The Big Ten: How Ya Like Us Now?

I like Jon and agree with much of what he writes, but with a couple games to go I think the jury is still out on the B10 bowl season.

The conference should finish above .500 - a drastic improvement. Not to mention the two losses to date are both by a field goal or less.
 
Jon is right that Ohio St gettin over Oregon was huge for the Big Ten's rep, nationally. For whatever reason, OSU is the lightning rod for Big Ten criticism and lauding, as well.
 
DeanMarshall said:
Jon is right that Ohio St gettin over Oregon was huge for the Big Ten's rep, nationally. For whatever reason, OSU is the lightning rod for Big Ten criticism and lauding, as well.
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It all started IMO after OSU got destroyed by UF in the championship game a few years ago.. Everyone out there suddenly fell in with the "Big Ten is slow" cliche based on ONE frigging game. Then unfortunately the same thing kinda happened to OSU again the next year against LSU.

The media ignored the success the Big Ten has had in Cap1 and Outback Bowls against SEC teams.

A friend of mine at work is an OSU fan, and we have had this discussion before, and we agree that all Big Ten schools would continue to hear that kind of crap until the Big Ten can start to win some meaningful bowl games (BCS or Championship game). Chalk one up in our column. Hopefully the Hawks can chip in another big win..

I root for the Big Ten in all bowl games - because what is good for the conference is good for the Hawks, IMO. Might as well be known as a team that plays in a good conference, to get some respect for any of our success. That's the way I see it.
 
HawkeyeShane said:
As has been said here before, the 40 as a measuring stick for speed, was only used to determine who would be the best guys to have on punt coverage...and most guys at this level have speed within a few tenths of each other in that 40 yard span...find me some guys who know how to play football first and foremost and the "more speed" is just icing on top of that player's cake.
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Amen.
 
Big Ten is always strong just lose sometimes just the way football works. If Iowa wins three teams with 11 wins and a fourth with 10 wins very impressive for the Big Ten. With a Iowa win on Tuesday OSU top five, Iowa top 10 and PSU and Wis top 18 for sure GO HAWKS
 
To all the people who say they don't 'give a crap about the conference' I want you to think how you'd feel if Iowa was sitting at 12-0 right now and didn't get a chance to play in the National Champ game.

That would have happened this year, because Iowa's name doesn't generate the automatic respect that TX/FL/ tOSU/ Alabama are going to get. For the Hawks to jump over teams in the polls they have to be seen beating good teams. If the voters are looking for excuses to pass you over, what better one than to claim you are playing inferior competition.
 
I root for the conference because I would like Iowa to representing the best conference in one of the best bowl games.

I also believe that one can take too much from bowl games. While it is a game between two teams who finished at about the same place in two different conferences, it is just one game. And one game shouldn't be indicative of much.
 
I think the Big Ten is always at a disadvantage to begin with in bowl games as well. I mean, every year USC goes to the Rose Bowl is basically a home game when the Big Ten team has to travel halfway across the country. Even today, Texas Tech is playing a home game against Michigan State, and earlier in bowl season, Miami is much closer to Orlando than Wisconsin is. I doubt the Big Ten would lose 10 straight Rose Bowls if the game were held in Columbus or Detroit.
 
GodGodGodBathia said:
I think the Big Ten is always at a disadvantage to begin with in bowl games as well. I mean, every year USC goes to the Rose Bowl is basically a home game when the Big Ten team has to travel halfway across the country. Even today, Texas Tech is playing a home game against Michigan State, and earlier in bowl season, Miami is much closer to Orlando than Wisconsin is. I doubt the Big Ten would lose 10 straight Rose Bowls if the game were held in Columbus or Detroit.
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True, it ceratainley doesn't help that most bowls are in a southern destination while the Big Ten is a northern league.
 
Bowl teams travel about a week in advance to their bowl destination and the Big Ten has primarily schools who send large crowds to bowl games. Iowa and Georgia Tech will both be in Miami for about the same amount of time...Iowa will probably have slightly more fans...what advantage does Georgia Tech have because they happen to be closer to the stadium?
 
HawKCP said:
Bowl teams travel about a week in advance to their bowl destination and the Big Ten has primarily schools who send large crowds to bowl games. Iowa and Georgia Tech will both be in Miami for about the same amount of time...Iowa will probably have slightly more fans...what advantage does Georgia Tech have because they happen to be closer to the stadium?
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...Please inform me where you see someone argue that Georgia Tech has homefield advantage in the Orange Bowl this year.
 
HawKCP said:
Bowl teams travel about a week in advance to their bowl destination and the Big Ten has primarily schools who send large crowds to bowl games. Iowa and Georgia Tech will both be in Miami for about the same amount of time...Iowa will probably have slightly more fans...what advantage does Georgia Tech have because they happen to be closer to the stadium?
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Yeah but we have a nutty fanbase (I mean that in the best way possible) going against a more average fanbase. Look at the Outback bowl or the Alamo Bowl. Auburn and Texas Tech are going to naturally have more fans at those games this year than the B10 teams they face. Or when Florida was in the CapOne or Outback a few years back that's just down the highway for them.
 
I guess I thought the premise of your argument was that teams who play bowl games closer to home have an advantage. If that's not the premise of your argument I have a hard time understanding how you could consider Texas Tech's 388 mile trip to San Antonio as much of an advantage.

My point is that the Big Ten teams routinely outnumber our opponents in attendance...and neither team is playing a home game with the exception of USC or UCLA in the Rose Bowl...and I think USC has proven that playing in a bowl game in their back yard or literally across the country makes little difference.

You didn't make the exact argument of Georgia Tech having an advantage...but your argument was that the team playing closer to home in the bowl game has an advantage and that is the case with Georgia Tech vs. Iowa in Miami. Tell me what argument you were attempting to make with your examples that doesn't apply to our bowl game.
 
CHShawk said:
Yeah but we have a nutty fanbase (I mean that in the best way possible) going against a more average fanbase. Look at the Outback bowl or the Alamo Bowl. Auburn and Texas Tech are going to naturally have more fans at those games this year than the B10 teams they face. Or when Florida was in the CapOne or Outback a few years back that's just down the highway for them.
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The Big Ten is full of nutty fan bases. Wisconsin, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, etc.

Auburn, AL to Orlando, FL is 440 miles. That's still a three day trip for a night game. You're just looking for excuses.

The Big Ten has some of the largest Universities in the country with large fan bases that travel well and are well dispersed throughout the country. Rarely do bowl games have a distinctive advantage in fans on either side...and in the case of the Big Ten when that happens it is oftentimes the Big Ten team who has the advantage in fans.
 
I'm not sure I agree that an Iowa victory Tuesday night gives a big boost to the conference's reputation and prestige.

I live in the Northeast (which is bitterly cold and windy tonight -- someone out there please shut the door) and you would be hard-pressed to know there is another BCS game to be played other than the national championship. There have been virtually no promos in the New York-Philadelphia TV markets for the Orange Bowl, discussions in the bowl previews or wrap-ups, and absolutely nothing on local sports talk radio.

There was much more on the Rose, Capital One and Outback bowls.

Will be interesting to see if the game gets more billing after Sunday's NFL schedule is completed.
 
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Ok the Auburn example is a bad one but someone said earlier in this thread that the conference (as a whole) has to face basically at least one road test in bowl games every year. This year it was MSU @ Texas Tech, last year it was Wisky @ Florida St and Penn St at USC, and etc. In those last 3 we are 0-3 and I'm sure we (the B10) have a losing record in these types of games or I'm too tired to remember. The trend shows that naturally have one more loss to start out with than the other BCS conferences. We're fighting an uphill battle as a conference. It's not an excuse it's a trend. I guess I should have been more clear in my earlier post. I'm too tired to argue further, goodnight.
 
Just for fun lets try something.

Assign a percentage to how much you think the following factors affected the outcome of the Northwestern/Auburn game:

Mike Kafka's performance
Fitzgerald's coaching decisions
Auburn's running backs
The rainy conditions
Auburn's propensity to commit penalties
The color of Auburn's jerseys
The type of deoderant Corey Wooton wore to the game
The proxemity of Auburn to Orlando

How about Texas Tech vs. Michigan State...let's add up all of the factors that went into that game and see what we come up with.

You snuck one in on me while I was typing...is there a location on Earth where Penn State could have beaten USC last year?
 
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Speaking of the CapOne Bowl, 36 hours later representatives must still be scraping layers of mud off their faces.

Conditions at Florida Citrus Bowl Field were an embarrassment and hardly what local tourism boosters wanted to project about the great weather and beautiful conditions of central Florida. Granted, neither the bowl nor the stadium management have control over the weather. But they do over who uses the field in the weeks leading up to not one but two nationally-televised bowl games.

The confluence of weather streams often produces rain in Florida in December. It's wise to schedule eight state high school championship games in four days within two weeks of the two college bowl games with the usual expected rains?

Footing conditions were deplorable. And visually it was much worse.

Almost as much of a mess was the officiating. The Pac-10 crew assigned to this game was not up to the task. There were many missed calls or wrong calls. In one series the crew lost track and was prepared to whistle the ball in play saying Penn State had fourth down. It finally took the replay booth to figure out Joe Pa had one more down (or was it two?)

More telling was the seeming influence the players and sidelines appeared to be having on whether a flag should be thrown. It was astonishing to see the LSU players jawing, pleading and arguing with the officials to the degree they did -- and getting away with it. At one point JoePa appeared to be asking "Who the heck is calling this game?"

The garbage needed to be stopped early. It wasn't, and the players realized they could get away with a lot -- culminating, it could be argued, in the flag to LSU guard Lyle Hitt for pulling PSU linebacker Navarro Bowman off another LSU player with 20 or so seconds left in the game and LSU at the Nittany Lions' 45-yard line, with a shot for another play or two to get within range for a winning field goal.

Bowman later admitted he was intentionally laying on the LSU player and was surprised he was not the one to get flagged for delay of game.

If the Pac-10 crew had their heads more firmly wrapped around the game they might have seen what was happening and made the correct call.
 
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