I decided to forgo the usual One Word Wednesday post this week and thought I'd try something new. I read about animoto a week or two ago and I finally got around to checking it out. It is a site that lets you make videos from a series of pictures or short video clips. You can add in things like text and music. It is very simple to use and it's free! Well, mostly free. You can only create 30 second videos and don't have access to every feature on the free account. If you pay, then obviously that opens other doors. Anyway. I put a video together using some of my pictures from Iowa's spring game.

The Iowa Football team picked up its 3rd verbal commitment yesterday. Austin Blythe, an in-state kid (and life-long Hawkeye fan) from Williamsburg, joins 2 wide receivers, Marcus Grant and Jacory Shepherd, in the class of 2011. Scout has Blythe as a 3-star offensive lineman and he is part of Rivals 250 prospects to watch.

Now that spring practice is over around the Big Ten, people are starting to come out with their conference power rankings. Here's a few to read through: ESPN Big Ten Blog (has Iowa #2), Hawkeye Nation (also has Iowa #2), and The Daily Gopher (has Iowa #3). The general consensus is that Ohio State is the team to beat this year and that Iowa and Wisconsin will also be in the mix. After that, though, there is a lot of disagreement. Here's how I see things shaking out though.

It has been a week since the NFL draft when 6 Iowa Hawkeyes (Bulaga, Angerer, Spievey, Moeaki, Edds, and Calloway) were selected. In addition, a couple of Hawkeyes earned tryouts and one was signed as free agents. Iowa is growing a pretty big footprint in the NFL and I think we have Coach Ferentz to thank. Anyway, I don't follow the NFL a lot, but since it's been a week since the draft I thought it'd be good to do a quick update.

Well, just about everyone has shared their opinion on Big Ten expansion at this point (yes even me, though my thought was that the Big Ten should drop Northwestern) even though Jim Delaney has repeatedly said that expansion will take time and is still probably about a year away. Seriously, read any Big Ten related blog and I guarantee you'll find a post about it. BHGP points out how all the supposed "done deals" and crazy rumors are ridiculous. However, the latest chatter is very intriguing and has piqued my interest.