Big Ten Football Morning Coffee: Miniature Basketballs Will Ruin Ohio State

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

—Ohio State released its 16 potential secondary violations, per BuckeyeXtra.com. This is a brilliant move by Ohio State, because when the potential violations its football team is facing include "offered miniature basketballs for a winter workout" and "provided food and lodging on an official visit for a player's aunt because the program thought she was this player's guardian," it further illustrates how much this is more an indictment of the NCAA, not Ohio State.

—Michigan may go to Thomas Rawls instead of Vincent Smith for the backup tailback role in 2012, according to AnnArbor.com. This is, in all likelihood, a positive; Rawls is only a sophomore, so if he's elevating his level of play this much this early, he should be a significant factor on the field this season. 

—Nebraska hired former tight end Jamie Williams as an associate athletic director earlier this week, via the Lincoln Journal Star (which, considering Tom Osborne's ever-advancing age, could mean a chance at advancement relatively soon), and yesterday, Williams' son Evan decided to walk on at Nebraska as a QB, according to Omaha.com.

Evan is only 6'0" and 175 pounds, so our advice to him is to spend his entire free time eating and sprinting until he is Tommie Frazier. That's how it works, right?

—Raises ahoy in East Lansing, as defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi and other Michigan State assistants were given substantial raises by the school, per MLive.com. Narduzzi, in particular, is moving his base salary from $235,000 to a cool half-million per year.

This is essentially a reward for not bolting for Texas A&M or Akron over the offseason. Even athletic director Mark Hollis acknowledges that Narduzzi's future is as a head coach, though, so it's really only a matter of time.