ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

For most people, Friday's just the day before the weekend. But after this Friday, the neighborhood'll never be the same.  

• Joe Paterno isn't giving up his crusade for Big Ten expansion and a championship game, and he plans to bring up the topic next week at the league meetings in Chicago, Bernard Fernandez writes in the Philadelphia Daily News. 

"It hurts our recruiting," Paterno said. "In addition to that, our teams are losing their edge competitively. I think we're hurting ourselves. There's a perception the Big Ten isn't as good a conference as it was, or isn't as good as some of the other conferences, because we don't do as well in bowl games. What do you expect when you start out with one hand tied behind your back? It's not fair to the kids."

• An experienced offensive line usually means good things, and Iowa tops the list in the Big Ten.
  
• Ohio State's track relay team had a need for speed and called upon football players Chimdi Chekwa and Lamaar Thomas, Tim May writes in The Columbus Dispatch. 
• ESPN.com Midwest recruiting expert Bill Kurelic reviews the top 2010 commits in the Big Ten thus far. 
• Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez sounds off on several topics during a speech in Washington, including his ugly departure from West Virginia. 

"The folks in West Virginia are still pissed at me," he said. "I've said many times I'd have been better off killing a family of five with an ax. Right now, it's kind of hard."

• Three former Michigan State players have completed a 2,000-mile bike ride to raise money for an orphanage in Mexico, Shannon Shelton writes in the Detroit Free Press.