Good morning. Here are three college football thoughts to chew on as you begin your day.

1. Terry Smith continues to speak the truth

Terry Smith is sometimes too honest for his own good. But no one in Happy Valley will take issue with what Smith said about Drew Allar after the former Penn State QB was drafted by the Steelers.

Speaking this week to 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh, Smith, the Nittany Lions’ associate head coach, said:

“I’ve been known as the truth teller here at Penn State. I think unfairly to Drew, our system wasn’t built for him. It wasn’t made for him. Some of the decisions were taken out of his control.”

Smith covered much more ground in the interview, as detailed by Lions247 here.

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You’ve seen the doom and gloom surrounding the rich getting richer, how this past weekend’s NFL Draft was just the latest example of the power conferences stealing and hogging all of the talent, sucking the star power out of the smaller conferences and reaping the benefits of the hard work that others put in while developing these guys years earlier.

Well, we crunched the numbers after the 257-pick draft, and we are here to tell you …

… that everyone is mostly right.

But how should we measure who gets credit for whom when it comes to NFL development? Sticking a player with the school he most recently played for is the simplest way for us to identify where everyone comes from, but is it the fairest or most accurate way when 127 of the 257 drafted players transferred at least once during their college careers?

This is a new-world problem in college football, not unlike the Senior Day dilemma that my Substack brethren Bill Landis and Doug Lesmerises have astutely brought up.

(Long story short: Carnell Tate didn’t get a Senior Day at Ohio State. Grad transfers who spent four years elsewhere did.)

It doesn’t make sense.

The draft breakdowns here make a little bit more sense, but the numbers do reflect a slightly different narrative than what’s out there right now.

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The Big Ten will likely have the No. 1 NFL Draft pick — at quarterback — on Thursday night.

Between Fernando Mendoza and Drew Allar, the conference will have at least two signal callers picked this upcoming weekend. The league could have as many as five QBs drafted.

Where’s that leave the Big Ten for next season?

Glad you asked.

We broke down the recent QB turnover at each Big Ten school to see:

a) How well-positioned the league is for 2026

b) Which schools have had more of a revolving door at QB than others

The findings were interesting, to say the least.

To begin, we looked at the Week 1 starter at every Big Ten school, going back as far as we needed to for each school before we found a returning Week 1 starter. We also noted which were transfers — and noted the year they transferred, if they weren’t immediate starters at their Big Ten school — and how many years they started at their Big Ten school (2x, 3x, etc.).

Some takeaways:

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The Big Ten owns college sports, on and off the field. Some thoughts on how we got here and what comes next.

1. It’s not just that the Big Ten has won the last three national titles in football … with three different schools. It’s not just that the Big Ten has won this season’s national title in football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball … also with three different schools, the first conference to ever do just that. (The SEC won all three in 2007, but Florida was responsible for two of those titles.) And it’s not just the fact that both Michigan and Wisconsin are in the men’s Frozen Four, which starts Thursday night. (OK, OK, the SEC doesn’t sponsor hockey. But to be fair, we didn’t count Wisconsin’s women’s team’s second-straight NCAA title, since the Big Ten doesn’t sponsor women’s hockey.)

2. No, look at the lead-up to the NFL Draft. Specifically, The Beast. Everyone has his or her favorite draftnik out there, but for my money, no one does it better than The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, who released his draft bible on Wednesday.

3. Of Brugler’s top-10 players, six are from the Big Ten or Notre Dame. Just one — LSU corner Mansoor Delane — is from the SEC. One!

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INDIANAPOLIS — The one man who had been here before stood against a wall in the Michigan locker room 45 minutes after midnight, catching up on congratulatory messages while taking in the scene around him.

Bob Bland was the Wolverines’ equipment manager in 1989, the last time this program won a national championship. That was his second season. This is his 39th. So as Michigan players and coaches celebrated in the aftermath of winning their second national title on Monday night, Bland soaked it all in just a little bit more this time around.

“I was talking to him, and he was like, ‘This is crazy,’ ” senior guard Charlie May, son of second-year coach Dusty May, told The Inside Zone. “In our second year here, we won it. In his second year here, he won it. And we were just like, ‘Man, this university can’t go another 37. We need some more.’ ”

Michigan’s 69-63 win over UConn capped a dominant NCAA Tournament run that brought out Wolverines stars and omens of yesteryear. The Fab Five reunited for an alternate broadcast of Saturday’s semifinal win over Arizona. John Beilein, the winningest coach in school history, was shown on the Lucas Oil Stadium videoboard during the triumph over the Huskies. And when it was all over and the confetti rained down from the rafters, Big Ten player of the year Yaxel Lendeborg held up a “Shock the World” sign, paying homage to the 1989 national title team.

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INDIANAPOLIS — At last, those of us who have long wondered whether Malcolm Moran or Danny Hurley would be a tougher boss now have a definitive answer.

We can thank UConn guard Alec Millender for that.

“I’ll probably say Coach Hurley,” the sixth-year senior revealed, after he finally stopped laughing at the question.

Millender transferred from IU Indy to UConn this past offseason.

He is in the Final Four for the second straight season.

How?

Well, while at IU Indy, Millender was part of the school’s Sports Capital Journalism program, which is run by Moran, who was a longtime college sports reporter at USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times.

Moran is widely known for being the nicest guy in the business.

Hurley? Well, we’ll defer to Millender’s comments up above.

Thanks to Moran, the Sports Capital Journalism program has a student presence at every men’s Final Four and College Football Playoff national championship game.

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Some quick college basketball thoughts ahead of the final weekend of the season (tear emoji):

1. Here are the 247Sports rankings of Duke’s last three recruiting classes (2023-25): 2, 1, 1.

2. Here are North Carolina’s: 32, 8, 5.

3. In the five cycles since Roy Williams retired (2022-26), Duke’s average recruiting ranking is 1.2. North Carolina’s is 18.

4. Is that a Hubert Davis problem? No. In the final eight years that Williams was at UNC, Duke’s average recruiting ranking was 2.25. UNC’s was 19.62.

5. That last number is a little skewed by the Tar Heels’ No. 70 ranking in 2015, but even if you remove that year from the equation, UNC’s average ranking during Williams’ other final seven years is 12.42.

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CHICAGO — They were almost two ships passing in the night.

More than two decades later, they’re celebrating a Final Four berth together.

Anna May and her growing family needed a place to live in 2005. Her husband had just landed his first full-time assistant coaching gig at Eastern Michigan, and the family did not know the lay of the land in Ypsilanti, Mich.

Enter Chrislan Manuel, an area realtor whose husband was an associate athletic director at nearby University of Michigan.

Chrislan found the May family a home that spring. That summer, Chrislan was on the move herself, with her husband taking the AD job at Buffalo.

And 19 years later, Anna’s husband interviewed with Chrislan’s husband for Michigan’s head-coaching job, where Dusty May told Warde Manuel of the full-circle moment, then won him over to become the Wolverines’ next leader.

“So maybe that was it,” Warde, who had been unaware of the connection until he met with Dusty, said with a smile.

Michigan is in the Final Four for the ninth time in program history, a number that doubles as the ninth-most appearances in the sport’s history (including vacated seasons). The Wolverines enter this weekend in Indianapolis as the favorites to win it all, which would mark their second national title.

How are they doing this?

How do they keep doing this?

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CHICAGO — The Big Ten and the SEC are meeting at the corner of Clark and Addison.

Women’s volleyball will be coming to Wrigley Field this Labor Day weekend, sources told The Inside Zone, with a doubleheader matchup between the two power conferences set to take place in primetime at the Friendly Confines as part of “Big Ten/SEC Volleyball Challenge Week.”

Nebraska will face Missouri and Penn State will face Kentucky on Sunday, Sept. 6 at the home of the Chicago Cubs. The first match will start at 6 p.m. CT, followed by the second match at 8.

Both will air on FOX.

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CHICAGO — Michigan is going to the Final Four. The Wolverines did it in front a partial crowd, with fans of the maize and blue packing the United Center for their team’s 95-62 win over Tennessee.

Our man David Kabira was on-hand to capture the sights from Michigan’s win and its ensuing celebration.

Enjoy his work.

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CHICAGO — Ira Harris grew up with next-to-nothing in the Bronx. His mother had always wanted him to go to college, but the only schools that would make that financially feasible were Indiana and Michigan. His family lacked the funds to visit either university, so Harris picked his destination the way many fill out their March Madness brackets.

“I have no idea what the hell a Hoosier is,” he said. “I’ll go be a Wolverine.”

That decision would change his life.

He went on to a lucrative career in finance, eventually launching his own investment banking business. He never missed a chance to give back to the school that took a chance on him, and in 2014 the head football coach position was named after him and his wife, Nicki.

Harris died of a heart attack on Feb. 21, 2022. He was 83. The mere mention of that day brought tears to the eyes of his grandson while inside the Wolverines’ locker room on Sunday.

Harrison Hochberg decided to redshirt this season, his third with the program. Always thinking two steps ahead, he wanted to take advantage of a five-year plan to get two degrees. And he knew in his heart that this year’s team had the chance to be extra special, so why not sacrifice the few minutes he would get for the greater good?

Michigan made good on that promise by obliterating Tennessee, 95-62, at the United Center. It was the Wolverines’ 35th win of the season, and their 11th win by 30 or more points. Yaxel Lendeborg had said two days earlier that “we might be the best Michigan team ever,” and he and his teammates have gone a long way toward validating that claim so far.

This run has meant a lot to a lot of people.

It has meant more to Hochberg.

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CHICAGO — If it’s a big college sports event in the Windy City, The Inside Zone will be there.

To write about it and to photograph it.

Our guy David Kabira was in The House That MJ Built on Friday night to capture Michigan-Alabama and Tennessee-Iowa State.

He’ll be back on Sunday, too, when the Wolverines and Volunteers clash for a spot in the Final Four

Enjoy David’s work.

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CHICAGO — In The House that Michael Jordan Built, His Airness’ alma mater was impossible to ignore.

Even with North Carolina having been eliminated a week ago.

Even with the perceived frontrunner for the job, Billy Donovan, out of sight as his current team (Bulls) readies to face his former team (Thunder) Friday in Oklahoma City.

As for the four college coaches present ahead of Friday’s Sweet 16 at the United Center, three have been linked in one form or fashion to the Tar Heels’ head-coaching vacancy.

As for the one who hasn’t?

“I’m from North Carolina,” joked Rick Barnes, who, at 71 years old and on a lifetime contract with Tennessee, is about as untouchable as it gets in college sports these days.

The others checked the boxes of what to say (T.J. Otzelberger, Nate Oats), while the one who may be most likely of the group to depart for Chapel Hill, Dusty May, somehow managed to never be directly asked about UNC.

Otzelberger was as definitive as can be in stating his desire to stay at Iowa State, echoing comments he made earlier in the week in Ames about how happy he is leading the Cyclones.

Let’s take a look at what each said, and what each means:

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CHICAGO — His back to a wall blanketed by the Big Ten Tournament bracket, Dusty May held court on Selection Sunday and fielded a question about there being no other Big Ten team in the Midwest region, where Michigan would be the No. 1 seed.

“I’d like all the Big Ten teams to advance as far as absolutely possible, so for us to avoid any Big Ten team until later on would be great for us, assuming we handle our business,” said May, the Henry Iba Award winner as the USBWA’s coach of the year.

May, who returns the Wolverines to the United Center on Friday, got his wish on both counts.

No. 1 seed Michigan made quick work of Howard and St. Louis en route back to the Windy City.

Metaphorically, the Wolverines have plenty of Big Ten company.

A Big Ten-record six teams are in the Sweet 16. With Nebraska facing Iowa in the Sweet 16, the conference is guaranteed to have at least one Elite Eight team.

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I happened to be walking past the Michigan locker room postgame Sunday right as the Midwest regional bracket was getting announced.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a couple of managers and videographers anxiously looking up at the TV with their laptops open.

As soon as the 8-9 matchup was announced — Michigan’s potential opponents should it advance past Round 1 — they screamed: “Georgia and St. Louis. Let’s go!” Then they ran into the coaches’ locker room to begin prep for the busiest and best time of the year.

It brought me back to my teenage years, when I seriously considered pursuing a career in basketball coaching rather than writing. I managed for my high school team. I got a kick when The New York Times — via some guy named Pete Thamel, whatever became of him? — wrote a story on all of the dirty work that managers did to help their teams.

The sport, much as I hate to admit this, just isn’t covered the way it used to be. That’s not to say there isn’t great coverage out there — I won’t name them all, for fear of leaving someone out — but there was a time, not that long ago, when The Times itself would cover the Big East men’s basketball tournament at MSG as thoroughly as it would a White House event.

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Those days, unfortunately, are long gone.

I do some hoops coverage here when relevant. I’d like to do more if that’s what you guys want. Let me know.

I was at the Big Ten Tournament last week, since it was here in Chicago. I’ll be at the Midwest regional next week, also here. And I’ll be at the Final Four in Indianapolis, since it’s a short drive away and it doubles as a convention of sorts for the college sports industry, which helps inform me to better serve you.

Michigan, according to several sportsbooks, is the favorite to make it to Indy and win it all. Are the Wolverines your pick?

We’re happy to introduce The Inside Zone Bracket Challenge on CBS.

The rules are simple: One bracket per entry. Winner-take-all.

What’s the winner get? I’ve got some ideas cooking (think exclusive merch), but I’m open to other ideas.

Test your knowledge against mine, then talk endless amounts of trash when you beat me.

Good luck.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

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CHICAGO — Thanks again to David Kabira for his shots this week.

You can check out his action from the earlier rounds of the Big Ten Tournament here.

Enjoy the photos from Purdue’s 80-72 win over Michigan.

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CHICAGO — News and notes from the Big Ten Tournament as we look ahead to the Big Dance.

1. This was Matt Painter at the start of the Big Ten tournament, after beating Northwestern on Thursday: “Michigan had a lot of success in this tournament last year, and their seed did not move. They might have slid up a little bit, but they stayed where they stayed. So after you’ve done it for 21 years, you realize that. I didn’t used to realize that. You’re just like, Hey, this is where you are. We’re going to be a 3 seed or a 4 seed.”

2. This was Painter at the end of the tournament, after upsetting Michigan on Sunday: “You got a scholarship to play college basketball at a Big Ten university, you’ve got an advantage over a lot of people. It doesn’t mean you’re better than anybody, but you’ve got an advantage. Use that. Don’t let basketball use you up. Have balance in your life and understand the big picture. Those are the things we really try to sell. I’m cool with it. I’m cool with guys making money. I’m good. Make money, make good basketball decisions, and get your education. Do it all, man. Pimp the system.”

3. All candid, all refreshing. Just one problem: Purdue is now a No. 2 seed after its 80-72 win here, a validation for the Boilermakers, yes, but also for this tournament, which too often has seen its champion get the short end of the stick with the selection show airing immediately afterward. (Yes, we know the committee makes contingency brackets, but still.)

4. This is the Purdue team that we all expected to see at the outset of the season, when the Boilermakers were the No. 1 team in the AP and coaches’ polls. Matt Painter’s crew blitzed the competition across four days here, from flattening a hot Northwestern team that had taken the Boilers to the limit just a week earlier, to a second-half barrage that No. 1 seed Michigan had no answer for.

5. Purdue was incredible in the second half, hitting 57.7 percent of its shots and turning the ball over just once. Braden Smith enters the NCAA Tournament just 1 assist shy of Bobby Hurley’s career NCAA record, and he may even need a new permanent jersey number to do it, as he donned the Superman cape in the second half by wearing a nameless No. 41 after ripping his No. 3 jersey out of frustration. That’s Tournament MOP stuff, as, not surprisingly, Smith earned the honor after the game.

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CHICAGO — Our man David Kabira is back to strut his stuff for the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament.

Here are some shots from his five days of work so far. Check back here for a championship gallery following Sunday’s final between Michigan and Purdue as well.

And by the way, David will be back with us for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 at the United Center in two weeks.

Enjoy!

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — If you know anything about Bret Bielema, you know that he will alway stick up for the Big Ten.

The Illinois coach did just that last offseason, seemingly going on a media tour to pump up his program and his conference after the Illini posted a 10-win season and the Big Ten won a second consecutive national title.

The Big Ten then made it three championships in three years in 2025, with Indiana completing the trifecta that had been started by Michigan (2023) and Ohio State (2024). Illinois was no slouch itself, going 9-4 and beating an SEC team (Tennessee) in a bowl game for the second consecutive season, completing the winningest two-year run (19) in program history.

On Feb. 13, a document leaked to ESPN.com detailing Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti’s plans for a 24-team College Football Playoff. Though the Illini would have been just outside of the hypothetical bracket in 2025, they figure to be one of the main teams that would benefit from this proposed new postseason system.

I sat down with Bielema in his office on Friday to cover a number of topics. But his thoughts on the future Playoff format ended up dominating most of the conversation.

Here is our exchange on the 24-team system, which has been widely derided across the country but has staunch support inside the conference’s footprint.

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — They lined up nearly 20 hours before tip, converging upon State Farm Center around midnight and camping out for one of the biggest games in this building’s history. The Orange Krush came ready, shouting every derogatory chant toward Morez Johnson Jr. that one could think of. A fathead depicting Johnson as a clown — he transferred out of here last season — was paraded around the periphery of the court pregame.

When it costs more than $300 just to get a seat in this joint, you do what you can to get your money’s worth.

Then the game started. And though this building on this Friday night will go on the short list of loudest venues in college basketball this year, a different kind of air was reached thanks to the visitors.

Michigan beat Illinois, 84-70.

The Wolverines are your outright Big Ten champions with two games remaining.

They are the betting favorites to win it all, which means they could become their conference’s first national title winner in 26 years.

March Madness is March Madness. Anything can happen. Just look at 2023 Purdue — which was a No. 1 seed and lost in the first round — or any number of cautionary tales in recent men’s college basketball history.

Yet it’s hard to watch this Michigan team do what it has continued to do throughout this historic season and not come away thinking these Wolverines are different.

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