pentagram, and they went to great lengths to try to justify their design.