Welcome to the home of The Sweep, the weekly Big Ten-related football prediction column that is replacing my former franchise, Pickin' on the Big Ten. Now that that conference has grown to 18 teams (and I have grown into my mid-50s) my interest and ability to keep tabs on everything has diminished. My interest in writing about football remains, however, so here we are with a new, refocused column.
Every week I will cover games involving these five teams:
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Minnesota
- Nebraska
- Wisconsin
Why these five teams? Because it's my column, that's why.
What happens when any of these five teams isn't playing, or they're playing each other? I'll pick games involving other teams, of course. Which ones?
Whichever ones I want. Maybe it'll be other Big Ten teams. Maybe it'll be Iowa State, or Kansas State, or North Dakota State. Southern Illinois. The University of Dubuque. Whichever ones I want. I can only promise you the only time you'll ever see SEC-related content here is when one of those five teams listed above is involved.
Will there be other content here? Maybe. It'll be Midwest-centric and probably nostalgic if it happens.
So stay tuned. I will begin previewing the 2025 season shortly.
(Photo credit: me. A shiny new dime if you can tell me where that picture was taken.)
