There's no question that 2012-13 was a banner year for the Big Ten - hell the only way it could've been better was having a team actually win the NCAA Tournament. So, good luck 2013-14, you've got some big standards to live up to. Luckily for them, just like the snowflakes that fly during basketball season throughout Big Ten country, each season is it's own unique self. 

It'll have to be this upcoming season because every player in both our and the Big Ten's 1st team All-Big Ten list are off to the greener pastures of the NBA and of course there is a ton of graduating talent that dotted the 2nd and 3rd team lists. Thankfully though the Big Ten didn't suffer from the awful disease known as the "One-and-Done" player leaving after just his freshman season. 

Now that the NBA's deadline for declaring for the NBA Draft has come and gone we here at The B1G Time have a clear set of rosters and can objectively look forward to the new season that's just about 6 months away. 

Welcome to our WAY TOO EARLY predictions for 2013-14!! 

Over at our sister site MadTownBadgers they've been on top of the issue that Wisconsin has had with Adidas, but according to a post by Brian Bennett of ESPN.com it appears they aren't the only one's with major issues with the athletic apparel and outfitter. 

According to the post Michigan is in near constant contact with their supplier (and with $60 million on the line who can blame them) and Penn State along with future Big Ten member Rutgers are also looking into the minor deals they have with the supplier. 

For PSU and Rutgers the issue isn't as deep as they may just pull the rights for Adidas to put out apparel with their name on it - something Wisconsin did with Nike and Russell Athletics a few years ago. 

This one comes to you courtesy of the "if you care about these sort of things" file. Wisconsin players have received their 2012 Big Ten championship rings, marking their 3rd straight conference title from this past season. Here is one look at the ring courtesy of kicker Kyle French's Facebook page:

Pretty plain and not super gaudy... of course we can't see the sides, but at least they aren't in your face about it... Or something like that.

Now, if only the Badgers could've found a way to win one of the last three Rose Bowl's and make this conference actually look good, huh? Then again, their just another team to fail in a long line of recent failure in the "Granddaddy of Them All," so perhaps that's asking too much... 

Will they get the chance to play for four straight this season? It's only happened once with Ohio State going from 1973 to 1976. 

Earlier today the fine folks of the mothership, otherwise known as, ESPN/ABC announced their slate of primetime games for the Big Ten. Of course it features a lot of contenders (on paper of course) and the heavy-hitters of Ohio State and Michigan. 

However, it also contains some very intriguing matchups and didn't just stick to typical thoughts on primetime games. Perhaps the most interesting bit of news in this announcement was that ESPN passed on having a game with Nebraska. But, then you take a look at the schedule up until the moth of November and you remember why they aren't on this list.

Here is the list of those games announced by ESPN/ABC earlier today: 

Sept. 7: Notre Dame at Michigan, 8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN/ESPN2

Sept. 14: Notre Dame at Purdue, 8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN/ESPN2

Sept. 28: Wisconsin at Ohio State, 8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN/ESPN2

Oct. 5: Ohio State at Northwestern, 8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN/ESPN2

Oct. 12: Michigan at Penn State, 5 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN2

Oct. 26: Penn State at Ohio State, 8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 

Now that you see the games it's time to do what we do best here... RANKINGS BITCHES... O.k., that might have been a bit of overkill, but alas here are the primetime games we see as most appealing to the fans (taking into consideration rivalry, importance to rankings, conference & division implications, and watchability). 

Spring football is officially over and that means we continue our look at what went down across the conference this spring in our "Exit Interview" series. Up today are the Purdue Boilermakers, one of two teams making a coaching change this season and the only one to do so after firing a coach. 

Out is Danny Hope and in is Darrell Hazel. So, what's new in West Lafayette and how did spring turn out? We spoke with BoilerDowd of Boiled Sports to get the scoop on what's happening in Boilerland. We covered everything from the new faces of the program to some of the old guys too. 

Sit back and enjoy... and Boiler Up! 

The B1G Time (TBT): New era, new attitude, same ole QB questions in West Lafayette. Coming out of the spring where do things stand in terms of the QB position? Is there a battle at hand or is there a clear frontrunner?

Boiler Dowd: The clear leader is Rob Henry. Hazell won't quite say it at this point, but it looks like he'll be the guy in late August unless something drastically changes. We've gotten to see a few practices, and you can see why he is the leader- he throws the ball well, is a great leader and has a tremendous attention to detail. His mechanics have improved drastically since he arrived on campus, and he's always been a great athlete, and had the ability to scramble...that might be important since there is so much youth in the O-Line.

On Sunday afternoon the Big Ten announced their conference realignment plan and the move to a nine game conference schedule, the former of which begins in 2014 and the later in 2016. If you were shocked, surprised or moved by the news that happened then we'd love to know what rock you've been living under because it must be fun to hibernate for that long. 

But, back here in Big Ten country, there appears to be two reactions to the new division alignment and it's left the conference in a position of damned because they did and damned if they didn't. Damned because they did the smart thing and allowed geography and tradition win out over modern-day buzzwords and they would've been damned had they just left it alone and split up the conference's two most eastern schools.

Some teams came out on the positive end and some on the negative end of this switch. Yet, not everyone was a winner or loser because... well, frankly, because not everyone in this realignment is a winner or a loser - some are just staying even in this realignment.

So, in that vein it's time we take a look at who came out as winners and who lost in the battle that was realignment 2.0: 

We all knew it was coming, but the Big Ten has made it official: The B1G will go to its East and West divisions starting in 2014. The divisions will look like this:

East: Maryland, Rutgers, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana.

West: Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska.

Along with this announcement came the announcement that the B1G will move to  a nine-game conference season beginning in 2016. With this, the East teams will have five conference home games in even-numbered years. To me, these divisions are way off. The East looks to be a much tougher division, and I would like to hear someone say otherwise. For now, let’s wait to see how these divisions play out in the near future.