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Where is Jim Delany and the Rest of the Big Ten?

+31 HS
steve1's picture
December 3, 2018 at 12:22pm
146 Comments

The CFP final poll should be enough to get Jim Delaney and the rest of the coaches and administrators in the Big Ten to finally stand up and support their conference. Ohio State has carried the conference for nearly two decades while the vast majority of the teams toil in relative irrelevance (I'm looking at you Michigan). Outside of Ohio State, none of the Big Ten teams appear ready to consistently compete with the rest of the best teams in the nation. The vast majority routinely embarrass themselves when facing national competition. OSU, on the other hand, has been extremely competitive against the best programs in the country and has dominated the conference. 

What, then, should Delaney and the Big Ten coaches and administrators be doing? They should be up in arms when something like the CFP final poll happens 2 years in a row (especially 2-loss Georgia being ranked over 1-loss OSU, who has two wins over top 12 teams). They should be out in front of the media harping on the logical inconsistencies of the CFP committee and the seeming bias that overrates the results of SEC league games (Kentucky as the #14 team??). Instead, when asked about the the final CFP poll, Delaney said, "Obviously would love to be in system every year but have respect for those chosen and offer sincere congratulations to players and coaches at Alabama, Clemson, ND and OU...Proud of our teams, players and coaches in 2018. We look forward not backwards and appreciate the great conference competition/conference race. ... We define ourselves, and CFP does its job with a four-team field." What kind of spineless, ridiculous reply is this? How about, "Our conference champion [Ohio State] is as good as any team in the country, and they have proved that year after year. To be left out of the playoff two years in a row is a slap in the face to our conference and something we will look to address with the CFP committee."

It's time for the Big Ten to line up behind Ohio State and offer their support. The Big Ten would be largely irrelevant without Ohio State. The Big Ten would be the Pac 10 without Ohio State. The teams in the SEC experience a significant "halo effect" with Alabama, and they are glad to trumpet up the "SEC! SEC! SEC!" chants. Georgia's final ranking is testament to this where their loss to Alabama was viewed more favorably than our 3 touchdown win over a ranked opponent and conference title. 

**Please note, my point here is not to say that Ohio State should be in the playoff. I think the debate between Oklahoma and Ohio State this year is very difficult to solve. The point is that Ohio State appears to receive no support from the Big Ten as a conference, or from the individual programs/universities/administrations. It would be helpful if some of these other teams, schools, and administrators helped push Ohio State as a brand and the conference as a whole, because right now only Ohio State is doing anything to help the Big Ten.

This is a forum post from a site member. It does not represent the views of Eleven Warriors unless otherwise noted.

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