Big Ten Football

Penn State's social media team has revised a widely mocked graphic meant to highlight the program's NFL alumni.

On Thursday, the Nittany Lions account tweeted a graphic that stated, "A Penn Stater has appeared in every Super Bowl." However, the fine print clarified that a Penn State alum has appeared in all but five Super Bowls since 1967.

On Friday, the program gave its graphics department another chance, and it sent out a corrected image and mocked its initial phrasing.

The original graphic became a college sports meme as schools like UMBC and Ole Miss poked fun at PSU's claim.

Credit to Penn State, however: The team left up the original post, which is sure to be retweeted for years to come.

The University of Michigan trolled Big Ten rival Penn State on Friday with a tweet regarding Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady's Super Bowl resume. 

Michigan's tweet was in response to one by Penn State touting the fact that a Penn State starter has played in all but five Super Bowls:

The Nittany Lions' tweet went viral due to the fact that the caveat "except for five since 1967" was written in tiny font compared to "every Super Bowl."

Michigan played off that tweet with this one focused on Brady, who played at the school from 1996-99:

Brady will play in his 10th Super Bowl on Sunday when he and the Bucs host Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

Although the Wolverines' tweet was posted in jest, there is no denying how impressive Brady's career has been.

The 43-year-old has played in the Super Bowl in nearly half of his 21 NFL seasons.

He is already a six-time Super Bowl winner and four-time Super Bowl MVP, and he can break his own records by winning a seventh Super Bowl ring and fifth Super Bowl MVP award on Sunday.

Brady can also become the first starting quarterback in NFL history to win a Super Bowl with teams in each conference should the Bucs beat the Chiefs.

In order for Tampa Bay to win Sunday, however, Brady will likely need strong performances from wide receiver Chris Godwin and left tackle Donovan Smith.

Both Godwin and Smith attended Penn State, meaning some Nittany Lions and Wolverines will have to be on the same page if the Buccaneers are going to prevail.

The Big Ten released a revised 2021 football schedule for each of its 14 teams Friday. 

Most notably, the final week of the 2021 regular season to be played on Nov. 27 features many of the Big Ten's top rivalries, including Ohio State vs. Michigan, Wisconsin vs. Minnesota, Indiana vs. Purdue and Northwestern vs. Illinois.

According to ESPN's Harry Lyles Jr., the Big Ten altered the schedule in a way that ensures no conference game will feature the same home team three years in a row.

Due to the condensed schedule and potential conflicts that arose in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, some games had the same home team in both 2019 and 2020.

The schedule features some high-end nonconference games as well, including Ohio State vs. Oregon and Michigan vs. Washington in Week 2, Penn State vs. Auburn and Michigan State vs. Miami in Week 3, and Wisconsin vs. Notre Dame in Week 4.

Wisconsin and Notre Dame are scheduled to play Sept. 25 at Soldier Field in Chicago. That game could feature quarterback Jack Coan against his former team, as he transferred from Wisconsin to Notre Dame.

Some of the most notable opening games in Big Ten play include Ohio State vs. Minnesota, Wisconsin vs. Penn State and Iowa vs. Indiana.

The first Big Ten game of the season will occur in Week 0 on Aug. 28. That game will pit Nebraska against Illinois in Dublin, Ireland.

The 2021 Big Ten Championship Game is scheduled for Dec. 4 at the Indianapolis Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium.

Ohio State beat Northwestern in last season's Big Ten Championship Game, and the Buckeyes have won the conference title in each of the past four seasons.

A Northwestern University cheerleader filed a federal Title IX lawsuit saying the school attempted to cover up complaints of sexual harassment stemming from a requirement that women on the team mingle with drunken fans and alumni without school supervision. 

In a 58-page complaint, senior Hayden Richardson reported multiple, detailed occasions where former cheerleading coach Pam Bonnevier instructed women to interact with the school's donors for financial gain, sending members of the team to a private area for "elite" ticketholders where they were groped and verbally abused. According to the complaint, no male members of the team were ever asked to do so.

Women on the team reportedly asked if they could pair up when making their rounds through the tailgate lots and donor events but were denied by Bonnevier.

“It became clear to [Richardson] that the cheerleaders were being presented as sex objects to titillate the men that funded the majority of Northwestern’s athletics programs,” the lawsuit alleges (h/t Chicago Tribune's Elyssa Cherney). “After all, the happier these men were, the more money the university would receive from them.”

It took more than a year before the school opened an official investigation of Richardson's complaints through the Title IX compliance office, a probe that allegedly began after an associate athletic director asked for additional testimonials from team members then accused Richardson of forging the statements. 

The lawsuit further alleges the university violated Richardson's Title IX rights by failing to inform her of the school's findings. 

Richardson, who earned nearly $10,000 in scholarships through the team, would be forced to pay back all expenses incurred from travel, equipment and practice as a member of the team should she quit or be dismissed from the program. A school contract provided by Richardson's attorney to the Chicago Tribune noted the senior would have to pay back between $2,000-$4,000 if she left the team.

Bonnevier and the associate AD are both listed as defendants in the lawsuit, though Bonnevier is no longer employed by the school. 

Per Cherney:

"To date, Richardson hasn’t seen the findings of that probe, the lawsuit states. Though her reports helped trigger the investigation, she was listed as a 'witness' and not the complainant since she requested anonymity. As a result, she was not entitled 'to be informed of the outcome of the investigation or opportunity to appeal any findings or sanction,' the lawsuit says."

“This is not the highlight, by any means, of my life or time at Northwestern but it is certainly the most impactful,” Richardson told Cherney. “While there have been extreme detriments and times where I was very sad and hurt by the actions of the university, I am here, I am bringing the lawsuit forward and I’m going to do what is necessary to ensure other young women don’t experience the same thing that I did.”

The suit seeks damages for emotional distress and lost career and learning opportunities. 

Northwestern issued a statement reiterating its commitment to "fostering an environment in which all members of our community are safe, secure and free from discrimination or harassment of any form" but declined to comment or confirm details on any harassment reports it may have received, citing the privacy of individuals involved. 

The state of Maryland unanimously approved a $3.5 million settlement from its flagship university to the family of former Terrapins offensive lineman Jordan McNair nearly three years after his death, per ESPN's Heather Dinich.

McNair collapsed from heatstroke during a team conditioning session on May 29, 2018. He died two weeks later at the age of 19.

"This has been a painful fight, a very emotional fight," Marty McNair said. "These three years have been painful, however, I know that it prepared us for a larger- scale, nationwide advocacy to stop this from happening and truly make a difference. The only way we really can do this is not by talking effortless at people, but really to implement legislation and policy.

Investigations by ESPN and Maryland officials revealed a toxic team culture under then-head coach D.J Durkin and led to school president Wallace D. Loch publicly accepting "legal and moral responsibility" for the team's inability to "quickly diagnose and properly treat McNair's heatstroke," per Dinich.

Following McNair's death, Durkin was initially put on administrative leave, then returned to his position before public pressure led to his firing in October 2018. Strength and conditioning coach Rick Court resigned in August 2018. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has since hired Durkin as an assistant coach. 

Wednesday's settlement includes a partnership between Maryland and the Jordan McNair Foundation "to educate the public and athletic programs across the country about topics such as heat exhaustion, concussions, mental health and nutrition." The school will also contribute nearly $300,000 each year for the next decade to establish a student-athlete safety program on campus.  

"This victory today shows a lot of people that—guess what?—it can be done," McNair said. "If there's a wrong to their child or a loss of their child due to negligence along the way, it is possible to get a victory."

After flirting with NFL teams this offseason, Pat Fitzgerald has reached an agreement on a new long-term extension with Northwestern.

Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips announced a 10-year extension with Fitzgerald that keeps him with the school through 2030.

Fitzgerald included a statement in the announcement:

"From the moment I stepped on campus as an undergraduate, I have believed this is the finest University in the country, with the potential to offer an unmatched student-athlete experience. Stacy, Jack, Ryan, Brendan and I have always been grateful to call Northwestern our home, and be part of the Wildcats family. With the unparalleled leadership of President Morty Schapiro, athletic director Jim Phillips, senior vice president for business and finance Craig Johnson, vice president and general counsel Stephanie Graham, athletic department chief financial officer Kevin White, and Chairmen Lanny Martin, Bill Osborn and Pat Ryan, alongside so many others, we have built the foundation to compete for championships in tandem with the best academic and personal development opportunity anywhere in college football. We all have a lot to be proud of, but our best is yet to come."

While Fitzgerald has frequently been mentioned as a potential head coach in the NFL, he's never shown a strong interest in leaving Northwestern.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reported in December that NFL teams were "expected to make formal requests" to speak with Fitzgerald after the Wildcats' bowl game against Auburn.

Despite seven head-coaching vacancies when this offseason began, Schefter reported Jan. 11 that Fitzgerald turned down every request to speak with teams. Six of the jobs have been filled, leaving the Houston Texans as the only team waiting to make a decision.

Fitzgerald played linebacker at Northwestern from 1993 to 1996. He was a two-time winner of the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and Chuck Bednarik Award in 1995 and 1996.

The Wildcats hired Fitzgerald as their head football coach in 2006. He is the school's all-time leader in wins (106) and has more bowl appearances (10) in 15 seasons than the combined total of every other coach in program history (six).

Heading into the 2020 college football season, Michigan's Jim Harbaugh was the fourth-highest-paid coach in the sport at slightly more than $8 million per year (per USA Today), but he was also the only Power Five coach with less than two years remaining on his contract, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The three highest-paid coaches were Nick Saban, Ed Orgeron and Dabo Swinney, the three men responsible for putting together the only rosters to win national championships since 2015.

Basically, Michigan was paying Harbaugh the going rate for a national champion, even though he hadn't made it to a Big Ten championship game in his first half-decade at the helm.

The Wolverines had to pony up that type of dough to get him to come to Ann Arbor in the first place. He had been making $5 million per year with the San Francisco 49ers, and he was being egregiously underpaid at that price point. To lure him back to college football, Michigan needed to swing big with a seven-year, $52.1 million deal (roughly $7.4 million annually).

It was a major investment, but he had a proven track record of quickly turning teams into title contenders.

In his first head coaching job, he spent three seasons at the University of San Diego, guiding the Toreros to a pair of Pioneer Football League championships. The season before he arrived at Stanford in 2006, the Cardinal were a 1-11 disaster. In just his fourth year there, they went 12-1 and finished No. 4 in the BCS standings. And with the 49ers, he took over a team that hadn't had a winning season in eight years and immediately led it to three consecutive NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl appearance.

Suffice it to say, Michigan rather hoped Harbaugh would have beaten Ohio State by now.

Hence the expiring contract.

For recruiting purposes, most college football coaches receive contract extension after contract extension. High school kids (and their parents) want to believe that coach is committed to sticking around (and that the school is committed to the coach) at least until they graduate, and it's a lot easier to sell that message on the recruiting trail if you've got a contract through the next half-decade.

In reality, it's all crap—just a little extra red tape that needs to be cut in order to make a change.

Tom Herman had a contract through 2023 with Texas and received a vote of confidence from his athletic director barely three weeks before he got fired. Not coincidentally, that "Herman's our guy!" note came just four days before early signing day.

Gus Malzahn's buyout at Auburn was more than $20 million, but that didn't stop the Tigers from giving him the boot.

But for the schools, it has become an "Everyone else is doing it, so we also have to do it" sort of predicament. Teams keep locking themselves into these ridiculous long-term deals and buyouts because they can't afford the hit they would take on the recruiting trail as the only one sending out coaches who don't have contracts through when those high school recruits would become sophomores in college.

It all left Michigan firmly wedged between a rock and a hard place—during a pandemic that further complicated the finances, no less.

Even if it was an option to tack on a few extra years without any sort of inflation, at Harbaugh's salary, just a four-year extension through 2025 would have been an additional $30 million commitment. And fans and boosters would have been livid with that decision to double down on paying national championship wages to a coach who averaged 9.4 wins per year—and 0.0 wins per year over Ohio State.

Option B was to not make any decision about Harbaugh's contract and hope it didn't negatively impact the team's ability to recruit top talent. Michigan rode that option all the way through its disastrous 2-4 2020 campaign, and it worked out pretty well. The Wolverines don't quite have a top-10 2021 recruiting class, but they did land five of the top 100 overall recruits. That could have been much, much worse with so much uncertainty about the head coach.

It seemed the only other remaining option would have been termination, which is why Harbaugh was one of the first names mentioned in any sort of hot seat rankings article.

The big question, though, is who can you get to replace him? People love to throw Iowa State's Matt Campbell and Cincinnati's Luke Fickell into every conversation when a job opens up, but is there mutual interest? Could Michigan be where Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy or Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables finally gets a head coaching job?

But Michigan found an unbelievable alternative in which Harbaugh agreed to a drastic pay cut and an extension with an extremely low buyout to boot—so the Wolverines can still easily start over with their next ideal candidate if and when he becomes available.

It's an incentive-laden deal, per the Detroit Free Press, but his base compensation (effective for the 2021 season) went from fourth-highest in the nation to possibly not even top-10 in the Big Ten.

He's only guaranteed $4 million this coming season. If he finally wins the Big Ten's East Division, that would be another $500,000. Win the Big Ten championship and it's an additional $1 million. Playing in a New Year's Six Bowl would put another $200,000 in his pocket—$700,000 if it's a College Football Playoff semifinal. And if the Wolverines win it all, that's worth another $1 million for Harbaugh. Add in some smaller bonuses for Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores or coach of the year honors, and he could make up to $3.475 million in bonuses per year.

Even if all of those things happen, though, that's a maximum compensation of $7.475 million—a figure almost identical to his base pay on the original seven-year deal signed in 2014.

Had Michigan stuck with the "do nothing" plan, Harbaugh would've made around $8 million in 2021 in the final year of his contract.

Michigan essentially still has the option of making that happen.

If the Wolverines don't win the Big Ten or play in a New Year's Six bowl, Harbaugh's pay for the year will be roughly $4 million. From there, they could buy out the remainder of his contract for another $4 million. (That adds up to the aforementioned $8 million, in case you weren't ready for some quick mental math.)

That buyout decreases by $1 million each year, too, so they could give him one last "prove it or lose it" chance in 2022 and then can him for the low price of $3 million—less than one-seventh the amount Auburn paid Malzahn while telling him to kick rocks.

Harbaugh also has an opt-out clause of just $2 million this year, and that amount will decrease by $500,000 annually. In other words, if the constant rumors of wanting to return to the NFL come to fruition in the next 12 months, that TBD NFL franchise would merely need to pay a $2 million "penalty" to get him.

So while he does now have a contract through 2025, there's no additional job security or level of commitment by either side.

Michigan and Jim Harbaugh didn't renew their marriage vows with this extension. They simplified their prenuptial agreement.

Unless/until they negotiate a new contract, Harbaugh is all but guaranteed to remain on the hottest seat in college football.

We've been saying for a couple of years now that Michigan will have a tough decision to make if Harbaugh is yet again unable to defeat the Buckeyes. With this contract, though, it would be truly stunning if he loses that game and gets to stick around for another year.

Kerry Miller covers college football and men's college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @kerrancejames.

While the Ohio State Buckeyes lost quarterback Justin Fields when he announced he will enter the 2021 NFL draft Monday, they held on to one of the other key pieces in their aerial attack.

Wide receiver Chris Olave announced he will return for his senior season as Ohio State looks to win a national championship after reaching the College Football Playoff title game during the 2020 campaign:

Olave isn't the only notable Buckeyes playmaker who will return to their offense, as tight end Jeremy Ruckert and offensive tackle Thayer Munford Jr. both announced they will be back as well.

So many veterans coming back will be welcome news for whoever emerges as the starting quarterback for Ohio State in 2021. C.J. Stroud, Jack Miller and Kyle McCord are expected to compete for the position, and having weapons such as Olave, Garrett Wilson, Ruckert, Julian Fleming and Jaxon Smith-Njigba will make life much easier for the winner.

Olave arrived at Ohio State as a 3-star prospect in the class of 2018, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

While he was undoubtedly a talented player, he also started his collegiate career as an under-the-radar option at a football powerhouse that is known for bringing in 4- and 5-star recruits. His breakout performance came during the 2018 victory over archrival Michigan when he caught two touchdowns and blocked a punt that Ohio State returned for a touchdown.

From there, he posted 849 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns in 2019 and 729 receiving yards and seven touchdowns in just seven games during the shortened 2020 campaign.

Two of his seven touchdown catches during the past season came in a dominant victory over Clemson in the CFP.

Olave had a chance to go in the first round in the 2021 NFL draft, but there are also a number of wide receivers who can say the same. Ja'Marr Chase, DeVonta Smith, Jaylen Waddle, Rashod Bateman, Rondale Moore, Elijah Moore, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Kadarius Toney and Terrace Marshall Jr. are all potential first-round options.

Returning for the 2021 season means Olave can put up impressive numbers once again and solidify himself as a surefire first-round pick in the 2022 NFL draft that may not be quite as deep at wide receiver.