What is Wrong with Big Ten Football? - jmik58's Blog

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jmik58's Blog

What is Wrong with Big Ten Football? Stuck

Posted on September 19, 2012 at 10:32 AM.

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If the Big Ten was hoping 2012 would be the year they would interfere with the SEC's national championship run, consider the only remaining undefeated candidates from the conference: Northwestern, Minnesota, and Ohio State.

The Buckeyes, of course, aren't even eligible for postseason play. And how fitting for the way this year has started for the B1G as Ohio State appears to be the best of the bunch -- and that's not saying much.

Maybe it's poor recruiting, a weak talent pool of high school talent, graduation of key players, coaching changes or some other excuse. Regardless of the culprit-of-the-day it's hard to dodge the blame for nearly any team in a collection of Midwest teams that looks left behind by the rest of the BCS nation.

The season started off promising enough with a 10-2 record in week one -- including a 1-1 record versus BCS conference teams and Michigan State's victory over #24 Boise State. But week two is where it all fell apart; when the warning siren roared -- maybe the rough and tough Big-Ten can't keep up on a year-by-year basis.

Six wins and five losses in week two -- only one win in seven tries against BCS foes. Horrible defeats of Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Illinois highlighted a rough trip west for the conference. Iowa couldn't find an offense, Michigan was still licking its wounds from Alabama, and a kicker meltdown by Penn State in a loss against Virginia was icing on the cake. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

And the lingering impact of the state of the Big-Ten has remained raw since then. Despite a 10-2 record in week three (2-1 versus BCS teams) much of the sports-talk nation is still abuzz over how weak the teams within supposedly are. As Gary Armida wrote Monday about the Yankees' survival in a market that views each game on knee-jerk all-or-nothing reactions, "...the immediacy of analysis, however flawed, has taken over as the most important characteristic of competing news organizations."

Is this just a major swing for sensational media attention feeding off one single week? Is the Big Ten really in that much trouble?

Luckily for the conference, this week's slate of games holds only four serious challenges for the Big-Ten -- three against BCS opponents. Temple takes on Penn State, Michigan faces Notre Dame, Syracuse travels to Minnesota, and a dangerous Louisiana Tech team heads to Illinois. It's hard to find a guaranteed win within those games, but it's safe to say that Minnesota and Illinois must take their matchups. If Penn State can win any game it's a plus -- the Nittany Lions are living an implied mess.

But if B1G fans want any credibility in the media moving forward, they must hope for a surprise victory by the Wolverines over Notre Dame. And if any of the other teams in the conference lose their games? Better hope for a big news day on Sunday to distract from the Big-Ten hate.

BCS conference numbers through three weeks:

Big-12 is 23-3
- Kansas has two losses
- 8 of 10 teams undefeated
- 3-1 BCS non-conference record

ACC is 24-12
- Includes five conference games
- 5-6 BCS non-conference record

PAC-12 is 24-10
- Includes one conference game
- Five undefeated teams
- 6-3 BCS non-conference record

Big East is 15-7
- Includes two conference games
- Three undefeated teams
- 4-4 BCS non-conference record

SEC is 29-12
- Includes six conference games
- Six undefeated teams
- 3-4 BCS non-conference record

Big Ten is 26-9
- Three undefeated teams (Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State)
- 5-8 BCS non-conference record (Including MSU vs. Boise State)

Sound Off: Is Big-Ten football in trouble or is their week-two performance being blown out of proportion?

Justin Mikels is a staff writer for Operation Sports. Follow him on Twitter: @long_snapper

Comments

# 1 scottyo60 @ Sep 19

First a weak high school talent pool has nothing to do with it. Ohio and PA play great high school ball that produce a lot of talent.

Overall it's just a knee jerk reaction, but the Big 10 has always been called in my family the Big 3 little 8 because of how top heavy it is. I really feel the PAC 12 just has a lot of talent and they surpass the Big 10 in the speed ratio. Speed matters, but you gotta play to win the conference first. Everything else is icing on the cake.

# 2 bigdoc85 @ Sep 19

RECRUITING. RECRUITING. RECRUITING. Even Vanderbilt and Rutgers out-recruited every team in the Big Ten except OSU and Michigan.

# 3 Sabredj @ Sep 19

The only reason this is a topic, is because of the Big 10's high profile teams having high profile losses (I'm looking at you Michigan, Nebraska, Michigan State, Wisconsin and even Iowa). Throw in an almost disastrous loss at home by ineligible Ohio St. to a mediocre Cal team and it creates this perfect storm of doubt. I think it's all pretty justified, but as we learned so many times before, it's a long season with many twists and turns. One thing is for sure, it won't be boring.

# 4 Rhouston @ Sep 19

Rose Bowl for Northwestern this year!

# 5 PJ33 @ Sep 19

SEC vs other conferences 1998-2011
SEC vs. PAC-12 regular season: 10-12
SEC vs. PAC-12 bowl games: 1-0
SEC vs. Big 12 regular season: 6-10
SEC vs. Big 12 bowl games: 21-8
SEC vs. ACC regular season: 42-36
SEC vs. ACC bowl games: 16-9
SEC vs. Big 10 regular season: 7-4
SEC vs. Big 10 bowl games: 19-19
SEC vs. Big East regular season: 16-15
SEC vs. Big East bowl game: 3-8

# 6 BSchwartz07 @ Sep 20

The trouble with the B1G starts right at the top. Last year as all the top conferences started swooping up teams to build the "super-conferences' the B1G commish sat idol stating that he had no concern over what other conferences do. The teams (outside of Ohio State and Michigan) in the B1G have been similar, just sitting back as the college world evolves. No longer can you keep your recruiting instate and expect to contend on a national level. No longer can you keep some lame coach around for years with the same boring offensive schemes. Teams need to evolve to keep up, and in the B1G teams like Min, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Iowa, and so on are willing to just collect their TV money and do not care that most southern teams would beat them by 50+ on any given Saturday. Not to even mention the fact that Penn State should have been dropped completely, that program may never contend at the FBS level again.

I see this as a potential apocalypse for the B1G over then next decade. If they do not go out and add a couple of quality contending teams, or somehow get their teams to step up on a national level I can easily see OSU, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin heading to a "super-conference" and eventually leaving the B1G out in the cold.