USA TODAY‘s Christine Brennan goes out of her way to ask ‘what the heck does the Big 10 Conference have to brag about’ in her latest column.
Brennan, who grew up in Big 10 country, admits that the conference might be… umm… overrated.
The Big Ten has produced a record of 17-29 in the Rose Bowl in my lifetime, including a dreadful 1-9 run through the 1970s. Just last year, when Ohio State and Michigan met as the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation and played a game for the ages, both teams thudded back to reality with crushing defeats in their bowl games.
Big Ten? Big Two? Big bust.
This legendary conference has given the football world just three national champions in 40 seasons: Ohio State in 1968, Michigan in 1997 and Ohio State again in 2002. It’s astounding, really, how such a muscular league could produce such paltry results.
The University of Miami by itself gave us five national champions, four from 1983-91 alone, although it must be said that the Big Ten always has had better manners.
Wow. Somebody just found themselves crossed off Big 10 Commissioner Jim Delany’s holiday card list.
Mark May adds even more fuel to the fire – the Big 10 is living off it’s reputation.
“The bottom line is that most voters in the polls are old-school people who believe the Big Ten is still the Big Ten,” ESPN college football analyst Mark May said Wednesday. “Ohio State is No. 1 basically by default. They get respect because they played in the national championship game last season, even though they got torched by Florida, and because they haven’t lost this season.”
…
“Do you think the kid growing up in California or Florida really cares about ‘dotting the I’ in late November in the Horseshoe?” May asked, referring to the Ohio State band’s traditional rendition of “Script Ohio.”
Mark May off Delany’s list, too. (Just think of all the Big 10 Network cash that the league won’t have to spend on stamps this December!)
And Brennan finishes with a flurry….
This gaping difference between tradition and reality has caught up to Big Ten football where it matters most, on the field.
Now wait just a minute. Christine Brennan is a best-selling author of ice-skating books. How in the heck is she qualified to write about the Big 10 Conference?
In defense of the Big10… what America’s favorite ice-skating book author fails to mention is that the Big10 conference is the sixth highest rated conference this year by Jeff Sagarin.
1 SOUTHEASTERN (A) = 80.77 80.40 ( 1) 12
2 BIG 12 (A) = 78.25 77.60 ( 5) 12
3 BIG EAST (A) = 78.23 77.64 ( 4) 8
4 ATLANTIC COAST (A) = 77.83 77.65 ( 3) 12
5 PAC-10 (A) = 77.68 78.05 ( 2) 10
6 BIG TEN (A) = 74.66 74.81 ( 6) 11
7 MOUNTAIN WEST (A) = 68.91 68.55 ( 7) 9
8 I-A INDEPENDENTS (A) = 62.83 63.13 (
4
9 WESTERN ATHLETIC (A) = 61.70 62.17 ( 9) 9
Oh. Ouch. Didn’t see that one coming. Umm… well, maybe the ice skating lady was right after all.
Source: USA Today: Big10? More like the Little 11
