Michigan State is heading to Iowa as a slight underdog on Saturday.
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Michigan State Football marched into Ann Arbor Saturday as three touchdown underdogs and pulled off a major upset against Michigan. Now, they will head to Iowa as a one touchdown underdog (Iowa -7, per BetMGM) and attempt to once again beat the odds against the Hawkeyes.
Iowa is coming off a loss at home, while MSU is obviously coming off their win, so this should be an interesting match-up from a betting standpoint.
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Spirit Hollow in Burlington is No. 1 on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play 2020: Iowa.
Zach Johnson became famous for winning the 2007 Masters and 2015 British Open. His humility after his major victories added to his charm.
“I’m Zach Johnson and I’m from Cedar Rapids, Iowa,” Johnson said after earning a green jacket in 2007. “That’s about it. I’m a normal guy.”
Clearly, on the golf course, the Drake University grad – the school is in Des Moines, Iowa – is clearly anything but “normal.” But that Midwestern modesty produces a sensible appeal that has attracted many fans.
The same applies to many of the golf courses in the Buckeye State. They’re not always the marquee billing on lists of best courses in the United States, but they’re good, solid fun that packs a lot of punch for a state with just over 400 courses. The Golfweek’s Best rankings for the state are full of examples of courses more than worthy of a day on the links, including several with national bona fides.
Golfweek ranks courses by compiling the average ratings – on a points basis of 1 to 10 – of its more than 750 raters to create several industry-leading lists of courses, including the popular Best Courses You Can Play list for courses that allow non-member tee times. These generally are defined as courses accessible to resort guests or regular daily-fee players.
Spirit Hollow in Burlington embodies that sense of fun and hospitality of Iowa golf while still managing to top the Best Courses You Can Play list for Iowa. Built by Rick Jacobsen and opened in 2000, Spirit Hollow employs bold terrain and elevation changes but promises a casual experience – the course’s TopTracer Range-equipped learning center is named Shankopotamus Golf Academy, for example.
Blue Top Ridge, designed by Rees Jones, in Riverside, Iowa. Photo courtesy of Blue Top Ridge
The top five Best Courses You Can Play in Iowa are rounded out by Blue Top Ridge in Riverside, the Tournament Club of Iowa in Polk City, Grand Falls Casino and Golf Resort in Larchwood and Amana Colonies.
On the private-golf side of things, Iowa gets even more interesting with several classic layouts and a handful of modern challenges. Golfweek’s Best rating program breaks out the best private courses state by state, much like the Best Courses You Can Play list does for public-access courses.
Cedar Rapids Country Club is No. 1 on that private list in Iowa. Built by famed designer Donald Ross in 1915, Cedar Rapids also ranks No. 80 in the U.S. for all Classic Courses built before 1960. Davenport Country Club in Pleasant Valley is No. 2 on that private list for Iowa, offering a 1924 layout by designers Harry S. Colt and Charles H. Alison that is ranked No. 89 on Golfweek’s Best list for Classic Courses in the U.S.
No. 3 on the private list is Harvester Club in Rhodes, once a public facility that was renovated by original designer Keith Foster in 2018 and that has become the top-ranked modern private club in the state. As ratings continue to come in evaluating the layout since its renovation, don’t be surprised to see Harvester Club break into Golfweek’s Best top 100 or 200 Modern Courses in the years to come.
And in keeping with that theme of Midwestern sensibilities, the Harvester Club is a relatively wide-open course that doesn’t use tee times – members can just relax and play when they want. Simplicity at its finest, just like much of Iowa’s golf scene.
Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play 2020 in Iowa
1. Spirit Hollow
Burlington (m)
2. Blue Top Ridge
Riverside (m)
3. *Tournament Club of Iowa
Polk City (m)
4. Grand Falls Casino & Golf Resort
Larchwood (m)
5. Amana Colonies
Amana (m)
(m): modern; (c): classic
* New or returning to the list
Golfweek’s Best Private Courses 2020 in Iowa
1. Cedar Rapids CC
Cedar Rapids (No. 80 c)
2. Davenport
Pleasant Valley (No. 89 c)
3. Harvester
Rhodes (m)
4. Wakonda Club
Des Moines (c)
5. *Des Moines G&CC (North)
West Des Moines (m)
(m): modern; (c): classic
* New or returning to the list
Golfweek’s Best Top 30 Casino Courses
The rankings below reflect where these courses fall among the top 50 Casino Courses in the United States.
The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged together to produce a final rating for each course. Then each course is ranked against other courses in its state, or nationally, to produce the final rankings.
Washington High School senior Trashaun Willis is a stellar athlete, but who he is off the field captivates everyone around him. His coach thinks this is just his beginning.
Washington High School senior Trashaun Willis is a stellar athlete, but who he is off the field captivates everyone around him. His coach thinks this is just his beginning.
Check out some concept work of Marvel themed college helmets done by 247Sports.
When I saw the headline Marvel themed college football helmets, I wondered what was in store as 247Sports prepared to change some of the most iconic looks to Marvel comic book themed mascots.
Some of them were very obvious, Michigan didn’t have to change much as they were already the Wolverines, Iowa the same with Hawkeye (just added an s), and Air Force staying with the Falcons. Other teams saw additions to their names like Richmond adding men to Spiders, Pitt added Black to their Panthers (RIP Chadwick Boseman), Toledo added Racoons’ to become the Rocket Racoons, Duke transformed into the Daredevils and Oregon became Howard the Ducks’.
There were some more fantastic reworked names such as the Arizona Hellcats, Marshall Thundering Thors, Army Moonknights, Virginia Tech Loki’s and others.
What they had in store for Notre Dame was quite different, as an avid Marvel reader and viewer, I knew this one was going to be a bit more difficult than others. The closest Notre Dame figure in a Marvel comic was actually when the reworked opening game covers for ESPN in 2016. They ended up with the Fighting Thanos’, if you have been under a rock for the last ten years then you need no introduction to the big, baddie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you are unfamiliar, Thanos is the epitome of evil, using the Infinity Gauntlet to house the Infinity Stones and posses massive power.
It’s hard to argue with what 247Sports chose for Notre Dame, it was going to be tough anyways. By adding the Infinity Gauntlet to the iconic gold helmet was a nice addition, but even cooler was the middle of the gauntlet was a clover. The kid in me loved it, moving away from tradition and having fun with Marvel. Which one did you like the best?
It is Friday and that means we have nearly completed another week of this tumultuous summer of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
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It is Friday and that means we have nearly completed another week of this tumultuous summer of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Stepping deeper into September, we inch closer and closer to the beginning of the Southeastern Conference’s 10-game schedule, with the Gators facing off with the Ole Miss Rebels on Sept. 26.
While the SEC waits until the end of the month to start its gridiron action, college football’s official opening weekend is tomorrow. Postponements have left the Week 1 slate fairly sparse, with no teams ranked in the preseason Amway Coaches Poll in action.
However, things got started a little early last night, as Southern Miss lost the first Football Bowl Subdivision game of the 2020 season, falling to South Alabama 32-21. The eyes of the college football world were on Southern Miss on Thursday night, and Southern Miss didn’t live up to the situation.
Finally, Iowa athletic director Gary Barta said Thursday he’s gaining optimism that the Big Ten Conference can safely resume athletic competition before the new year, but said there would need to be a “miracle” in order to start a football season next month.
Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Jamie Newman to opt out of 2020 season: The race for the 2020 SEC football conference title just got a little bit more interesting, as Georgia quarterback and presumed starter Jamie Newman announced that he will opt out of the 2020 season to focus on the 2021 NFL Draft.
Nwankpa is ranked by 247Sports as the No. 92 player in the class of 2022, the No. 5 safety and the No. 1 recruit from his home state of Iowa.
Other schools to offer the four-star safety include Iowa, Iowa State, Missouri and Florida.
Chryst and company currently have one commit in their class of 2022–four-star safety Braelon Allen–so landing a commitment from Nwankpa when his recruiting process comes to a close would be massive for the program and would continue its recent run of recruiting success.
Even if there is no fall football season for the Big Ten the recruiting push will go on (hopefully) without a hitch, giving Badger fans at least something to follow and get excited about as they wait for the return of Wisconsin Badger and Big Ten football.
The circus-like back-and-forth about the Big Ten presidents’ vote and whether it happened was a sight to see. Finally two days ago it was…
The circus-like back-and-forth about the Big Ten presidents’ vote and whether it happened was a sight to see.
Finally two days ago it was cleared up in a Big Ten statement that said the presidents “voted to postpone the fall sports season” and “reached an 11-3 decision which far exceeds the 60% threshold required by the Big Ten By-Laws.”
ESPN senior college football writer Adam Rittenberg followed this statement with a report that three schools voted to not postpone the season: Iowa, Ohio State and Nebraska.
League sources tell ESPN that #Nebraska, #OhioState and #Iowa are the three schools that voted against postponing the fall season. This will surprise absolutely no one who has followed the story.
If you’ve been following the story at all this news doesn’t come as much of a surprise, as all three schools listed above have been adamant since the decision was made that the conference should be playing football.
The information coming out now, though, is valuable for everyone who has followed the story. But it still doesn’t make much sense why this wasn’t reported when the decision first came down.
There were media reports saying there was a vote, then reports that there wasn’t, then was, and so on. Being transparent during a process like this, one which led to a verdict that has far-reaching implications, is necessary for the health of the sport from top to bottom.
Again it’s good the information was finally released. It just shouldn’t have taken a lawsuit to get it out.
More will come out in the coming days about the Big Ten’s plan forward and their process of postponing. We can only hope, then, that the conference and those involved are transparent during this process and work together to reach the best way forward.
By an 11-3 vote the Big Ten Presidents chose not to play football this fall. See who voted to play and who held the most important NO vote.
The Big Ten was the first of the Power Five conferences to cancel football this fall, a move in early August that saw the Pac-12 follow just hours later.
It appeared that doomsday for college football in 2020 was upon us but then the ACC, Big 12 and SEC all didn’t follow suit like was expected.
Furthermore, Conference USA, the AAC and Sun Belt all stayed the course in the Group of Five, resulting in a total of 76 FBS teams as of today, scheduled to play football starting at some point in September.
The Big Ten has gotten some bad press and in my eyes, deservedly so for how quick they were to cancel things. Backlash came from star players, certain potions of the media, plenty of fans and a number of parents.
“Sources told the Tribune that Ohio State, Nebraska and Iowa dissented.”
So what Greenstein’s report tells me is that the Big Ten won’t be playing football this fall or winter, even just days after the latest rumors of the start to the season during Thanksgiving week.
Why is that?
Morton Schapiro is the Northwestern University President. More importantly, he’s the Chair of the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors.
After learning that Ohio State, Nebraska, and Iowa are the schools that voted to go-ahead with football this fall, we’re made aware that Schapiro voted not to.
Essentially sitting in the “power chair” of Presidents and Chancellors of the conference, he’s not seemingly going to be trying to sway others to change their minds to play.
There were six Big Ten teams featured in the first AP Poll of the 2020 college football season. Michigan State was not one of those.
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The Big Ten has officially postponed their season, but many fans of Big Ten schools who were projected to have big football seasons will still need to endure some more heartbreak as the first AP Top-25 ranking of the 2020 college football season dropped on Monday and six Big Ten schools were featured. For those wondering, Michigan State was not on the list..
The Big Ten teams who made the Top-25 were:
No. 2 Ohio State
No. 7 Penn State
No. 12 Wisconsin
No. 16 Michigan
No. 19 Minnesota
No. 24 Iowa
Ohio State was one of the heavy favorites to win the National Championship, which is a big reason why their fans and players were so adamant about wanting to play, and not postpone, the 2020 season. Buckeyes starting QB Justin Fields was one of the most vocal players in the country about the decision, even going so far as to start a petition to reinstate the season.
Today on Big Ten Network, Tom Izzo joined Andy Katz to talk about how talented and deep the Big Ten will be this season because of teams …
Friday afternoon on Big Ten Network, Tom Izzo joined Andy Katz to talk about how talented and deep the Big Ten will be this season because of teams like Wisconsin, Maryland, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan State returning lots of experienced players.
Katz briefly mentioned Wisconsin because they will be returning all of their starters and most of their bench, with the notable exception of Brevin Pritzl, but much of the interview focused on how dominant the Big Ten could be this season. The talent of the Big Ten will definitely be fun to watch as March Madness approaches, and could lead to a very exciting Big Ten Tournament.
