The Big 10 is the Best Conference in the Country ...

... at least in terms of their promo spots. Most conferences will go with some thrown-together montage that includes highlights from various teams in the conference, some bland music, maybe a picture of an educational-looking building thrown in there, along with a cheerleader with a nice rack smile, finishing with the conference logo splashing across the screen. Something you'll forget in 10 seconds.

Not the Big Ten. The Big Ten, of all places, encompassing corn-fed middle America, has rolled out Talib Kweli for the second straight year. Have a look:



Of course, I'm not sure of the objective of any of these ads for particular conferences. My guess is that back in the day, some conference was feeling pretty good about themselves (probably the SEC) and bought a TV ad, then the rest of the conferences decided that they had to keep up with the joneses, so they all started doing it, and at no point along the way did anyone ever ask themselves, "What the hell are we accomplishing with these ads?"

But still, if you're going to do it... well, you can't do it much better than bringing in Kweli. Well done again, Big Ten.