Ten by Ten Archives

The Big Ten Conference Champion will likely be decided on Saturday, but the Ten by Ten Champion won't be decided for a couple more weeks.

Here is a look at how Tim, Kristofer, and Kevin see the weekend unfolding in the Big Ten.

Our Ten by Ten answers...

For the first time this season, no one posted a higher score than FBT's Kevin Paul.

FBT should acknowledge the superb effort of Marty Homan who tied Kevin's score of 60 points, but lost on the tie-breaker.

On to last week's results...

Hard to believe it, but Week Ten of the college football season is here. This week in the Big Ten there are several interesting match-ups.

Iowa will continue its quest for an undefeated season when the Hawkeyes welcome Northwestern to Kinnick Stadium; The Badgers play a desperate Indiana team that could be dangerous if it could ever put a whole game together; Michigan will hope to rebound against the sputtering Boilermakers in the Big House; The Gophers and the Illini will meet in a battle of dueling momentum; The Spartans get a "breather" against MAC foe Western Michigan.

And those are the noon games! Thanks Big Ten for making it easy to catch all the games!

Then there is the big one. The one that gets it's own time slot. That big 3:30 match-up. (Thanks again Big Ten for not allowing night games past October. We all know Happy Valley is better in the daylight!)

Ohio State will travel to Happy Valley to meet the Nittany Lions in a game that many believed would be the the psuedo Big Ten Championship game. The truth is, that it still could be.

There are so many story lines in this game it could make your head spin. Here are the highlights:

• Terrelle Pryor returns to his home state after spurning them for the Buckeyes. His "its too country" quote ringing in their ears.
  
• Darryl Clark, an Ohio native, is looking for his first signature win. Remember, it was Pat Devlin who led the Nittany Lions to their fourth quarter scores and the win in Columbus last season.
  
• Ohio State still controls their own destiny in the Big Ten title race and must win to make the Iowa game meaningful. (Unless the Hawkeyes blow it against Northwestern.)
• The Nittany Lions must win to keep their goal of repeating as Big Ten Champs, but they must also hope for an Iowa loss.
• The series is tied at 12 wins apiece.
  
• No team has swept both Ohio State and Michigan in back-to-back years in more than 40 years.
• Joe Paterno and Jim Tressel are the first coaches to combine for more than 600 wins and met for a regular season game.

If history is any example, the big game today should also be a good one.

On to the picks...

Week Nine proved to be more difficult than originally anticipated.

No one who entered the contest got a score higher than 60 (out of 100). But, Marty Homan, Kristopher Fiecke Tyler Kelly, Mike Greenspire, and Paul Swaney all posted that score and for the first time in a few weeks the tie-breaker came into play.

The tie-break question for Week Nine:

How many total yards will New Mexico State have against Ohio State?

The Ohio State defense was as stout as ever last week holding the Aggies to 62 total yards and posted their third shut-out of the season.

Congratulations to TYLER KELLY who won the tie-breaker to become the WEEK NINE WINNER!

On to the results...

Week seven winner Nick Fotis joined the guys from FBT in picking this week's Ten by Ten contest.

Today's Big Ten slate of games is quite intriguing.

Penn State must travel to Ann Arbor to take on the resurgent Wolverines. The Nittany Lions haven't fared well in the Big House in recent years and both teams need a win to stay in the title hunt.

Ohio State will hope to rebound from a surprising loss last week with a dominating performance in the 'Shoe against a Minnesota team that is hoping for a rebound of their own.

Northwestern and Indiana meet in a game with huge bowl implications. Both teams need to win this game to avoid having to pull off a major upset later down the road.

Purdue will hope to create some more home magic when the Fighting Illini come to Ross-Ade Stadium. The Illini are still looking for their first conference win.

Undefeated Iowa will travel to East Lansing to take on a resiliant and upset-minded group of Spartans. The Hawkeyes must avoid complacency in Spartan Stadium.

Could be a very interesting day of Big Ten football! Enjoy the games!

This week we congratulate two winners, Brian Haukoos and Nick Fotis!

Haukoos, won week six with 90 points, the highest score ever posted in the contest and Fotis, won week seven with an impressive 60 points and on the strength of his tie break answer.

Ten by Ten results for week six and seven will follow after the jump...

The First and Big trio have been out of their minds this week.

So, please forgive us for not only getting our week seven questions posted later than normal, but also for not crowning a winner in week six.

Don't worry, the "Week Six Genius" will get their day in the sun... next week!

As for this week, the trio makes their picks...

Week 6 is here and KP is back from a few weeks overseas - meaning a return to seeing his ugly mug show up on Ten by Ten posts.  

Here's a delayed congrats to Mark Churchill and Mike Kinsella, who were crowned the winners of Week 5.  Bravo gents, and now, you get your name in lights - or on monitors throughout Big Ten country.  Hey, we'll take what we can get, right?  

And with that being said, here are the Week 6 picks for the FBT trio, along with last week's winners.  

Think you take us?

Last week there were two entries that scored an amazing 80 points out of 100.

It isn't a rarity to have a tie in the Ten by Ten contest, in fact, it happens most every week. But this week, not only was there a tie, but the tie-breaker proved to be an exercise in futility.

The tie break question: How many total punts in the Wisconsin-Minnesota game?
The answer: Six
Entry #1 answer: Five
Entry #2 answer: Seven

What is a contest to do, but to proclaim two winners?!

Congratulations to Mark Churchill and Mike Kinsella for an outstanding week 5 effort!

On to the results...

Week four winner Kevin Trahan and FBT's trio of writers offer their picks for this week's Ten by Ten contest.

Good luck!

1. Predict the winner: Michigan at Michigan State

TC: Michigan State
KG: Michigan State
KP: Michigan
KT: Michigan

2. Predict the winner: Penn State at Illinois

TC: Penn State
KG: Penn State
KP: Penn State
KT: Penn State

3. Predict the winner: Wisconsin at Minnesota

TC: Minnesota
KG: Minnesota
KP: Wisconsin
KT: Minnesota

4. Predict the winner: Northwestern at Purdue

TC: Northwestern
KG: Northwestern
KP: Purdue
KT: Purdue

5. Predict the winner: Ohio State at Indiana

TC: Ohio State
KG: Ohio State
KP: Ohio State
KT: Ohio State

6. Which of these three road teams--Michigan Wisconsin or Northwestern--has the largest margin of victory in Week 5?

TC: Michigan
KG: Northwestern
KP: Wisconsin
KT: Michigan

7. Name a Big Ten defensive player that will have at least 1 sack in Week 5.

TC: Greg Jones, MSU
KG: Thaddeus Gibson, OSU
KP: Corey Wootton, MSU
KT: Adrian Clayborne, Iowa

8. Name a Big Ten defensive player that will have a double-digit tackle game in Week 5.

TC: Jason Werner, Purdue
KG: Nate Triplett, Minnesota
KP: Navorro Bowman, PSU
KT: Pat Angerer, Iowa

9. Name a Big Ten offense that will feature a 100-yard receiver in Week 5.

TC: Northwestern
KG: Michigan State
KP: Minnesota
KT: Michigan

10. Name a Big Ten offense that will feature a 100-yard rusher in Week 5.

TC: Wisconsin
KG: Iowa
KP: Purdue
KT:  Iowa

TIE-BREAKER:  How many punts will Wisconsin and Minnesota have combined?

TC: 11
KG: 8
KP: 18
KT: 13

FBT is happy to announce the Week Four winner of the Ten by Ten Contest. Congratulations are in order in a big, big way for Kevin Trahan.

Kevin, an Iowa die-hard and Bleacher Report writer, answered seven questions correctly last week--as did seven other contestants, but Kevins's tie breaker (93) was the closest to the actual number (73) and therefore he wins!

A quick shout out to the other First and Big Ten readers scoring 70 points this week: Molly Cary (110), Mark Churchill (121), Kristopher Fiecke (n/a), Nick Fotis (149), Justin Potts (142), Carl Stine (147), and  John Templon (165).

On to the results...

Once again, FBT congratulates Nathan Noel, who posted an winning score and the closest tiebreaker answer to win the week.

A recap of the questions for week four follow, along with the picks from FBT's trio of "experts".

This week there will be no guest picker becasue FBT did not receive a ballot from last week's winner.

So can you top FBT's Tim Cary, Kristofer Green and Kevin Paul?

Remember entries will be accepted until 7:00 AM ET on Sept. 26. For more info visit the Ten by Ten page! 

Week three proved to be more difficult than one would have assumed. Impossible is more like it.

In last week's Ten by Ten contest, no one got questions nine and ten correct. Not one single person. Question seven was a little better. One person answered it correctly. Oh, and someone did get half of question eight correct.

WOW!

Who knew it would be so impossible to pick which quarterbacks would have the most passing attempts? A look at the answer reveals two quarterbacks who had similar stats and similar endings to two otherwise brilliant performances.

Congratulations are in order... Nathan Noel answered six questions correctly (along with four others, including FBT's own Kevin Paul) and had the closest tie breaker answer to win Week Three of Ten by Ten!

The WEEK 4 questions are also now posted. Get your picks in by Saturday at 7 AM ET!

On to the week three results...

Once again, FBT congratulates Edward Rytech, who posted an impressive 90 points in week two to win the week.

A recap of the questions for week three follow, along with the picks from FBT's trio of "experts" and the week two winner.

Can you top us?

Remember entries will be accepted until 7:00 AM ET. For more info visit the Ten by Ten page! 

Another week of college football is in the books, and once again the Big Ten conference provided plenty of fireworks, from Michigan State being upset by Central Michigan to Wisconsin holding off Fresno State in double overtime.  And oh yeah, by the way, those young kids at Michigan look like they could be the real deal, after holding off the Irish in a thriller.  

The Ten by Ten contest also had its fair share of fireworks, with score totals up significantly from week one.  Yours truly did much better, as did the two others from the FBT crew, but word to the wise, never change a pick last minute... going away from your gut never works out - at least not for me...  

But I digress...  

On a happy note, we would like to congratulate Edward Rytych, who posted an impressive 90 points in week two.  Ed (hope it's OK to call you Ed!) held off newcomer Brian Haukoos in the tiebreaker, predicting a total score four points closer to the final of the Air Force-Minnesota game.

But let's cut the chit-chat and recap week two - here are the results:

Week 1 of Ten by Ten could've gone better for the FBT trio - much better.  

But that's OK - we feel confident that we'll turn it around this weekend.

Think you can take us?  

Let's see what you got - and oh yeah, by the way, go ahead and compare your picks to a couple of our winners from Week 1, too.

Here's a recap of the 10 questions for Week 2, plus our predictions (with guest picks included):

College football is here and if you haven't heard already, the boys at First and Big Ten are celebrating by having a little contest on Big Ten football.

It's not too late to play - deadline for the first week is Saturday at 7am.  But since the season starts tonight with Indiana taking the field against Eastern Kentucky, we are going to post our picks now.

Here's a recap of the 10 questions for Week 1, plus our predictions:

Are you a college football genius?

I thought so.

Now put that knowledge to the test by playing First and Big Ten's new weekly contest Ten by Ten.

Ten by Ten is part picking contest and part fantasy football. This is how it works.

Each week you will be asked to answer ten questions on the upcoming weekend of Big Ten Football.

There will be some questions asking you to predict games and some questions that will ask you to predict the performance of players, teams, coaches, or anything else we can think of.

After you make your picks, e-mail them to us by Saturday at 7 a.m. ET to be entered. Make sure to include your name.

That's it. Simple.

So what's the point, you ask?

Each week you will not only be competing against all the other entries, but you will also be competing against First and Big Ten writers Kristofer Green, Kevin Paul, and Tim Cary.

If you can top our trio and all the other entries--YOU WIN!

Now here's what makes Ten by Ten so special.

The winner from each week will join Kristofer, Kevin, and Tim as a guest picker for the next week's contest and be featured on First and Big Ten.

The scores will accumulate through the entire season on the Ten by Ten page of First and Big Ten. The person with the highest score at the end of the season will be named The Official First and Big Ten Genius for 2009. (And, as if that title wasn't enough, we'll also throw some prizes your way.)

Sounds like fun, right?

Visit the Ten by Ten page for this week's questions!

What are you waiting for? GO!