Week two of the college football season was a huge disaster for the Big Ten conference. Only one team out of the thirteen that played had a good result. For decades college football has been known as a sport where every game is critical, one loss can change the direction of a program, and public perception is very important. Because of the polling system in college football the perception of your program and your opponents can have huge, and sometimes completely unfair, effects on your rankings which in turn effect the public perception of your team. For example, Nebraska, a once dominant program, is almost always over ranked as a result of their success in the 80s and 90s; when they played in a different conference. In reality Nebraska is a struggling program that hasn’t had a season with less than four losses since they went 10-3 in 2003. Additionally because the SEC is the best conference teams almost every team in the conference including the bad and mediocre ones get ranked too high in the polls.
The SEC has been the best conference in college football for years now and it hasn’t been close. However, the debate about how to rank the other 4 major conferences (Big 12, ACC, Pac 12, and Big Ten) has continued with no real conclusion. In years past when the national title was decided by playing a one off game between numbers one and two in the polls, an SEC team was almost always in the title game and almost always one. The other bowl games weren’t particular helpful in deciding who was the best because the Pac 12 and Big Ten champs always played each other. Now we have a four team playoff. Almost every year four of the power conferences will send their champion to play for a title. The fifth major conference will have the disgrace of watching it all on TV. This will be the new decider of which conferences are the best. Being in a strong conference is important to every college football team. Teams play between eight and twelve of their games against conference opponents including the biggest game of any great team’s regular season the conference championship game. Of course being in a better conference means a better strength of schedule, and strength of schedule is key to rankings.
The Big Ten was once the best conference in college football. Some of their fans still believe they’re the best to this day. In reality the Big Ten has been bad in the last decade. A Big Ten team hasn’t been to the championship game since Ohio State lost by two touchdowns in 2007. Since then a member of each of the other 4 major conferences and Notre Dame have all been to the championship game. Rarely in the BCS era (post 1998) has a Big Ten team besides Ohio State even come close to winning a championship. Now the conference faces the challenge of proving to the pollsters and potential recruits that the big ten matters and can win playoff games.
The first two weeks of this season were a disaster for the big ten. Ohio State’s quarterback, Braxton Miller, was one of the best in the country before he was injured before the season started. In their season opener Ohio State struggled to beat navy. In week two Ohio State lost their home opener to unranked Virginia Tech. It is hard to expect a team to lose one of the best players in the country to injury and still contend for a title. The problem for the Big Ten is: if Ohio State can’t content who can? Wisconsin also lost a non-conference game early. They scheduled a big game against nationally ranked LSU in prime time of week one. It looked like Wisconsin was going to bring home the Big Ten’s biggest win in years until LSU made a fourth quarter comeback. Playing big time non-conference games would greatly improves the sport and should be incouraged. When teams do it in this day and age a loss can derail their season. Wisconsin was the only Big Ten team to take care of business in week two when they beat Eastern Illinois 37-3. Michigan State lost in week two at #3 ranked Oregon. Of course Oregon is one of the best teams in the nation. Michigan State looked good at times and did keep it close for three quarters. Michigan State did show in a big game that they can’t beat a title favorite and therefore aren’t ones themselves. There won’t be four undefeated teams in college football this season so a one loss teams do still have a chance. Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Ohio State are still ranked. Although Ohio State doesn’t look like a good team at all right now. It will be difficult for those teams to argue their chases at the end of the season if the rest of the Big Ten sinks and they have low strength of schedule.
In week two Penn State won 21-3 over Akron, Illinois beat Western Kentucky 42-34, Nebraska beat McNeese state on a last minute touchdown, Rutgers beat Howard 38-25, Minnesota beat Middle Tennessee 35-24, Iowa beat Ball State 17-13, and Maryland beat South Florida 24-17. The point of all that was there were no blow outs. Wisconsin was the only Big Ten team to have an impressive performance all day. If the Big Ten wants to claim to be a power conference then it should start by not scheduling such lousy opponents. But if they are going to play such low level competition at home then these games should be blowouts not close finishes. Also Purdue and Northwestern lost to Northern Illinois and Central Michigan respectfully. Those are two unacceptable losses. Michigan lost 31-0 on the road at Notre Dame this weekend. This means that the Big Ten probably won’t have a win over a big non-conference opponent all season. Michigan, a team that the Big Ten needs to be good this year, is probably just hot garbage. By the way Notre Dame is a good team not a great team. Michigan is a mediocre team. So when Notre Dame played Michigan at home they demolished them. That is what good teams do to bad teams. This is what it should have looked like when those other Big Ten teams played teams from the MAC and the FCS.
It looks like the Big Ten is filled with weak teams this season. This will be the first of many years where a major conference is left on the outside looking in on the playoffs and the Big Ten is in pole position for that honor right now. That would be a huge blow to any conference. This is the age of conference expansion and after striking out on many teams the Big Ten added perennial no bodies Maryland and Rutgers this season. The Big Ten’s recent ineptitude has been a major reason why a team like Notre Dame would rather end decade old rivalries and join the ACC than join the sorry Big Ten.
By Noah Gould
