Big Ten Football Morning Coffee: Worship the Rose Bowl Because Pasadena Is Warm

Rise and shine, friends. Here's what's going down in the Big Ten today.

—Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon took an unusual tack in his support of the bowl system in the playoffs, saying the warm weather is what makes Pasadena the best place to host a Big Ten playoff game:

"If you polled our players and said, 'If you played a really tough, successful, long regular season, the award you're going to get is to travel to Ford Field or Lucas Oil Stadium,' they would look at you and say, 'Huh?'

"They love going to warm weather. They love going to some of these locations they, in some cases, have never visited." 

Well, it's about time someone played the "think of the children!!!!" card. And I'm 100 percent sure Dave Brandon has never conducted that poll.

—Speaking of athletic directors in the Mitten State (OK, it's the Great Lake State, but it really should be the Mitten State), Michigan State AD Mark Hollis beat Dave Brandon and three other national candidates to take home the Sports Business Journal's award for Athletic Director of the Year. Our support still stands for Arkansas AD Jeff Long, but apparently super-firing a scumbag football coach isn't all it takes to win this award.

—Bob Flounders of PennLive.com shoots down some hopes that Penn State can open the season at 9-0, and correctly points out that while Penn State's first nine games are all winnable, as many as seven of them are going to be struggles as well. By the way, "find a stupid argument and poke holes in it and call that an article" is my favorite Internet pastime ever. I don't know where I'd be without it.

—HuskerExtra's countdown of the most memorable Nebraska touchdowns from 100 yards to one continues with Tom Rathman's 84-yard score against Colorado in 1985. I honest to God thought it was impossible for a fullback to run 84 yards at once. So their legs don't just fly off at 60 yards? Are you sure?