Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to witness history. This, my friends, is the first ever Big Ten Bloggers Roundtable (Snazzy Name TBD). Bloggers from around the Big Ten are coming together in a multipartisan effort to cover Big Ten football with a depth and insight you won't see anywhere else, except maybe the Big Ten Network (and since your cable company doesn't get the BTN, you won't see it there, either). And if we aren't going for insight, we'll go for witty banter and cheap shots at other teams and conferences. With no further ado, I present the first Big Ten Roundtable, hosted by Badger Sports.

1a. The press and the coaches will be predicting the Big Ten champ at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago on Wednesday. That's fine, but overdone. In lieu of boilerplate predictions of who will come out on top, which Big Ten team will be the most surprising? Remember, surprises can be good or bad; the underdog who comes out of nowhere to share the title is just as surprising as the favorite who winds up with five losses and no bowl bid.

I'm going to pick Iowa as a surprise. I don't think they'll be a huge surprise, I don't expect them to win the Big Ten championship or anything, but I do think they'll be pretty good. I'm not basing this on any in-depth analysis of the team (so I reserve the right to change my mind later), but they have two things going for them: expecations are reasonable, and they don't have Drew Tate. Kirk Ferentz's best seasons have come when the Hawkeyes were underdogs. As soon as people started expecting things from his teams, they fell apart. Granted, injuries played a role in this, but still, it appears the Football Gods want the Hawkeyes to sneak up on people. They'll have that chance this season.

And Drew Tate, while a talented QB, hurt his team last season as much as he helped. During the offseason, I think he caught Lee Corso talking about how he would have to carry the Hawkeyes and thought, "I will? Well I'd better break out the Brett Farve game film to prepare to carry my team!" And so Drew learned to throw into double or even triple coverage, off his back foot or off of no foot in particular, all in an effort to singlehandedly win games. And he pulled it off occasionally, but I think he hurt the team at least as often as he helped.

So that's why, knowing next to nothing about the Hawkeyes, I'm making them my surprise team. I'm thinking they'll finish ahead of two of this season's Big Four of Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin. Which two? No idea. But third seems adequately surprising for Iowa.

1b. Imagine it's December, and the consensus in the media is that your team's season was "surprising." Is this a Good Thing or a Bad Thing? What would have to happen for you to consider your team's season surprising?

It could be either, but that would probably be a bad thing for the Buckeyes. It'd be surprising if the team ended up in the national championship game again, but it'd also be surprising if the team couldn't put together at least a nine-win season. Predictions for the team are generally of the double-digit win, possible conference championship contention variety. The schedule shapes up nicely, but given the talent at the top of the Big Ten (and increasingly throughout the rest of the conference) and the difficulty in getting through a season unscathed, I'm betting that if the Buckeyes don't perform as expected, they'll be performing worse than expected.

2. A preseason player of the year will also be dubbed in Chicago. For your team to succeed, which player or unit is going to have to put forth a "player of the year" performance? What's the one position that would take your team to the next level if it performs above expectations?

I don't see the season being a success without a solid running game, so Beanie Wells is going to have to step up. The line should be pretty good, and the passing game should (hopefully) be good enough that teams can't load up in the box to stop Wells, but he's going to have to produce regardless. The team's been successful without an offense in the past (2003, for example), but this defense won't be as solid as the 2003 version. Bottom line: as goes Beanie, so goes the team.

Now if we want to exceed expectations, that's when Todd Boeckman (or Rob Schoenhoft, or Antonio Henton) will have to step up. Boeckman is expected to be a bigger Craig Krenzel this season. All anyone expects from him is smart, safe play. If he doesn't screw up, the team should be decent. But if, instead, Boeckman becomes approaching a bigger Troy Smith, defensive coordinators would have nightmares. If Boeckman doesn't merely make the safe play, if he makes the best play, the offense will be tough to stop. They wouldn't lose a step from last season (I mean the first twelve games, not that last one that may or may not have happened), and with the defense having a year of experience under their belts, the team would probably be the favorite to win the Big Ten title, and would certainly be a national championship contender. I don't expect that'll happen, but it would be pretty cool.

3. Which Big Ten team's out-of-conference schedule would you most want to have this year? Why? Do you think your team will have out-of-conference losses this year?

In terms of getting through the nonconference games without a loss, give me Indiana's schedule. At home against Indiana State, Akron, and Ball State, and a road trip to Kalamazoo for a game against Western Michigan. OSU's nonconference schedule isn't exactly a murderer's row, but if I want a win, I'd rather go on the road to Western Michigan than to Washington. In terms of a schedule worth watching, though, I'd take Michigan's. Appalachian State and Eastern Michigan aren't especially exciting, but games against Oregon and Notre Dame would at least be worth watching.

As far as out-of-conference losses go, while the Washington game isn't a gimme, the Buckeyes better not lose a game outside the conference. If they do, it's a pretty good sign that the season is in a bit of trouble.

4. Here's a chance to look like a complete genius in a few months: pick the biggest in-conference upset that will happen this season. Justify your prediction!

I'm going with Indiana over Penn State. The previous week, Penn State will have played Wisconsin at home, while the following week, the Nittany Lions head to Columbus. The Hoosiers will be easy to overlook, and they'll feature my favorite non-Buckeye Big Ten player in QB Kellen Lewis. He'll have James Hardy to throw to, and the speedy Marcus Thigpen in the backfield, so the offense should be dangerous. If the defense can put together a decent game and Anthony Morelli doesn't play well, the Hoosiers will have a chance to notch the win.

5. Say something nice about the Big Ten school whose name precedes yours alphabetically. Say something mean about the one that comes after.

Northwestern is a relatively well-behaved bunch of smart people that all end up being doctors or sportswriters (but seldom sports bloggers, for some reason). It's all right, it's okay, we'll all be pumping their gas someday.

Penn State is a bunch of bagged-urine tossing no-goodniks that all wear white and have an insatiable desire for brains.

6. USC: great football program, or greatest football program? Also, how about that SEC? Damn, those guys are fast!

USC is not merely the greatest football program of all time, they're the greatest anything of all time. I don't understand why we have to keep playing through seasons when we could just skip it all and award them a national championship at the start. Then we could just spend Saturdays watching Shelley Smith report on Pete Carroll and the Trojans having fun and being awesome.

As for SEC speed, I understand that SEC players are so fast that when they get out of bed to shut off the light, they get to the switch only to discover they'd already beaten themselves to it. Then they are so fast that they can get back in bed before their past selves can even turn off the lights. The space-time continuum means nothing when southern speed is involved.