The Big Ten heavyweights spent the first three weeks of the season beating up on lesser opponents while climbing the rankings. With five teams in the top 15 of The Associated Press Top 25 , more than any other conference, its time for the Big Ten to get to work.The schedule on Saturday is full of big-time matchups. Third-ranked Ohio State visits No. 14 Oklahoma, No. 4 Michigan hosts improving Colorado, No. 12 Michigan State travels to No. 18 Notre Dame and Nebraska hosts No. 22 Oregon.In the new playoff era, meaty matchups like these in the nonconference may become more common. One of the main components in the selection process for the four-team playoff is strength of schedule, so power programs can no longer afford to pad the first month of their schedules with no-name schools that get paid to take a beating.I think youll see more and more of it, Nebraska coach Mike Riley said. It looks like a unique way, different way, that people are starting their season with their non-league games, like were playing and like we saw right from the first weekend. I think it adds a lot of intrigue and excitement to it.And there are more than just playoff implications.When the Buckeyes go to Norman on Saturday, the Sooners will be hosting several sought-after recruits that Ohio State coach Urban Meyer would love to land as well. Come out of the game with a win in front of some of the most talented high school players in the country, and they could win more than just a game.Our performance in this game, theres going to be a lot of people watching, and that certainly is important, said Meyer, whose Buckeyes outscored Tulsa and Bowling Green by a combined 102 points.And finally, games like these help teams gear up for the grind of the conference season that looms just around the corner.This will be a great game for our team to see where we are against a team thats nationally ranked and has been a national team for a lot of years now, Riley said. It will be really good for the Huskers in preparation for what were going to see as the season goes on.Other notes from around the Big Ten:IOWAS CHALLENGEThe Hawkeyes are facing an FCS team this weekend. So they can relax with another tuneup, right? Not so fast.North Dakota State is coming to town on Saturday. The Bison have won five straight national championships and are 8-3 in their last 11 games when they step up in weight class to face an FBS opponent. And they are not afraid.My experience is the biggest difference is just depth and overall numbers, coach Kirk Ferentz said. But the guys they put out there are just tremendous players. Theyve got a lot of guys that look like guys we play with that may have gotten overlooked a little bit in recruiting.CLAEYS APPROACHWhen Minnesota scored late to go up 30-23 against Oregon State on opening weekend, coach Tracy Claeys got some attention for his decision to go for 2 points to make it a two-possession game. Claeys has long believed that if the conversion fails and his team still only leads by seven, most teams would kick the extra point if they scored a late touchdown to try to force overtime rather than go for the win with a 2-point conversion.The Gophers handled Indiana State with ease on Saturday. But Claeys said if they had been in a similar situation against the Sycamores, he would have kicked the extra point for an eight-point lead.A smaller school, an underdog on the road, if they would have went down and scored, they probably would have went for 2, Claeys said. The majority of teams, we will go for 2 down there.STRUGGLING WILDCATSNorthwestern is 0-2 on the season, with eyebrow-raising losses to Western Michigan and Illinois State. They are 211th in the nation in offense, and coach Pat Fitzgerald said Northwestern needs better play from its offensive line if things are going to start turning around.Id love to tell you its an easy fix, Fitzgerald said. Its guys doing what theyre supposed to do when theyre supposed to do it and coaches coaching them better. Its not rocket science here. Its roll your sleeves up and get better. Thats what we did today and hopefully we can do it again tomorrow. Wholesale Vans Shoes From China . 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The conclusion of the group stage whittled the 16 qualified Starcraft II professionals to a mere eight for the showdown at BlizzCon. Of the final 16 players, only six were non-Korean representatives; another example of the regions ironclad grip on the game. The final eight players will playoff in a single-elimination bracket for the chance at the $500,000 prize pool in the World Championship Global Finals.The favorites to win the entire event were arguably Park Dark Ryung Woo, Team expert Byun ByuN Hyun Woo, and KT Rolsters Jun TY Tae Yang. Each South Korean expert was the best at their style and, oftentimes, their race. Dark entered as the dominating force in StarCraft II with a banner 2016 year. Hes the one player that is impossible to truly game plan for and pilots his Zerg army with different looks in every game to throw an opponent off. ByuN could be considered the best at microing in the entirety of professional StarCraft competition. He was dominating when he won his championship at the GSL Season 2 finals and won his games due to his ability to outplay in fights instead of macro. And finally, TY was the Terran player to watch for the majority of the year. He was a master of unpredictable strategy and dismantling opponents or tilting them to losses.The opening week closed the book on eight players, but the most surprising exit was Samsung Galaxys Kang Solar Min Soo. This Zerg master was considered to be a major threat for the championship, but his disappointing 0-2 performance was a product of poor adaptability in pressure situations over raw outplay. On the other side, the most surprising result for the final eight qualified players was the success of True eSports Miko?aj Elazer Ogonowski.Strongest after opening week:1. Milleniums Tobias ShoWTimE SieberThe only player to qualify out of the group stages wwithout a single loss, ShoWTimE played impressively from beginning to end.dddddddddddd He came into the tournament with little fanfare and exited the opening week with the largest message to everyone watching: this is my championship. ShoWTimEs strength throughout his matches was his ability to force a grinding pace onto his opposition. In addition to his elite macro play, the slower pace forced the opponents to unforced economic and unit composition mistakes.His best victory over ByuN was a demonstration of how excellent defense and macro play could defeat even the best actions per minute. But, ShoWTimEs pace and passivity at times did create awkward situations in his otherwise brilliant performances. It will be a weakness to monitor if ShoWTimE wants to continue his positive momentum.2. DarkThe favorite to take down the tournament looked every bit the part. Dark showcased his world-class, and arguably best, macro play by expanding and adjusting his base and compositions faster than his opposition; his signature early mobility upgrades to units and Overlords was a constant in his matches. His ability to truly max out supplies, fast expansion, and apply ridiculous pressure at the same time distances him from his opposition. The list of Darks strengths may prove too strong for the rest of the bracket.His lone blemish in the opening week was a loss against KT Rolsters Kim Stats Dae Yeob. In the set, and especially the loss, he was slow in adjusting his composition to the opposition. There were several moments where Dark was too slow to strike with a superior ground army or lost his element of surprise with the superior scouting from Stats. More concerning was Darks micro decisions against units with better mobility like blink stalkers and his insistence to just run his important units into unfavorable fights. 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