Pelini was raised in Youngstown, Ohio, and attended Cardinal Mooney High School. He played free safety for Ohio State under former coaches Earle Bruce and John Cooper from 1987-90 and was a starter during his junior and senior seasons.

Pelini served as a team co-captain in his senior year, along with Vinnie Clark, Jeff Graham and Greg Frey. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business marketing from The Ohio State University in 1990.

From 1991-2002, he was an assistant football coach on various levels with stops at Iowa, Cardinal Mooney, the San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers.

In 2002, Pelini landed in Lincoln as the defensive coordinator for Nebraska under Frank Solich. Pelini was the Cornhuskers’ DC for just one year after Solich was fired at the end of the regular season. Pelini was the interim head coach for one game and led Nebraska to a 17-3 win over Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl. Pelini later interviewed for the head coach position, but then-athletic director Steve Pederson instead decided after a 41-day search to hire Bill Callahan, who had just been fired by the Oakland Raiders.

Pelini went on to become the co-defensive coordinator at Oklahoma for one season before moving on to be the DC at LSU from 2005-07.

After the 2007 season in which Nebraska went 5-7, current athletic director Tom Osborne fired Callahan and after a nine-day search, Pelini was hired as the Cornhuskers new coach.

In two seasons guiding the Huskers, Pelini is 20-8 with two bowl wins.

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In this video, Coach DiNardo gives you three examples of how the Big Ten could be aligned with two divisions. There’s an east/west split, a north/south one, and then the third scenario he evenly distributes the winningest football programs into two different divisions.

While the first of his alignment ideas is a no-brainer, I think the second puts more demands in terms of travel. The third suggestion, though, seems to be right on.

Most people in the know have stated that Ohio State and Michigan should to be in the same division, but I don’t think that’s a necessity. The Buckeyes and the Wolverines can still meet every year without being paired in the same group. It just might mean, though, that the greatest rivalry in all of sports will be played in late September or early October instead of the customary end of November.

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Above: University of Nebraska-Lincoln president Harvey Perlman (left)
with athletic director Tom Osborne. (Huskers.com Photo)

Ever since Penn State was offered an invitation to the Big Ten and accepted back in 1990, it took the conference 20 years to finally get that vaunted 12th member. The University of Notre Dame was courted several times in the last two decades and nearly joined back in 2003, but today it was Nebraska.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Board of Regents met earlier this afternoon and one of the topics that was on the agenda was a “resolution regarding UNL athletic conference alignment.”

At its board meeting, the Regents adopted a resolution to submit an application for membership in the Big Ten Conference and, if approved, for association with its academic counterparts. The board voted unanimously 8-0 to submit that application.

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According to the official Facebook page of University of Nebraska Athletics, the university’s Board of Regents will meet today at 2:00 p.m. ET in Lincoln and one of the topics on the agenda is a “resolution regarding UNL athletic conference alignment.”

It’s assume that Nebraska will then announce that they have accepted an invitation to the Big Ten.

You can watch portions of this meeting at netnebraska.org and follow along on the Huskers’ Twitter page.

So, where do the Huskers fit in with the rest of the Big Ten as the conference will now go to two divisions.

The easiest way is to split the Big Ten, geographically speaking, is dividing the conference into East and West divisions. With that, you would have Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana and Purdue in the East, with Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska members of the West.

More to come on BuckeyeBanter.com!

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Right: DUDE, LET’S PARTY! Former Buckeye defensive back Mark “Bo” Pelini, now the head coach at Nebraska, seen here enjoying the French Quarter in a Tribe hat and t-shirt.
(Deadspin Photo)

The World Wide Web blew up last night amid several reports that Nebraska could join the Big Ten as soon as Friday, according to various sources.

In today’s edition of the Omaha World Herald, Henry J. Cordes states that “the N.U. Board of Regents laid the legal groundwork Friday to consider a possible Big Ten move. The agenda for Friday’s regents meeting was amended to allow a discussion and vote for a resolution on conference alignment.”
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Right: Ohio State’s two-time All-American pitcher, Alex Wimmers, was selected in the first round by the Minnesota Twins.
(File Photo)

Ohio State’s Alex Wimmers, a junior pitcher and two-time All-American from Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati, was selected by the Minnesota Twins in the first round (21st overall) of the 2010 Major League First-Year Player Draft, Monday night.

During the 2010 season, Wimmers was 9-0 in 10 starts with a 1.60 ERA for the Buckeyes. The 6-foot-2 right-hander struck out 86 while allowing just 23 walks in 73 innings pitched and did not yield a single home run as opposing batters hit just .218 against him.
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Right: Evan Ravenel (24), seen here playing for Boston College in the 2010 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum against Virginia, is Ohio State’s newest addition to the program.
(Getty Images)

This morning, Ohio State head men’s basketball coach Thad Matta announced that Boston College transfer, Evan Ravenel, a 6-foot-8, 255-pound power forward will be joining the team.

Ravenel asked for and was given his release to transfer to another school after Boston College fired head coach Al Skinner in March. He was the third player to leave the Eagles program since the end of the season.

Due transfer rules, Ravenel will have to sit out next season, but will be eligible to play for the 2011-12 hoops campaign.

Ravenel, who hails from Brandon, Fla., was originally recruited by and had scholarship offers from Miami (Fla.), Penn State, Tulane, Alabama-Birmingham, Virginia Tech and Wichita State, as well as Boston College where he eventually signed.
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Right: Joel Hale from Greenwood, Indiana, is the 14th commitment for Ohio State’s class of 2011.
(Gridiron Report Photo)

Ohio State added yet another recruit to the mix for the class of 2011 when Joel Hale (not to be confused with TV star and comedian, Joel McHale) announced his intentions of attending The Ohio State University and playing football for head coach Jim Tressel, last night.

Hale, a 6-foot-4, 290-pound defensive tackle from Center Grove High School in Greenwood, Ind., had several scholarship offers from other schools as well that include: Cincinnati, Florida, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Iowa State, Kentucky, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin.

Hale is considered one of the Midwest’s top defensive linemen. Currently he plays at end on his high school team, but is projected to be a tackle in Ohio State’s 4-3 scheme.

Hale finished his junior season with 50 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, four sacks and one interception for a touchdown.
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Right: Big Ten’s current footprint. (MB Photo)

Last year when The Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors (COP/C) discussed the future of the Big Ten Conference at its winter meetings on Dec. 6 in Park Ridge, Illinois, the council stated then that the timing was right for the conference to once again conduct a thorough evaluation of options for conference structure and expansion. As a result, the Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany was asked to provide recommendations for consideration by the COP/C over the next 12 to 18 months.

Now it appears that the timetable on expansion just might become shorter, though the Big Ten will still continue through its process of finding the right schools.
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Right: Evan Spencer from Vernon Hills, Illinois, is the latest to commit to Ohio State.
(Daily Herald Photo)

Evan Spencer, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound wide receiver from Vernon Hills High School in suburban Chicago, issued his verbal commitment to play for Ohio State on Saturday.

Evan is the son of Chicago Bears’ running backs coach Tim Spencer, who played and coached at Ohio State.

Prior to joining the Bears, the elder Spencer was the running backs coach for the Buckeyes for 10 seasons under former head coach John Copper and current head coach Jim Tressel from 1994-2003.
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