Expansion

Possibly the biggest news in all of college sports this summer has been the addition of Nebraska to the Big Ten. With Delany and the conference’s coaches all together and available to the media for the first time since the Cornhuskers joined the conference in June, expansion likely will be talked about throughout the majority of Monday and Tuesday.

It will be interesting to see how coaches and players feel about adding Nebraska to the Big Ten and also what their opinions are on conference alignment and possible championship game locations. Aside from meeting with conference athletic directors — including Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne — Delany hopefully will be able to provide more insight into the future of the Big Ten.

Can anyone beat Ohio State?

The Big Ten should be a competitive conference in 2010, with no team except for Ohio State appearing to be dominant. Most experts have the Buckeyes as the favorite to win the conference, and rightfully so. Head coach Jim Tressel returns quarterback Terrelle Pryor and 16 other starters from the 2009 Big Ten Championship team, which went on to beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

Ohio State has been a part of the last five conference championships, and this week we’ll find out if anyone thinks they can stop the Buckeyes’ run.

Big Ten signal callers

If the quarterbacks in the Big Ten aren’t the best in the country, they definitely are some of the most experienced. Depending on whether Michigan’s Tate Forcier retains his starting spot, the conference could return as many as seven starters from 2009.

Five of those returners ­— Indiana’s Ben Chappell, Iowa’s Ricky Stanzi, MSU junior Kirk Cousins, Minnesota’s Adam Weber and Wisconsin’s Scott Tolzien ­— will be at Media Days, likely fielding many questions about their expectations for 2010.

On the other side of the spectrum, two new starters — Dan Persa from Northwestern and Robert Marve from Purdue ­— also will be with their teams in Chicago and might be a bigger story than the returning starters. Marve has some experience, as he played in eight games for Miami in 2008 before transferring to Purdue. However, Persa only has attempted 34 passes in his time at Northwestern and will be expected to fill the shoes of prolific passer Mike Kafka.

Troubles at Michigan

U-M head coach Rich Rodriguez has had a rough start to his career in Ann Arbor. After going 3-9 in his first year with the Wolverines, Rodriguez won the first four games of 2009, only to lose seven of the final eight.

As the coach for the winningest program in college football history, Rodriguez won’t be able to last long if the losing seasons continue. A lot of speculation has been made about what he needs to do this season to keep his job at U-M, but at Media Days, we might find out from Rodriguez himself what he thinks has to happen for him to stay employed.

Agent talk

This offseason, conferences such as the Southeastern and Atlantic Coast have been surrounded by scandals involving players’ contact with agents.

No Big Ten players have been alleged to be doing anything shady, but the topic has been discussed all across the country and will continue to be talked about this week in Chicago.