I wonder if the "Big Ten sucks" meme would be perpetuated as vociferously and as loudly as it is if there were no Big Ten Network. It seems like on some level, ESPN/ABC & CBS (and following their lead, the majority of print journalism) have kind of just said, "Well fine. If you're going to build your own treehouse, then you can't come to my birthday party so there," stuck their tongues out, turned on thier collective heel, and stomped home, pouting at the lost ad revenue. "We'll show them," they said. And it's worked so far.
One could point to the B10's terrible record in bowl games of late, and to OSU's craptacular performances in BCS/NC games... but one could also do the same with Oklahoma. Funny, you just don't hear too much about the Sooners' repetitive bed-wetting in the standard media narrative, do you?