I grew up in Big 10 country but moved to the south where the SEC is king. It was all about Da U in the early 2000s(Miami), until they fell off and interest waned. I'm still a Big 10 fan at heart as many of my relatives graduated from Big 10 schools, primarily Illinois and Wisconsin. My question is....what's it going to take for a Big 10 team to rise up and claim a National Championship. The SEC is dominating college football right now. The New Years Day Massacre had to be amongst the worst moments in B10 history. Ohio State, easily the best of the B10 in the past 10 years, got trounced by LSU and Florida in the BCS NCG. Last year, they survived a scare from the THIRD best team in the SEC West. Michigan was demolished.
Should Michigan lower its standards for admittance? Should they completely forgo the north and concentrate in Texas and the Southeast US for football recruits? I was disappointed at their choice in a new coach. I was hoping they'd get a group from a good SEC team.
WOW! A great question and thank you for your intrest. I am glad that you brought the January 1st demolishing, trashing, trenching, embarrassing play,...etc. Looking back i did not want Mississippi State, but that is what we got. Lemme get to Michigan first, the players had givin up on RR and i have spoke to quite a few that are now in the NFL and he was not the right choice. If i remember correctly Penn State took on Florida, correct...i am believe that is right, but anyways, Penn State had issues at QB all year long and looking back, they should have gotten beat worse, but it is what it is.
Alabama is Alabama and nothing was going to stop them that day. I remember watching that game and thinking that Alabama should have been in a better Bowl game. Alabama had better talent and coaching and it showed when they waxed Michigan State.
The SEC has very low requirements for enrollment and the biggest thing for them is
OVER SIGNING and being able to let
JUCO'S get into their programs.
The Big Ten has been very outspoken when it comes to this, but you have a guy like Houston Nutt who signed 43 players last year. Yea....43 players. I know the Big Ten is setting a hard cap at 25.
So, here is how over signing works...you know how you can re-take your SAT'S or ACT? Well, let's say you have the class you want when it comes to recruiting and are at full scholarship, but what's this....you have a player that just qualifies and this means that two or three players are shit out of luck. So, just imagine this...you signed with Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Florida, South Carolina,..etc...It means that you will not get to enroll because that other player who is better than you just qualified. So, how would you feel if that happened to you or your Son/Daughter? The commit might have to go the juco route or they will be released from their scholarship because "They do not have room."
Nick Saban is the master at this.
I never denied that the Big 10 has been bad the last 2 years; my only complaint was that people are completely freaking out and announcing the death of the conference as a national power. OSU beat Texas and Cincy in 2006, MSU/UM has wins over decent ND teams, MSU beat Pitt in 2006 and 2007, etc. So there are at least a few more examples of decent OOC teams that the Big 10 has beaten recently.
As I mentioned in the post, consider these results with a grain of salt. Yes, there are a lot of mediocre conference wins, but that is true for most conferences. Few teams in the SEC leave the south in the OOC, and the Big 10 played about 40 more OOC games against BCS teams than that conference. But that isn't the point. I said that I think the SEC and the Big 12 have been the best two conferences over the past few years, with the ACC, Big 10, and the Pac-10 occupying that next tier. the evidence bore that out, so what's your point in arguing?
My whole point, and I am starting to wonder if people actually read the damn conclusions, is that I think the MSM and the casual fans tend to overreact, and the newest rant is that the Big 10 is a horrible conference that isn't better than the MAC, WAC, MWC, etc. This exercise was intended to provide some evidence to refute this premise, with the understanding that I tried to keep my subjectivity to a minimum. You
provided some evidence that supports my admission that the Big 10 hasn't been that good the past 3 bowl seasons, and I'm not going to argue that it doesn't show a recent slide. I just want people to take a step back and consider that maybe the Big 10's recent struggles are more a bump in the road than some horrible decline.
And no, the Big Ten should not lower their academic standards.
Thanks for the great question, man.
If anything else, please do not hesitate to ask.
GO BLUE!!