The Not-So-Big Ten

Yes and you forget to mention how every time Michigan has played USC or whoever in the so called Pac 10 almighty, it's always been on the west coast in their own backyard. So it really isn't a nuetral field. Bring your boys to the Big House or to the Horse Shoe and play some football where you'll get numb from the cold and see how it will effect their game. I will also proudly mention since you can only say what you want to say, as for Michigan they own your Pac 10 in all time games. The 64 times Michigan has played the Pac 10, they have pounded your Conference a whopping 42-21-1. Need help finding facts, maybe you should refrain from typing, you might look smarter before doing so.

Yes and you forget to mention how every time Michigan has played USC or whoever in the so called Pac 10 almighty, it's always been on the west coast in their own backyard. So it really isn't a nuetral field. Bring your boys to the Big House or to the Horse Shoe and play some football where you'll get numb from the cold and see how it will effect their game. I will also proudly mention since you can only say what you want to say, as for Michigan they own your Pac 10 in all time games. The 64 times Michigan has played the Pac 10, they have ponded your Conference a whopping 42-21-1. Need help finding facts, maybe you should refrain from typing, you might look smarter before you type.

What a smuck piece of journalistic crapola. You conveniently managed to gloss over
Michigan State's drubbing of "mighty" USC in the 1988 Rose Bowl, as I recall.
That must have been one of the two victories in a "wndow" you failed to provide
details on because it would dilute the impact of your imposter message.

Why not talk common denominators such as Ron Zook who failed miserably
at Florida but has awakened a winning program at Illinois; or Coach Dantonio
who in one year has turned around Michigan State, soon to be a NATIONAL,
yes national powerhouse in football -- as it is in basketball.

Next time you malign an entire conference do your homework.
I forget, where did you say you graduated from? Do I detect a bit of bias here, perhaps?

Another bit of biased bi-coastal journalism. These are the same guys that pretend that they actually play football in the Big East and the ACC. They're also the same guys who crowned USC the undisputed champion at the beginning of the season. In my view, the best football in the country is played in the SEC, followed by the Big 10. In the SEC it's speedball, in the Big 10 it's smashmouth brutality. On the coasts, it's city boy/surfer boy media darling football. Some things are true--Big 10 teams could play better non-conference rivals and the SEC's speed is superior to the Big 10 brawn. However, if you put a Big 10 offense on the field playing ball control football, the speedy guys never get on the field. It ain't always pretty, but it is effective.

I'm also trying to figure out how the author's population movement argument works for the Big 12. I don't see a great exodus of people flooding into Kansas and Nebraska. They also seem to forget that Wisconsin has beaten Big 12 and SEC teams regularly in bowl games for the last several years. I guess it's easy when you have a column and you get to choose only the facts that fit your thesis. Pretty poor journalism, in my opinion.

Very poor piece of "journalism"! A couple of points that just don't seem to get acknowledged Nationally.

Most of your bowl games are like home games for the PAC 10 and SEC. Big 10 teams are built to win the Big 10 - which involves playing in the North in November. Let's have a bowl game in Chicago, Detroit, or Cleveland every New Years and invite the winner of a warm weather team to play the Big 10 Champ.

Additionally, why doesn't Vanderbilt ever win the SEC? Could it be that their academic requirements are a lot closer to what you see at Michigan, Northwestern, Indiana, OSU, and Purdue? Rather than Mississippi St. and Alabama?

The fact that the Buckeyes didn't show up last year after a very long layoff is hardly a reason to suspect that the outcome of those two teams playing 10 times would result in 9 or 10 victories by Florida - OSU layed an egg in a big game - how is that proof that the entire Big Ten is now completely overmatched by every Southern team in the Country?

The point that needs to be made is that you can't judge a conference by one year. For a number of years the Big 10 had several teams in the Top 10. These things are cyclical. In '97 Michigan was co-national champ with Nebraska. Where is Nebraska this year?

What a sad piece of journalism. All those stats showing how weak the B10 is without any convincing us how much stronger the other conferences are. This isn't even a "my dad can beat up your dad" piece. This is a "your dad is a wussy...nevermind my dad...your dad is weak" piece.

Take the Pac-10 and throw them into games in the mid-west in November and see how things go, instead of giving the B10 a nice 1.5 month break and hauling them out to the west coast EVERY YEAR.

This writer has a perfect assement of it all. That explains why OSU beat Miami in 2002 for the National Championship.

In the last ten years the big ten has one two national championships, one by Ohio State and one by Michigan. Has not Ohio State played in two National Championship games in five years?
Prior to USC's revival from the dead by Pete Carroll, the Pac10 was a far weaker conference than the Big 10 is now.

The Acc, SEC and Big East have only played 3 current top 25 teams. That's hardly a big difference. Big Ten teams average more NFL players than any other conference. Only the media darling SEC even comes close, but is still approximately .5 less than the big 10!

The big East, SEC, and ACC only played 3 teams in the current top 25. Hardly much more than the Big Ten. Only one conference has beaten more than 1 top 20 team, the Pac-10 with 3. Also, there are more Big Ten players in the NFL as an average per team than any other conference. Only the SEC comes close, but still averages app. .5 less NFL players per team.

Wow - I'm glad you are not in charge of promoting college football. You could look at any conference and find a "Big 2". I don't see one team winning the national championship every year. A disadvantage Big 10 teams have is that their season ends this Saturday (hard to play football late in the season - snow). The PAC10 will continue playing well into December. A 6 week lay-off VS a 2 or 3 week lay-off does not help Big 10 teams in bowl games. When you talk about UM and OSU you are talking about long winning traditions, a committment to education and excellence. That is why they have a reputation. That doesn't give them a free pass to the National Championship. You could argue that the Big 10 is weaker now, but 2 traditional powerhouses: Notre Dame and PSU (who is now in the Big 10) have been weak lately. Both have won National Championships in the past and play Big 10 teams each year. I am not 100% confident that if Kansas remains undefeated that they will get their shot - that is why I favor 1 extra game after the bowl games to determine the National Champion.

Just like in 2002 when there was no way the Buckeyes could beat "speedy" Miami. Then last year beat a #2 Texas team which the last time I checked was in the south. This column is garbage.

If the Big 10 is so weak, why did they win 2 out of 3 bowl games against SEC teams last year? Starr, and all of you other closed minded imbeciles, focus so much on OSU's losses while ignoring the "lesser" teams' wins.

I seem to remember the same discussion in 2002. Ohio State was supposed to get blown away by the mighty, undefeatable, Miami Hurricanes of the ACC. The Big10 was far too weak to stand up against a real conference, with faster and more talented players. (Final Score: Ohio State 31 / Miami 24 - OOPS!!)

I seem to remember the same discussion in 2002. Ohio State was supposed to get blown away by the mighty, undefeatable, Miami Hurricanes of the ACC. The Big10 was far too weak to stand up against a real conference, with faster and more talented players.

The members of the Big Ten need to all play each other. Like the Pac Ten ,if you dont have a conference championship at least play each other. Drop one of your panzy pushover games and play each other. I thought what a joke last year that Wisconsin didnt have to play Ohio State and finished in the top 5 at the end of the 06 season