I take as a given that you care about beating The Cheaters. I take as a given that you care about making the playoffs and about trying to win a natty.

But do you care about winning the Big Ten?

As the season has progressed, I have started to call into question whether I care about winning in Indy. I used to always feel like the goals were to beat TTUN, win the conference, compete for the natty. But the way things are playing out - and the way they will be in the future - the combination of the playoff structure and the unbalanced schedules and, frankly, conference expansion adding teams I care less about makes the conference championship matter less and less. 

Let's say OSU makes the title game in Indy and is playing Oregon. And let's assume that OSU is 12-0 or 11-1. (If they have two losses they won't be in Indy). They are already going to be a shoo-in for the playoffs. So you are playing for a Big Ten trophy and a first round bye - an advantage that didn't pay off for anyone last year. Honestly, I probably would watch the conference title game mostly praying people don't get injured and not caring that much about the result

Now, push this out to the 16 game playoff that the Big Ten is pushing, with four automatic bids. Why should you care at all? No first round bye. Playing only for seeding. At that point it feels like the only reason to care is some nostalgia for the old days and the glory of getting the conference trophy. Which leads me back to where I started: should we care?