How Large Ten Faculty Soccer Has Turned Into Should-See Tv This Season

CBS, FOX and NBC all banked on Large Ten soccer driving sufficient viewership to warrant a mixed $7 billion in broadcasting rights. The networks’ ROI should be decided, however Week 7 underscored that for sheer leisure worth, the Large Ten is surpassing expectations.

Underdog tales, thrillers and feel-good buddy adventures make up only a portion of the must-see B1G lineup on a given Saturday. Right here’s what aired in Week 7 on the coast-to-coast convention.

“Sad Halley”

Faculty soccer has no cleaning soap opera extra filled with jaw-dropping twists than the drama at Penn State. The Nittany Lions are at a crossroads after Week 7 with an injured quarterback and more and more embattled head coach.

For each marquee recreation Penn State misplaced below James Franklin, there was an assurance that got here from this system’s consistency. A loss to a high 10-ranked opponent like Oregon, which the Nittany Lions endured on Sept. 27 in additional time, could also be predictable however no much less of a heartbreaker.

Two weeks later, it seems extra like a backbreaker.

An completely confounding loss on Oct. 4 at beforehand winless UCLA may realistically have been deemed the nadir of the Franklin period, however lasted just one week. In dropping a 3rd straight, and to struggling Northwestern, the season’s grow to be an unmitigated catastrophe made all the more serious with the lack of quarterback Drew Allar.

From preseason Large Ten favourite and a preferred nationwide championship choose to staring down a possible shedding season, the longer term is unsure for Penn State and Franklin.

“Skipper and Jerry”

A contemporary-day spin on the basic buddy-action automobile like Starsky & Hutch, UCLA interim head coach Tim Skipper and offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel burst onto the scene in Los Angeles with an understated flashiness.

Skipper left a delicate message for the Bruins after their 42-37 upset of Penn State, as shared by Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Occasions. They answered emphatically no in a 38-13 rout of Michigan State.

With Skipper on the helm and the younger, fresh-faced Neuheisel calling an offense that went from moribund to prolific just about in a single day, UCLA is enjoying its most impressed soccer in its two seasons of Large Ten membership.

“I do not like boring, so if I do not really feel the juice, then we will begin the day over,” Skipper mentioned following the Week 7 romp. “We have not had to do this or something, however power and fervour is the way you’re presupposed to play soccer. That is the way in which we will follow, that is the way in which we meet, that is the way in which we play.”

Not solely is Skipper and Jerry essentially the most entertaining midseason substitute in school soccer, it’s additionally a feel-good comeback story. Co-star and quarterback Nico Iamaleava has flipped the script on his personal narrative with 5 landing passes and eight scores complete over the 2 wins.

“Making Lemonade with Lemon”

Should you miss a second of USC soccer, there’s a chance you’ll miss vast receiver Makai Lemon doing one thing unbelievable.

Lemon’s confirmed himself essentially the most thrilling pass-catcher within the recreation this season, including extra to his sizzle reel within the Trojans’ 31-13 win over No. 15 Michigan.

First, he walked the tight rope to usher in a key reception as USC was driving late within the second quarter in a 7-7 tie. Then, quarterback Jayden Maiava completed the drive with simply 18 seconds earlier than intermission discovering Lemon once more.

With three white and blue-and-maize-trimmed jerseys close by, Maiava fired a go into a good window. Lemon laid out for the seize, hauling in a pivotal landing that ignited a 17-0 run. The win was an enormous bounce-back for USC after its final-second loss two weeks prior at Illinois — a recreation by which Lemon caught two fourth-quarter touchdowns — and likewise essentially the most vital Trojans victory of their temporary time within the Large Ten.

“Hoosier Champion?”

Irrespective of how a lot school soccer adjustments on the impetus of the TV community, followers hold coming again with the promise of seeing one thing they’d by no means witnessed earlier than.

And fairly actually nobody had ever seen an Indiana workforce beat a high five-ranked opponent on the street earlier than Saturday’s 30-20 defeat of Oregon. Simply once you assume soccer can’t probably do one thing new…

The Hoosiers reached final season’s Faculty Soccer Playoff with out successful any regular-season video games of a lot consequence. That can’t be mentioned of the 2025 squad, which has now completely blasted a then-top 10-ranked opponent in Illinois and got here via within the clutch at probably the most hostile environments within the sport, Autzen Stadium.

Fernando Mendoza getting back from a game-tying pick-six to steer the Indiana offense on a pair of essential, late-game scores is the form of subplot that simply didn’t occur for Hoosiers of the previous.

Then once more, there’s by no means been a personality fairly like Curt Cignetti on the helm.

Cignetti might be described as school soccer’s Rodney Dangerfield, and never only for the one-liners which have grow to be his trademark in TV interviews. At 64 years previous and after a training journey via Div. II Indiana (Pa.), FCS program Elon and main James Madison in its transition to FBS, Cignetti’s reaching his profession peak late within the recreation like Dangerfield.

And, like Dangerfield as soon as famously quipped, Indiana received no respect. That’s the case not after Week 7.