On Iowa Daily Briefing 6.6.12 -- NERD ALERT: NCAA '13 rankings for Big Ten

This is about gaming. I know that makes it not for everyone, but hey, we're adrift in the "Horse Latitudes," waiting for any wind of college football to carry us to the next oasis.

The NCAA '13 from EA Sports will soon rear its gloriously beautiful, dread-locked head. The release date is July 10, giving all of us nerdly CFB fans something to pass the time until real flesh-and-bone games.

Yesterday, the demo came out and some fairly fantastic websites snagged and posted the team rankings.

The blogging team (they're like scientists) at Land-Grant Holyland (an Ohio State-centric site) offered a complete list. Check it out here. Here is the list of Big Ten teams:

Iowa -- 91 (overall), 89 (offense), 89 (defense), 4 (prestige)

Michigan -- 97 (overall), 94 (offense), 91 (defense), 6 (prestige)

Michigan State -- 93 (overall), 89 (offense), 89 (defense), 4 (prestige)

Minnesota -- 77 (overall), 75 (offense), 76 (defense), 2 (prestige)

Nebraska -- 91 (overall), 91 (offense), 87 (defense), 5 (prestige)

Northwestern -- 87 (overall), 86 (offense), 84 (defense), 3 (prestige)

Illinois -- 83 (overall), 81 (offense), 82 (defense), 3 (prestige)

Indiana -- 77 (overall), 77 (offense), 76 (defense), 2 (prestige)

Ohio State -- 95 (overall), 89 (offense), 95 (defense), 6 (prestige)

Penn State -- 89 (overall), 86 (offense), 89 (defense), 5 (prestige)

Purdue -- 87 (overall), 84 (offense), 84 (defense), 3 (prestige)

Wisconsin -- 99 (overall), 97 (offense), 95 (defense), 5 (prestige)

-- Ohio State and Michigan are among six schools with a prestige rating of 6.

-- Wisconsin, Texas, LSU and Oregon are the teams that rate 99 overall.

What do you make of Nebraska and Penn State landing with prestige ratings of 5? Wisconsin up to a 5? Has the tide change, or is this something Wisconsin is going to have to hold on to for five or eight or 10 years?

Can Iowa be more than a 4?

I don't think you can argue much with these ratings relative to the Big Ten.

Wisconsin isn't a 99, but it is in the Leaders Division, especially with the Buckeyes clipped for postseason (do NCAA sanctions carry over in NCAA '13? I don't think they do). No one is ready to challenge OSU and Sconnie in the Leaders. Penn State is an "X" factor, but not a serious contender. It just isn't.

Michigan's 97 leads the Legends. That's about right. Denard, Brady Hoke's second season, the Wolverines should be the faves. Michigan State, Iowa and Nebraska can rise up.

These ratings have Northwestern and Purdue at 87. That speaks to the balance of the Divisions. I think the Legends is the better from top to bottom, with four 90-plus teams compared to just two in the Leaders.

But we'll see. They don't play the games in a glass and plastic box. Wait, TVs aren't glass and plastic anymore.

HLINKS

-- It was just a footnote on the Words From the Birds Blog at the Arizona Cardinals' website, but former Iowa defensive end Broderick Binns was released by the Cardinals Tuesday.

-- Iowa's baseball program has landed the No. 1 prep prospect in Illinois according to Prep Baseball Report.

Just one problem. Pitcher Ryan Borucki of Mundelein was taken in the 15th-round of Major League Baseball's 2012 First-Year Player Draft Tuesday by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Borucki will have the option to sign with the Blue Jays or play for the Hawkeyes next season.

Here's a DailyHerald.com story about Borucki.

-- The comedy stylings of Michigan football coach Brady Hoke were on display Tuesday night at an awards banquet in Kettering, Ohio. Doug Harris of the Dayton Daily News reported this:

Hoke noted he was a criminal justice major in college. Alluding to a handful of arrests of his players since he took over at Michigan, he said, “A lot of people think that background in criminal justice is helping us today.” When no one laughed, he added: “This might be one of the slowest crowds I've ever been around.”

And just to make a quotable quote, Hoke threw dirt on the future of the Big East Conference.

“I think really in about three years you'll see four super conferences, and I think the Big East will go away and maybe the ACC. But look, I'm just a coach. I don't know all of it.”

-- In 1994, then-Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne initiated a conversation with Penn State's Joe Paterno to suggest the two undefeated teams meet at a neutral site to decide who was No. 1 that year. Paterno said it couldn't happen because his school was committed by a Bowl Coalition contract.

Steve Sipple posted the following for the Lincoln Journal Star Tuesday night:

"We would've given anything to play Penn State at a neutral site rather than (go to Miami to play Miami)," Osborne said Tuesday.

It obviously worked out OK for the Huskers, who defeated the Hurricanes 24-17 in the Orange Bowl for the first of Osborne's three national championships.

Penn State, meanwhile, defeated a four-loss Oregon squad in the Rose Bowl and wound up a distant second in the final AP and UPI polls.

-- Here's a college football playoff proposal I hadn't seen from anyone else: CBS' Gary Danielson suggests a 6-team event.

“Everybody's got one of these ideas, and I respect that," Danielson said. "[My idea] was a six-team playoff. I thought it included more teams, and it was better for all of college football to include more. I don't think you could have a runaway here where the elites take their ball and go home. I don't think that's good for everyone. We might have to play an extra game to satisfy the need for all of college football to be involved.”

-- Spencer Hall of SB Nation has a very interesting column suggesting hard work and talent are two of the three main ingredients of a successful major college football program.

The third? Pure, blind luck. Hall writes:

Ohio State already had a blossoming football addiction, but handing the program over to a relative unknown in Woody Hayes helped turn the state into the loving cradle of Midwestern football crackheads we know today. Miami found Howard Schnellenberger, and in turn the Hurricanes found a football dynasty. The list goes on, but in each case flammable materials met fire in the right combination of coach, existing talent, and surroundings.

-- BoilerTMill, writing for Purdue-centric site Hammer and Rails, assigns a "Mad Men" character to each of the Big Ten football teams.

You Hawkeye fans who watch the Sunday night drama may not appreciate the character Mr. Mill has given Iowa.

It's not Don Draper (Ohio State). It's not Roger Sterling (Michigan). It's not Joan Holloway (Illinois???).

No, it's Betty Francis, Don's whiny, self-absorbed ex-wife.

-- Finally, there's this video. Here's the back story:

-- Compiled by Mike Hlas