The Big Ten: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
It is getting very hard to make an argument in favor of the Big Ten being on par with the other conferences. I have heard arguments that the Big Ten's pitiful bowl record is because the have consistently placed two teams in the BCS games which moves every one in the conference into a tougher bowl game than they earned. I liked that one. Instead of Michigan State vs Georgia last year it would have been Ohio State. The argument makes sense to me. Then there is the constant drubbing of OSU in big games. Repeatedly I hear "Well at least they made it there" and "OSU is just one team in the Big Ten." I myself have said it is cyclical, every conference has some down years. People used to refer to the Big Twelve as the Big Two until Texas brought in Mack Brown and Oklahoma hired Stoops. The Pac 10 was way down before USC came back into prominence. The ACC was supposed to be a super conference after raiding the Big East of the top teams. Enough already! Until the Big Ten wins some meaningful out of conference games the critism is justified.
The Good: The Big Ten went 10-1 the opening weekend. They were favored in all 11 games.
The Bad: The "best" win in those 10 wins was either Syracuse (bottom half of the Big East), Western Micigan (top half of the MAC) or Navy by 4 by supposedly one of the top two teams in the Big Ten.
The Ugly: They scheduled 4 FCS schools and 4 MAC teams. In the one marquee game Illinois, favored by 7, got smoked by Missouri 37-9. The 28 point difference is more than Iowa's (+1), OSU's (+4), Minn's (+3) Wisco's (+8) and Indiana's (+6) margin of victories combined.
The Really Ugly or my Iowa rant: For those of you who did not see the final two plays of the game, which I am guessing is most of you, Iowa blocked a 40 yard FG attempt with 7 seconds left. Instead of jumping on the ball, the players just stood around it. A UNI player recovered the ball. UNI got another chance to try a 41 yard FG with 1 second left. Iowa then blocked that FG to escape with the W.
For the life of me the only reasons I can think of that Iowa would not jump on that blocked FG is that they were afraid of a Leon Lett like situation not realizing that it was still a live ball or they thought that since it was first down the ball would go back to UNI even if they recovered it (which I do not to the best of my knowledge believe is not the case) so they were trying to let time expire. Even Ferentz was not sure of the rules. He stated "I also learned that the clocked stopped like it was an incomplete pass," he added. "I've never seen it before. But I've learned a little bit. Really, really unusual." Sounds like the coaches and special teams players should all do a little extra running this week and brush up on the rule book.
4 Comments:
RTS - I think you're right.
Gophers v. Syracuse - Honestly, winning that game couldn't have been bigger for that program right now & keeping the stadium momentum alive. This town's optimism with football back on campus is overflowing; think about how we left the Dome last year in that horrific loss to Iowa, to follow that up with a loss on the road to Syracuse with Paulus as their QB? C'mon! It'd be 'here we go again' and 'that program can't catch a break.' With a gutty(?) win, maybe things will be different. That said, we have to win on Saturday night.
Ohio State is the worst, exemplified by how lame it is that they do the "The Ohio State" on NFL games when players introduce themselves. It's nice having a weakened Michigan team only because it's nice to see them suffer but it hurts the conference (plus, like you said, Ohio State has always felt like a fraud.)
BTW - Unreal on that Iowa game. The fact that Ferentz said that is bad.
September 8, 2009 at 8:26 PM
I watched the Gophs/'Cuse game with my dad since he was in town. Man, he's negative. Definitely has an axe to grind with the new o-coordinator, and I kind of have to agree. It's not like the offense was a steaming pile of crap last year; you don't need to throw it all out. Funny how when they gave up and just decided to force the ball to Decker in the 4th quarter it opened everything up.
I was torn that Paulus' first game would be against the Gophers, since I want him to succeed. He went down too easy when he got outside the pocket, and obviously made a horrible mistake in overtime. Beyond that, though, I thought he did pretty well for a guy who hasn't played a snap in five years. I think that's impressive.
Screw the conference reputation, I wanted OSU to lose to Navy at home. Would have made the season for me. Seriously, jan, right on about the lameness of the "The" in the name. That's new the last 10 years, right? Also, the whole marching band and dotting the i thing is one of the most ridiculously overblown bits of pageantry in all of college football. It's a nerd running across the field in a red beret. That should be embarrassing for them.
Michigan will be fine, I think. I might wager some of RTS's fictional money on them at home against the Domers this weekend, in fact. Speaking of, too bad Michael Floyd had 189 yards and 3 TD's for them instead of the U Saturday. Can you imagine Decker and that guy on the same team? It'd be like Carter and Moss.
That expansion to add Penn State is looking pretty good for the Big Ten right about now. They're the only thing keeping the conference from being the equivalent of the Pac 10 with a lesser USC these days.
September 9, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Guys - sorry for being MIA. Still trying to understand how to balance, work, baby, wife, household chores, et al. I offered to "watch" Charlotte all day on Saturday, so I got to see all the games. RTS, I did see a lot of the Iowa game...and have to admit I was shocked, as your boys are supposed to be the clear #3 team in the conference. I think the Gophers just played tight for the first three quarters. When the had to move the ball, they had no trouble (even though they were forcing it to Decker).
As for the conference...there is no doubt it is down. The bowl game argument is still valid, I believe, but the problem is that our "middle class" hasn't stepped up. Even though PSU and OSU have lost on the big stage, the bigger issue is that no one in the middle is consistently rising up (a la Texas Tech or Okie State in the Big 12). I think Michigan will be fine as well...but until they rebound, the conference needs the MSUs, Wisconsins, Iowas, etc. to be good and challenge for the conference title.
And hey, at least we're not ACC football. Their teams LOST to two FCS teams (how done is Al Groh at UVA, by the way). MCA, at least Duke lost to the defending FCS champion (or runner-up, I can't recall) Richmond.
Looking forward to seeing TCF Bank stadium in use for an actual game this weekend.
September 10, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Richmond was the champ last year. They mentioned it during the Iowa game that eventual champ Richmond beat UNI by one in the semis.
You could throw NW in that group of Wisco, Iowa and MSU.
September 10, 2009 at 1:32 PM
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