When the Big Ten announced “Legends” and “Leaders” as divisions the backlash was strong. In fact, it was so strong that commissioner Jim Delany considered renaming the divisions briefly, only to eventually announce he was keeping them as is. This PR blunder was nationally recognized, and the division names have become a fine bar stool conversation.

Fans both inside and outside the Midwest can now openly joke about these names without wanting to punch themselves in the groin, although it’s obvious that the Big Ten was completely misguided when rebranding their conference. Lesson learned, right?

Well, not really.

Nebraska officially joined the Big Ten on July 1st, and on Friday morning Nebraska and Iowa publicly became the B1G’s latest rivalry and the conference’s fourteenth trophy game while kicking off day two of Big Ten media days. And while the trophy itself will be revealed at a later date, they did, however, announce the name of this yearly matchup.

Ladies and gentlemen, behold “The Heroes Game.”

Yes, really.

“We believe that the people of Iowa and the people of Nebraska are very much alike in many ways,” said Nebraska AD Tom Osborne. “Both believe in an honest day’s work, the importance of community and family, and both love college football and their football heroes.  We also know there are citizens of our states doing exceptional things every day and we think they are deserving of some recognition and we look forward to using this game to do that.”

The Big Ten is more out of touch then we thought, and that’s saying quite a bit. I can’t help but wonder what Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott thinks of the Big Ten’s latest PR decision as he’s begun to cozy up with the likes of Google and establish other ways to get Pac-12 (for now) games on devices that don’t even exist it.

The first “Heroes Game” will be played at Nebraska on November 25^th, the day after Thanksgiving. Hopefully, and I mean HOPEFULLY, this trophy will involve corn in some capacity.

Recruiting has reached new levels of absurdity in the past few years, and with increased year-round coverage has come athletes getting scholarship offers at much (and I mean MUCH) younger ages. Lane Kiffin certainly is not opposed to reaching out to younger talent, and it was just last year that he offered 13-year-old QB David Sills after taking the job at USC.

Although Lane and co. have gained plenty of national recognition for their offer, it’s not just the Trojans reaching out. The latest team to claim their stake in recruiting younger players is the Iowa Hawkeyes, who offered Illinois freshmen Brian Allen a scholarship on Monday. While he isn’t quite 13, he’s not far off. And as physically gifted as Allen is already, he still has yet to play a snap for his varsity high school team. Unique times…

At 15, Allen is already 6’1” and 250 pounds. It’s also been reported that he’s put on 35 pounds in the past few months alone. I could probably do that if I wanted, but these sound like “good” pounds.

Earlier this year, Allen took third at the Illinois state wrestling tournament at the 215-pound weight class, so he’s obviously athletic as well. On top of this, Brian’s older brother Jack was one of the top o-line recruits in the state this past season and will play ball at Michigan State this fall.

“It’s unreal,” Allen told Hawkeyereport.com. “After getting the offer, I think I just have to work harder now. It’s inspiring and will drive me to do more and be even better.”

Translation: the genetics are there, he’s already big (and getting bigger) so why not?

The word “rhabdomyolysis” was a mystery to most before January of this year.

Now, however, college football fans around the country are very aware of this medical disorder after thirteen Iowa Hawkeyes were diagnosed with this condition and hospitalized following intense winter workouts. And while Iowa attempted to put this situation behind them by releasing their findings regarding the situation on the day spring practice began, it may not go away for quite a while.

One on those players diagnosed after these workouts was Iowa defensive back Willie Lowe. According to ESPN.com’s Joe Schad, Lowe has asked for a release from his scholarship and would like to transfer to different school. Although Lowe wants out of Iowa, he’s still unsure if he’ll be able to play again.

“I don’t know,” Lowe said on whether he believes he can return to football. “I would like to be able to sit out a year, regain my strength, feel fine and play again. But I don’t know. I am still down 20 pounds and I am having headaches every few days.”

The university has already stated that all thirteen players have been cleared to participate in spring practice, but that certainly doesn’t appear to be the case with Lowe. He told ESPN that he worked out on Monday for the first time since the incident took place.

“Only a few players are back to full speed that I know of,” Lowe said. “Some said this wasn’t a big deal. But this was a big deal to me.”

Schad is also reporting that two family sources from other players who were hospitalized have acknowledged that Lowe isn’t the only one still suffering after the fact. This means that more players could come forward requesting a transfer although that’s tough to predict at this point.

This isn’t good for Iowa on a few fronts. For one, their turbulent offseason continues even though they’ve obviously tried to move past it and look forward to next year. Second, what sort of legal implications could follow when some of these players and their families talk with attorneys (if they haven’t already)?

I imagine there are more than a few Iowa lawyers wondering this exact question and chomping at the bit to find out…