Spring training has started for Major League Baseball, which means that NCAA Baseball has started as well.  The Ohio State Buckeyes are looking for a strong season from starting pitcher, Brad Goldberg.  So far this season, he has lived up to expectations.

In three games so far, Goldberg is 2-0 with a 0.47 ERA in 19 innings.  He has only allowed 7 hits, and 2 runs with only one of them being earned.  Opposing hitters are hitting .119 against him.  He has struck out 22 batters that he has faced and walked 9.

Walks and high pitch count have been a concern for Goldberg in the past but so far this season he has improved in both of those stat categories.  It is still early in the season, and therefore the 19 innings probably could be higher, but there isn’t a need to leave him out there in a game to accumulate statistics.

This is why at the beginning of the season major leaguers will often be pulled even with a no hitter going.  Conference play is going to matter much more than these beginning of the season games that have no real effect on the outcome of the whole year.

Goldberg has been getting draft buzz for quite some time now, and if he can keep it up this season, it will only increase his stock.  He features a fastball (sinker), change up, cutter, and curve ball.

He was elected Big Ten Pitcher of the Week 2 consecutive weeks to start the season giving up no earned runs in 13.1 innings of work while striking out 17 batters.  If he stays strong throughout the season he will get serious consideration as Big Ten Pitcher of the Year.

Indiana is slated as the favorite to win the Big Ten this year, but Ohio State’s recruits from head coach Greg Beals are going to be major contributors.  The team is fairly young, but they have veterans and leaders in the right places.

Obviously Kent State stole the show last year qualifying for the College World Series, and will get the bulk of attention for Ohio college baseball teams.  However, the Buckeyes can certainly do damage in the Big Ten this year, and as we saw with Kent State last year, anyone can make a run.

The Buckeyes will head to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for the long weekend during Ohio State’s spring break.  This could pose a potential matchup with Goldberg on the mound against a dangerous Coastal Carolina squad, in which he his very familiar with, having transferred to Ohio State from Coastal following his sophomore season.

Another matchup to watch is against Ball State, which is where coach Beals was head coach before accepting the Ohio State job.  The Buckeyes home opener is scheduled for March 15 against Bryant University.  Big Ten play opens up at Purdue March 22.

This should be a fun season to watch for the Buckeyes, and it will be especially fun to watch what Goldberg can accomplish on the mound, and going forward in the MLB draft process.

The recent penalties handed down to Penn State will have a huge impact on the upcoming Big Ten season.  Penn State was expected to be a competitive team before this disaster struck, and now it will most likely not be that way for quite a while.

A number of players are expected to transfer at no penalty, and a number of them could potentially stay in the Big Ten.  The real loser in this situation besides the victims of child abuse is the Big Ten Conference.

Wisconsin can punch their ticket to the Big Ten Championship game with Penn State and Ohio State both being ineligible for post season play.  Wisconsin only has to beat out Illinois, Indiana, and Purdue to lock themselves into the Championship game.

Those three teams were not expected to be very good anyway, which makes this season even that much more boring for the Big Ten on the Leaders Division side.  The Legends Division should be exciting, but that won’t make up for the lost cause on the other side.

However, with Ohio State and Penn State both under the microscope it could generate short term media attention to head their direction to see how they attempt to overcome the recent situations.  This could potentially be very beneficial to the Big Ten.

The winners in this situation are the other schools in the Big Ten.  They now have a chance to not only swoop in and take current players off the Penn State roster, but for the next four or five seasons they are going to have their chance to get their hands on a number of recruits that will now be looking elsewhere.

There won’t be any special recruiting tools needed to lure a player away from Penn State.  All a coach has to attack is the chance to play in a bowl game and the lack of exposure Penn State will get due to the decline in the quality of their football and the poor reputation that has now been established.

Time will tell how if the penalties will be worse than the death penalty for Penn State.  However, the immediate impact will gear more towards the Big Ten and how the other football programs will be able to take advantage of the punishments handed down to Penn State.

With Spring Football officially in the books and summer workouts right around the corner, College FootBlog is taking a conference by conference look at the upcoming 2010 football season.  In last week’s edition, we provided a breakdown and power ranking for each division of the ACC (see links for Atlantic and Coastal).

In this week’s two-part article, we take a look at the Big Ten, giving insight and analysis from last season, what we learned from the spring and what the outlook will be for this fall.  In Part I of the Big Ten breakdown, we rank the preseason #6-#11 teams, which will be immediately followed by our top five.

Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald coaches with the same emotion with which he played (google images)

6:  Northwestern: Pat Fitzgerald does more with little than any coach in the FBS.  His Wildcats will once again be counted out by most pollsters, but don’t be surprised if they exceed expectations again in 2010 (even in our poll).  NU loses seven wideouts from last year’s team and must also replace quarterback Mike Kafka.  Filling the role of trigger man for the NU offense will be Dan Persa, who had a solid spring and has more running ability than Kafka.  The defense should be decent, led by a couple of senior linebackers, Quentin Davie and Nate Williams.  Regardless of depth and overall talent, Coach Fitzgerald will have his team playing hard and smart, and that should be enough to get them to another bowl game this fall.

7.  Purdue: The Boilermakers should be an interesting team in 2010.  This year, former Miami Hurricanes’ quarterback Robert Marve is eligible and will get his opportunity to be the starter.  If they are going to keep this power ranking, they must improve on their defense against the run, which gave up more than 170 yards on the ground per game.  The Boilermakers proved to Ohio State last year that they can play well in West Lafayette, and with visits from Minnesota, Michigan and Indiana, Purdue will have a great opportunity to finish above those programs at season’s end.

8.  Michigan: Rich Rodriguez is going to be coaching for his job this fall.  After a 4-0 start last season, the Wolverines dropped seven of their last eight games, and the defense was…well…not good, ranking 82nd nationally in a conference that did was not known last season for having explosive offenses.  Tate Forcier is a very exciting player at QB, and Denard Robinson gives defenses a change of pace, but all the offense in the world will not be enough unless the defense improves dramatically this season.

9.  Indiana: Quarterback Ben Chappell returns for his senior season and despite throwing for nearly 3,000 yards last season, he must improve his TD/Int ratio, which was 17/15 last fall.  The Hoosiers travel to Ohio State and Wisconsin this year and play host to Iowa and Penn State.  Barring a huge upset, they will be 0-4 in those games, and it will be all they can do to escape the cellar of the conference.  IU ranked 88th in total defense last year, and unless something changes in a big way, they will have a similar defense this time around.  A bad defense and an offense that turns the ball over will make it difficult to stay above water in the Big Ten in 2010.

10:  Minnesota: After a solid 2008 season, quarterback Adam Weber took a step backwards last season, throwing more picks (15) than he did touchdowns (13).  The Gophers sported the Big Ten’s worst offense, and only managed 13 rushing touchdowns all season.  They now have their third offensive coordinator in three years, which makes it hard to believe things will change for the better in 2010.  Defensively, the entire front seven from last year’s middle-of-the-pack defense is gone.  Final verdict–things are not looking good for the 2010 campaign in Minneapolis.

11.  Illinois: The Ron Zook experiment will likely come to an end this season.  Zook has always been an elite recruiter, but he has once again proven that he cannot put a championship football team together, despite having enough talent to compete with anyone in his conference.  The departure of Arrelious Benn takes away the Illini’s only legitimate playmaker from last year’s team.

Look for our Top 5 Preseason Teams from the Big Ten tomorrow!