The only prophecy to take without a grain of salt.
The Big Ten, is presently, in 2009, not an elite collegiate football conference.
For the most ardent of Big Ten enthusiasts, if I’ve officially empowered the enemy with my defeatist, self-fulfilling prophecies of doom and despair, I also apologize for nothing, but implore you to reserve judgement for at least approximately 90 more words before jumping to any further conclusions.
Today, seemingly more than any period in my admittedly comparatively short tenure in this world, American college football’s national landscape has far more embraced a narrow-minded, xenophobic, regionalist fervor. Whether the specific origins of chanting one’s conference’s name instead of (or to supplement) that of one’s school dates back to Alabama’s 1993 Sugar Bowl victory over favored Miami, an LSU College World Series past, or beyond truly makes no difference, as particularly within the college football landscape, you’d be hard pressed to find any remotely attentive follower of the sport who would be unwilling to give credit where credit’s due and recognize the SEC’s success at the pinnacle of the sport for much of the past decade, especially the last 5 years. Perhaps I’m being naive, but wouldn’t spending the better part of a half decade marked by virtually unrivaled success be more rewarding celebrating the achievements, hoping towards one’s own school’s continued (or for the less fortunate, hoping yours lies just ahead) high level of success than spending each year revisiting an in reality very much non-existent collective chip on one’s shoulder just to hold it over so-called doubters heads in the event fate plays out in “your” favor yet again? SEC football, particularly at the upper echelon of conference, is played near weekly at some of the most exciting, highest levels, and with a flare for the dramatic up there with the best across athletic competition you can muster. Can’t the joy of the actual contests be enough, rather than constantly looking over one’s shoulder, feeling a constant need to use a just completed game for the ages to defend one's brethren against what may or may not usurp the throne in the not too distant future? Instead, articles like this are far too oftenly interpreted as napalm in a deep wound, rather than just July watercooler boredom banter extrapolated to a national level for the sake of just that.
And if the Big 12 does indeed wind up being the consistently most exciting, strongest conference in the 2009 football season, how does that in anyway cause degradation of what the SEC team you hypothetically root for also accomplishes this same season? If Florida runs the gauntlet for the first time in their school’s mindbogglingly impressive leap to the echelon of college football during the course of the last 2 decades and brings home a 3rd national title in 4 years, but the Big XII goes 8-1 in bowl games, is that in anyway going to realistically matter in any tangible sense given what they've accomplished? As a Texas Tech fan, would you really thump your chest if Oklahoma wins the national crown in convincing fashion over a USC or an Alabama while the SEC or Pac-10 wins at an over 80% clip another time this decade? I’m not going to pretend I don’t enjoy watching football from all of the above conferences, but I’d be kidding myself if my enjoyment of the 09 season and beyond in anyway turned to usher in any kind of dramatic sea change or if the opposite is the case, and the logical conclusion to a relatively static, business as usual close to the 2000s wraps itself up.
Lest we forget our heart of the land in the form of the rest of what’s around in the Pacific 10, Big Ten, Big East, Atlantic Coast, Mountain West, Conference USA, Western Athletic, and Sun Belt conferences. As we continue to make broad, all encompassing assumptions from incredibly selective, statistically insignificant samples, the Pac-10 would likely be closer to the aforementioned two conferences in terms of relative quality, where as the others remain arrangeable per your discretion, biases, and any other arbitrary, short sighted, capricious forms of arrangement. But regardless of some sort of ordered system for wondering where the conferences stand with relation to one another, the bottom line is, regardless of some sort of national perception of what they bring to the table, the conference games that may or may not interest you on paper, have every bit as much potential to make your TiVo Do Not Erase list, pedantic game of the year lists as any of the others. Heaven forbid a national champion or multiple BCS bowl winners actually arises from any of these "second rate" citizens.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if your conference hasn’t won a Rose Bowl in a decade or if they even have a BCS tie-in at all: a football’s a football flying at 30,000 feet and there are some 1500 unplayed games without predetermine outcomes still to transpire. If Ohio State beats USC by 4 TDs this September and you’re still set in your ways that the Big Ten sucks, I’m willing to bet a single result, no matter how dramatic, is hardly going to change your world view. And how about if Rutgers takes down a 10-win LSU team in their own backyard in early 2010? I’m not really sure we’ll really be all that willing to concede the Big East was a sleeping giant waiting to take down a paper tiger at a moment’s notice. Can Danny Hope coach at all at the FCS level? Can Rich Rodriguez make the same leap he’s made at every other college he’s been at in the 2nd year? Will Jim Tressel ever go for 4th-and-inches inside his own 30 ever again? I’m fairly certain the only thing we know is that in this moment about an indeterminate future is we know nothing at all.
Comments
very entertaining and homerism aside...very true...but hell...i'm down for proving everyone wrong...not just on the Ohio State aspect but of every part of the big ten and post conference games this year and years to come...
http://ohiostate.scout.com/2/8...
WELP, berry's odds of getting out of the doghouse just got a whole lot better
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
This whole mess is a product of the ridiculous BCS system. No one makes prolonged arguments about strength of schedule in the NFL and whether the NFC North is better than the AFC North because, in the end, most teams with a winning record have a chance for the title.
In the BCS, two teams are arbitrarily chosen based on some vague concept of strength of schedule, compiled between teams who often have almost no common data points between them. So it comes down to arguing which of six 1-loss teams is more deserving based entirely on which conference they played in.
This is all compounded by the fact that "strength" in a conference means entirely different things. The ACC had more parity in its conference than nearly anyone else, but no one considered them a powerhouse. Whereas the PAC-10 had only one real contender of a team, but they very possibly could have been the best team in the country. Is a conference good because it beats itself up to 2-3 loss records, or because one or two teams dominate it completely? And should conferences be judged entirely based on bowl games, months after some teams have played? Or on what they did in the regular season in the few serious non-conference games?
It is a judgement that is nearly impossible to make but is forced on fans and coaches by the ridiculous system for choosing a "champion" that the BCS creates. I consider it an asinine position to debate conference strength, but this position was not of the fans' making. Either go to a playoff or stop trying to claim you're making a champion and just play some good bowl games.
Wow, that is an extreme level of suck.
Kid needs to take his schoolwork seriously. Looks like he'll be joining next year's class?
You took the words out of my mouth. Well said, sir.
What Luke said.
What does this have to with the BCS? Most NFL teams play a majority of the other teams in the league while there are over 100+ NCAA Div-IA teams, how would that even be possible even with a playoff? The BCS is starting to become like a scapegoat for everything nowadays.
"Can’t the joy of the actual contests be enough, rather than constantly looking over one’s shoulder, feeling a constant need to use a just completed game for the ages to defend one’s brethren against what may or may not usurp the throne in the not too distant future?"
So what are you saying? That Ohio State fans shouldnt hold a running count on the days that Michigan last beat OSU? Are you saying that all this scUM talk, Dick Rod references, and Callista Forcier rants are unwarrented?
SEC? SEC? SEC?
It has to do with the BCS because the only way a team can advance to a national title game is to convince the world that their conference is the toughest one to play in.
NFL teams do not all play each other - they play teams in their division and one other division twice.
Granted, it's definitely a much harder problem to compare 100+ teams. But my point is that that comparison would only be brought up occasionally for bragging rights if it did not directly impact the national championship.
Alot of the Big Ten perception woes are a result of Ohio States' blunders on national television. But I guess, it is because of that you would suggest we forget it all and just enjoy the games themselves. Makes sense.
I hate fans who pull for the good of the conference. I will never cheer for Michigan in a bowl game. I wasn't upset that they beat Florida, as I hate them about as much as Michigan, but I didnt watch the game and I didn't pull for either team. I was cheering for a meteor to hit the stadium. Texas fans shouldn't want to see Oklahoma win and UCLA shouldnt' cheer for USC. I don't care what the national image is, pulling for a rival in a game for the "good" of the conference is stupid and ignorant and belongs in that conference that starts in Lexington and goes south from there.
You know what is good for the conference? The money that it gets when a team Like Ohio State or Penn State makes it to the BCS, especially the championship game. Just being in those games brings extra exposure and more recruits and I think that has been evident the last 5 years for the buckeyes on the recruiting trail.
Very well said.
Luke,
C'mon. What would Woody say about this? Here is why we chant http://tinyurl.com/lcnma9
Hahah mike in valdosta your an idiot, the real reason you chant is because florida and lsu kick all of the other teams in your confrences ass so to feel good about your self you mindlessly chant like the igonorant hicks that you are
i agree, but i did cheer for michigan when they played against florida. i rarely have a fervent desire for all the teams in the big ten conference to win. it only gives the other teams in the conference the argument that they were able to win and osu "let the conference down"...which michigan does from time to time with florida...and to which i say ok, see you in november. also, if anybody remembers the whole penn state thing where psu fans were on tv chanting, "we beat them", after oregon state beat usc......and then we all know what happened to penn state when they met usc in the rose bowl.
......and perhaps if there was oh, i don't know, more than one bowl game in the midwest, i might get some more enjoyment out of the diversity of bowl games. instead everybody wants to be warm and cozy in the south or southwest. i thought this was football...
Allow me to translate your blog post into a sentence: "We chant ESS EEE SEE to cover up for own team's inadequacies when it routinely gets beaten like a redheaded stepchilded by its biggest rival"
So how does it feel to the Michigan to Florida's Ohio State?
i already posted on your blog, but to put it shortly: i root for Ohio State. i like it when Ohio State wins national championships. i like it when Ohio State beats michigan.
if one of those two things does not happen, i will not console myself by saying "thank GOD purdue won the continental tire bowl"
We are the rust belt, but you, my friend, live in the fattie belt:
http://www.time.com/time/healt...
I loathe Michigan but want them to win every game of the year save one (okay, it was especially enjoyable when they lost to Appy State, but that's another story altogether). To my way of thinking, it makes the loss to Ohio State all the more devastating and enjoyable. It has nothing to do with supporting the Big Ten and everything to do with an admittedly unhealthy desire to rip the hearts out of Michigan fans the world over.
Funny, because after the Florida debacle I had Texas, USC and even Mizzou fans on the ship talking trash, but the UGA fans where the only ones who where cool about it. And this perception that Texas fans are cool and classy, no idea where you guys got that. The ones I know are by far worse than SEC fans.
When I was at the twelve mile mark of my last half marathon, I got into a debate with a Texas fan, who thought I was crazy for thinking OSU would be good this year. You would think they blew us out like Fla/ LSU the way this guy was talking. How they thought they should've been in National title contention after squeaking by us is beyond belief.
chanting SEC SEC SEC is like a dude with 11 friends setting a world record in the 100 meters, having two of his other friends finish 4th and 8th, and then having his 9 other fatass buddies trying to share the glory with them
Bup, good one LMFAO
And I just read that SEC page and feel dumber. Like I've said before, the only way to shut them up is to beat them.
actually it's better i put it this way:
chanting SEC SEC SEC is like a dude with 11 friends winning a gold medal in the 100 meters, having two of his friends finish 4th and 8th, his 9 other fat buddies are watching in the stands, and at the medal ceremony they all try and stand on the podium at once.
Even that won't shut them up. When Wisconsin beat Auburn the year OSU beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, I still heard that Wisconsin got lucky and the Auburn was better. The whole first half of the Michigan State Georgia game last year, which Michigan State led most of the way, it was still Georgia's D this and Matt Stafford this. Nothing about how good Michigan State looked. It goes on and on from there. Not just if big 10 teams have the lead, it's always well LSU was caught sleeping, or Georgia had much better athletes, but the game plan wasn't carried out right. So the last 10 years they've been very good, but the "supremecy" argument is not only 10 years old. I've been hearing for 20, how they are faster in the south and the atheltes are better. it's just more in your face because of ESPN and blogs and all the exposure that college football gets now.
in the end it really doesn't matter. if their team does well, their team is the best ever blah blah blah whatever. that's fine. but if their team underperforms or does poorly while the conference does well, then it's "best conference ever, suck it everybody." if the conference does poorly but another southern team does well, then it's "HELL YEAH SOUTHERN DOMINATION"
it goes on, and on, and on, for as long as it has to, until joe tennessee vols fan doesn't have to look a 6-6 season in the face.
[...] This is well said. Of course, what else would you expect a Buckeye fan to write these days? (I keed, I keed.) [...]
I lived in northern FLA near the Alabama line. They all were convinced that tOSU would be no better than 5th in the ess eee see, because they lost to LSU. Alabama lost to ULA-monroe that year, but they were still better than tOSU. So according to southern logic this may be the year ULA-monroe puts together a BCS run
You are a moron Brian. If I were you I would start cheering for your conference to win if you want your team to make it to the National Championship. Look at all this controversy and outcry that Utah is making right now. They were undefeated last year and didn't make it to the big game. Why, did you ask? Because their conference opponents were not good enough and their strength of schedule was middle of the pack. The money won't come if the conference isn't any good. So I'd suggest rooting for your conference before the big ten turns into the Mountain West and your team goes undefeated, but doesn't play in the National Championship.
SEC SEC SEC!
http://cfn.scout.com/2/878093....
Collegefootballnews.com review of tOSU by Pete Fiutak. Another nice little statistic that sticks out to me for those of you still running your mouth like you know anything:
"The fact of the matter is that Ohio State remains every bit the powerhouse it was when it was 4-0 in BCS games and came up with wins in 2006 over Texas in Austin and an unbeaten Michigan squad. Just as important, it's not like the team loses to the weak and the sad. OSU has the longest streak in the nation of not losing to a team that didn't end up in the BCS, and it's not even close. The last loss to a non-BCS bound team was against Purdue on November 13, 2004. That's a run of 53 straight games, and over four years ago, while USC's streak is at ten, as is Florida's. Oklahoma's streak is at 17, Alabama's is at 15, Utah's is at 14, Texas's is at four, and LSU's at one."
What sec team are you a fan of?If its Georgia I feel sorry for you - they will get beat by Oklahoma State and FLA will beat them by 28. We know FLA is good, LSU but after that what - Alabama- can they recover?
Auburn, UT, Vandy, Ole Miss, Missippi State - horrible.
No, I'm just a fan of the SEC! No, I'm a gator fan, but do your research Ole Miss pre-season's rank is in the top ten. Ahead of OSU.
Yeah, Ole Miss looks Dangerous, gotta be careful what you say. I'm a Huge Buckeye fan but you have to treat SEC and all other confrences people with respect. They feel the same way about there team, as we do with the Buckeyes.
The SEC only gets bids to the championships when everyone has a loss. Is it a coincidence that the SEC's BCS national championships just happened to coincide with the rearranged ACC/Big East and the fall of Miami and Florida State? Everyone in 2003 had a loss, everyone in 2006 had a loss except Ohio State, everyone in 2007 had 2-losses except Ohio State, everyone in 2008 had a loss.
Without Florida State or Miami threatening to go undefeated every year, and without USC going undefeated like they should be, the SEC has been getting the benefit of the doubt...they are NOT proving it on the field during the regular season. They are reaping the benefits the ACC and Big East not having an identity anymore. Where there used to be regional overlap between those two conferences and the SEC, now it's just the SEC.
It's a 4-conference race, not 6. If the Big-XII, the Big Ten or the Pac-10 don't produce undefeated teams, the SEC gets the nod. But then, how interesting are any of their national titles? None of their teams were infallible...all were marred with controversy.
Plus, IT's ONLY TWO TEAMS - LSU and Florida...that's it so far....oh look, they just happen to be the closest neighbors to Miami and Florida State - coincidence?!?!?!
I love how he said that if Pryor is on as a passer, the offense will be quote "devastating."
Dude, they're idiots. I once had an Auburn fan talking trash the same year they lost to USF at home.
That's funny, BeavercreekBuckeye, especially considering the Bulldogs are 3-0 versus LSU, 1-1 versus Alabama, 2-3 versus Florida and 4-1 in Bowl games (2 of which were BCS games) over the past 5 years (04-08). Not bad for a bunch of "ignorant hicks."
i know that stat means basically nothing and says more about the big 10 than it says about OSU, but it still makes me smile
on the other hand, what does that say about USC? yikes
Attn, SEC fans...if you root for SEC teams because of some visceral atonement it gives you for what happened in the 1860's, you do realize that your ALL BLACK rosters are probably not looking at it that way, right?
why is there a constant need to show up and troll? i truly do not understand? you are doing absolutely nothing cool. you are living vicariously through young athletes. shut the fuck up, watch the games, and enjoy your shared culture with your friends. we are not your friends. go home, get a clue, find a friend.
...also, i love the regional pride thing. its so laughable. the south was a cease pool before the japanese and refugees from the northern winter came down and started doing something positive. even after decades of work there is still lingering embarrassment and hesitation regarding south, witness:
Charlotte USA - the re-branding of a city ashamed of its region.
http://www.charlotteusa.com/
Southerners, by and large, have massive, massive inferiority complexes.
Not to mention the three coaches putting the Sec on the map right now are from B10 schools.
What intelligent sports fan actually believes his team/conference will dominate a sport for any lenghtly amount of time anyway?
Which preseaon poll do you refer to? Because there is no official poll yet, which means what you saw was just another opinion of some talking head.
I was watching the TX spring game and one of the commentator's top five was FL, OK, TX, LSU, AL. Joke. If you look at the Congrove computer rankings, though, they have LSU at 15. It's for good reason. LSU went 8-5 last year and I predict they will again go 8-5, maybe 9-4. Ole Miss may end up with a decent W-L record, but with games against 2 FCS teams in SE LA and N AZ and Memphis, UAB and Auburn as well, (not to mention the other bottom of the barrel SEC teams in SC, Vandy & MS St) there's at least five or six easy wins to beef it up. Jevan Sneed may be good down the road but he's being way overhyped at this point. 56% completion and a 2-1 TD to INT ratio (26-13) last year isn't anything to being overly exicted about. When the real pre-season rankings come out, I'm willing to bet they go FL, OK, TX, USC, OSU. Bet.
Only ignorant hicks would think that winning football games would make them not ignorant anymore.
Also, 2-3 against any team, and 1-1 against any team, I don't care who they are, is nothing to brag about.