FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Well, the main thing is that whenever Big 10 teams play teams from what people consider the stronger confrences (Pac 10 and the SEC) they seem to either get blown out or or barely squeek by a team that is at the bottom of one of the stronger confrences and there at the top of theres,

For the Big 10 to get it's respect back it's gonna take the Big 10 to either beat the crap out of a big time SEC or Pac10 team on a nationaly telavised and very hyped up game, or Ohio state will have to beat an SEC team in the national championshp,

I would agree with that LSU..that's a very good point.

If Ohio state beats USC however, I don't that will quite get the job done because USC is in a down year and Ohio state is in a up year, howeverif they sweep the two games they play, they'll be back where they started in the pre- Big 10 sucks era

can you delete the first one, I had several errors in that one

I'll concur with this blog. I can't get rid of my crazy uncle either.....seriously, OSU gets ripped a lot because of this exact arguement. I guess it would be easier to defend if they would have won at least one of the last BCS games. (No Sarcasm intended) Personally I don't get into these debates. Are they a good team? Yes! they made it to the BCS NC two years in a row. Is the conference so weak or are they just that outstanding?

Wells will win the Heisman............wait, did I just say that?

No problem LSU...I think that beating USC in the LA Coliseum would be incredibly huge for the conference and the Big 10...I do agree with you this USC team is going to be a lot more beatable than last years.

Very true CenLA Tiger..well said.

I think its hard to pinpoint any conference for all time greatness. Each goe sup and down. For awhile the big 12 was hammering people left and right, even those mighty SEC folks, no they are rebuilding, quite well but still a couple years out. So is the Big 10, The Pac 10, gets away with being mediocre alot because it seems noon east of arizona much gives a sh...

The fact of the matter is each conference will rise and fall many times in our life time, so get while the gettins good SEC, you my friend are dominant now, but who know what conference steps up in a few years???

One more thing, OSU continues to improve and hang around because they adapt, you get beat by speed, they get speed, Oline gets worked, go get a better Oline, you see, just like in How To Be A Player...True PLayers Adapt!

BTW great blog, a little emotion out of Wisco, nice to see!

Good stuff xxx..always. I agree completely.

Not a big 10 fan, but I hope they crush USC and bring them back to Earth. Arizona State, watch out USC!!!

2 reasons off the top of my head:

1- Our blessing is our curse. About the only thing most fans know of interconference play is the bowls. The bowls luike the big 10 because they have a large number of alumni looking for a week in the sun (you do the math on the revenue for a city if they have an additional 10,000-20,000 visitors stay for a week). Consequently, we get match ups like Big 10 #8 MSU against ACC #2 BC. It doesn't matter if it was close, most fans don't realize what a mismatch it should have been. Of course we will be lucky to go .500 in the bowls. Even if there is success against teams that finished higher in other conferences in the bowls, people only see 1 or 2 Big 10 bowl teams any way (how many fans do you think realize Florida over OSU wasn't just a Big win for the SEC, it was their only win in 5 games with the Big 10 that year?)

2- Big 10 Football isn't sexy enough
We don't have flashy coaches, gimmicky schemes, or stunning QBs. Wisconsin has played bowls against teams that finished higher in another conference than the badgers finished in the Big 10 and gotten a lot of wins the past few years, but they are still considered too slow to compete. TSUN (a team nobody in the Big 10 viewed as particularly fast) went into Florida's back yard with their vastly quicker players and spread offense and looked faster at almost everty position, yet the Big 10 is still too slow to compete. Unless sweater vests, chubby old men, and bruising TBs come into fashion, this won't change any time soon.

Exactly ^^^ Bring back three yards and a cloud of dust, now that was sexy, lol

For one, you guys can get a conference championship going...I think that's why so many other conferences look at you all in frustration.

And when you ask "what are we to do?" Personally, you can do nothing...except hope that the people in control of the Big Ten realize the perril you guys are in and start making some changes.

Look, you guys definitely have history on your side. That's a fact. But college football is moving in a new direction...The SEC. Why? Because of two reasons:

1. We are seeing more TV time for SEC matchups.
2. People want to go to warm weather schools.

The Big Ten needs to figure out how to pump up some of your lesser teams in the conference. The SEC had the same problem 10 to 15 years ago...Miss. St., Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt were dogs...and the SEC had little respect.
What occured is that those lesser teams became better...more validated in ESPN, NBC, CBS..etc.'s eyes. So suddenly we've got uber competition.

This is how the SEC fixed their conference...not from the Top down but from the bottom up.

So can you do something about it, no you are right, the average fan has to take the wait and see approach. But your conference can do something about it by improving the lesser teams competitiveness.

rory..I agree with you. The Big 10 is trying to do something about it..their plan is, the Big 10 Network...the Network isn't what I would call a success that is the Big 10's plan to get the lesser teams more exposure. It's not a success because very few people can actually see it. I definitely agree that the SEC is getting air time..that people can actually see. And that plays right into what Prove It said...the Big 10 isn't "sexy"

The Big 10 is always going to have the us Northern college football fans..it's how high school football is here, in Wisconsin for the most part..a lot high schools here in Wisc have very run oriented offenses..and so that's what at least Wisconsin gets in terms of recruiting. We get players from the south..but we get a lot of our big physical o-linemen from up here..it's just how it is.

agree 100 percent.

Thanks AE

Ya know speaking of that d.a.m.n Big 10 network. I have Direct TV and the only conference channel I catch is the Big 10 network. It's good I guess if you follow the Big 10 but it's as useful to a Louisiana Boy as the Hockey highlights on ESPN. That's when I get up to take a p.i.s.s. I'm gald we have football in common because a few things we have little to no understanding of here in the south when it comes to sports are:
Hockey, Lacrosse, football in the snow, ice fishing, skiing, snow mobiling, and any other cold weather event. When I was in an Army school years ago I had a buddy from Minnesota "Don't cha know" (that's what he always said) "Don't cha know' Like I was supposed to know or something. Any how he was a huge Hockey fan and tried to get me interested in it. I must say that I gave it an honest attempt but just couldn't relate. I guess that's why God made football. We can all enjoy that.

A team's conference shouldn't keep them from going to the national championship, but strength of schedule should keep a team, like Hawaii, from going. Sometimes a certain conference affects a team's strength of schedule.

The 'Weak Conference' comment is just fans wishing they could dismiss the champion from 1 of the major 6 conferences to give their team a better shot, trying to cover up their conference champion's loss to a team from the lower 1/3 of their conference.

Waht a historically guaranteed invite to the NC game? Here's the 3 simple things you need to do... otherwise you don't control your destiny, nor should you:

1. Win 1 of the major 6 conferences.
Not to dismiss the other half of Div 1 football, but they don't have the recruiting or resources to expect to win any of the major 6 conferences (getting 1 big win is 1 thing, winning the conference is another).

2. Have among the best 2 records of the champions from the major 6 conferences (or at least tie for the best 2 records).
Winning the big games is good, but more teams loose their shot to losses from teams in the bottom of their conferences than the top.
Ex - 2007 - USC lost to Stanford and WVU lost to Pitt (teams that were destined to finish last or next to last in their division until they got the upset).
Oklahoma lost to Colorado (who was destined to be bowl inelgible until they got the upset) and if I recall correctly Texas Tech (who was destined to finish next to last in the division until they got the upset).

Of the 4 conference chanpions who didn't get to play for the title, 3 lost their shot because they lost to lower teams. Even LSU almost lost their chance to play for the title with poor performances against teams that finished in the lower half of their conference.

You can talk of schedule strength, but schedule strength isn't the biggest obstacle to teams that miss playing for the title - it is consistently beating the lower teams that takes just as many if not more conference champions out of the NC title hunt. Pump them up all you want, Stanford, Pitt, and even Colorado and Texas Tech weren't going to challenge for the title in any conference in 2007.

3. Schedule and beat a top non-conference opponent
Don't expect to get the respect from the pollsters when comparing 2 teams with equal records if you didn't schedule a big name opponent from 1 of the other major 6 conferences. You need the support of pollsters outside your region if you want to play for the title.

It is that easy. Do those 3 and you are in the NC game. Don't and don't be surprised if you are overlooked.