Wow, congrats to MSU for the thrilling victory today!  It could not be a better day for the Big Ten.  (Unless Minnesota also had won).  But I think Big Ten fans would have taken 3 out of 4 before the day started.  Jim Harbaugh has not been on the job for 2 days and he is going to have nightmares already seeing how MSU and OSU came up with big victories.  It is going to be that much more difficult for Harbaugh to beat out those teams now.  The Big Ten east has actually outplayed the SEC west!  So instead of Big Ten east trying to be SEC north as Urban Meyer suggested, maybe SEC west should try to become Big Ten south!

With the 3 victories today, the Big Ten is guaranteed 5 wins with Iowa still to play Tennessee.  So I claim victory over the Las Vegas oddsmakers, the LA Times and LBOAYM since they all predicted smaller number of victories for the Big Ten.  So what if my predictions are not 100% accurate in terms of individual games.  It is the number of victories that count as in all sports.

Despite my allegiance to the Big Ten, I will take Oregon over OSU.  Their victory over FSU was amazing and I think they are the best team over the whole season.  Plus I don't want Harbaugh to have worse nightmares.

Well, better late than never.  Four years after I implored Jim Harbaugh to come home, he is finally coming back to Ann Arbor.  Brady Hoke is a good man and a good coach but he was over matched at the highest level of college football.  If there is anyone out there who can revive the storied Michigan program, it is Harbaugh.  It would have been great if Harbaugh had accepted the job four years ago, but in a way it is a blessing in disguise.  For one thing, having coached in the NFL gives him more experience and more credential in recruiting.  If he had taken the job four years ago, he may be restless at Michigan now, wondering about the challenge of the NFL.  Having gotten that out of his system, he may be staying at Michigan for a long time as opposed to jumping to the pros after a few years. So I look forward to a long reign for Harbaugh at Michigan.

Of course fans should not get their hopes up too high in the next few years.  The cupboard is relatively bare as Hoke has not recruited well and the records in the past two years is not going to help.  Add to the great job of MSU in recruiting in the state of Michigan and OSU dominating the state of Ohio, it is going to take at least a couple of years to stockpile enough stars to compete with those two programs.  I see 7-5 next season and 8-4 after that.  Michigan can be competitive for the Big Ten championship in 3 years and maybe win it by the time Harbaugh's first recruiting class are seniors.  I think anything more than that is unrealistic and anything less than that and he would not be worth 8 million per year!

I am not trying to get out of my own predicament or elicit sympathy for being an old man but I made some stupid mistakes in my predictions.  I found the first newspaper where I circled the Big Ten winners that led to a 5-4 prediction.  I has PSU winning originally but had not noticed Illinois playing!  So when I go write my blog I used a different newspaper and I missed the PSU game and couldn't figure out how I came up with 5-4 the first time.  After a while I just decided I must have predicted Illinois winning instead of losing to make it 5-4.  When LBOAYM pointed out that the PSU game was missing, I figured the Big Ten can't possibly win 6 games so I decided to make PSU a loser.  So I should be 4-0 at this point but instead I am 2-2!  Nobody's fault but my own so I will stick with the bad result.  But obviously I am getting old:  not able to count to ten and can't remember what predictions I made in the first place!