Big Ten viewer's guide, Week 12: Tracy Claeys coaching for a contract?

Marquee matchups are hard to find in the penultimate week of the Big Ten regular season, as we all await the Michigan-Ohio State showdown on Thanksgiving weekend. None of the Big Ten's ranked teams face one another in Week 12, and the one game we all thought would be huge in the preseason -- Ohio State at Michigan State -- feels like a major letdown.

The most intriguing game of the bunch this week might be Northwestern at Minnesota. Both teams, at 4-3 in conference play, are technically still alive in the Big Ten West Division, though the Golden Gophers have a little more control of their destiny because they play Wisconsin next week. But the true intrigue has more to do with the future of…