- This week will mark the midpoint of the 2022 Big Ten Conference season, with Nebraska currently holding a one-match lead over Wisconsin and Ohio State atop the conference standings. The Huskers are in search of their fourth Big Ten title, and first since they shared the crown in 2017 (their last outright conference championship came a year earlier in 2016). Wisconsin is the three-time defending Big Ten champion and seeks to become the second school to earn four consecutive Big Ten titles, joining Penn State, which did it twice (1996-99 and 2003-10). Ohio State has won three Big Ten championships, most recently in 1994.
- Eight Big Ten volleyball matches are scheduled to be televised this week, including a trio of contests on Wednesday night. Big Ten Network will feature its #B1GBlockParty with Illinois at No. 6 Ohio State (6 p.m. ET) and No. 3 Nebraska visiting No. 12 Purdue (8 p.m. ET), while ESPNU will televise No. 9 Minnesota’s match at Iowa (7 p.m. ET). BTN will also have doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday, while ESPN2 is penciled to show the Oct. 23 match featuring No. 5 Wisconsin at No. 25 Michigan.
- Last Sunday’s first encounter between Wisconsin and Michigan at the UW Field House drew 244,000 viewers on ESPN, that network’s second-largest audience for a volleyball broadcast since 2017, as well as the fourth-most watched regular-season match across all networks this season. The most-watched Big Ten match this season to date came on Sept. 3, when 271,000 viewers tuned into Big Ten Network for Nebraska’s sweep of Ole Miss. All told, seven matches featuring Big Ten schools have drawn at least 200,000 viewers on one of the conference’s network partners this season (BTN, ESPN or FS1).
- On Sunday, Minnesota head coach Hugh McCutcheon announced he would be stepping down from his post with the Golden Gophers at the end of the 2022 season. McCutcheon is in his 11th season at Minnesota, where he has amassed a 265-71 (.789) record, including a 160-45 (.780) mark in Big Ten play, while guiding the Golden Gophers to three NCAA Final Fours (2015, 2016, 2019) and two Big Ten titles (2015, 2018). Both McCutcheon’s overall and conference winning percentages are currently the third-best in…
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