Hope frost does it

[Sofaking]

For the sake of the non con opponents I hope frost gets it turned around.  The big 10 is going to start losing credibility on schedules.  Wisconsin going undefeated and getting no love.  Granted didn't deserve it in the end couldn't beat Ohio state on neutral field where Oklahoma dominated them at home.  Big ten had a very soft image this season. I feel Nebraska left a conference because Texas was a bully.  They just traded it for Ohio state who is the master of the conference when really with the big 12 Oklahoma is the big dog but Texas gets stupid credit

[jaws]

Nice first post 

 

Having Nebraska be a top tier team would be nice but the Big 10 is more than Nebraska and Ohio State. Wisconsin's problem was the lack of balance when scheduling cross over games with the east (Penn State, Michigan, and Ohio State) and not having a good out of conference schedule. Usually that isn't a problem for most of the top Big 10 teams. Also, I see the Big 10's image only improving and becoming more stable. All around they have some of the best coaches in the country and Frost has only added to that.

Edited December 5, 2017 by jaws

[nic]

I am happy to see NU get a quality coach!. Cant wait to play NU again next year. Its been too long. 

[Excel]

I also hope Frost does well, most Big Ten fans do, or at least they should. 

 

Quote

Nebraska left a conference because Texas was a bully.  They just traded it for Ohio state who is the master of the conference

 

The Buckeyes have had Nebraska's number the last few meetings but it won't last forever. Ohio State has a tremendous football history and is an elite program right now, you can pick at particulars but they've been in the top 1-10 teams at the end of the season for years now, that's very difficult to do....but Ohio State is not Texas and the Big 10 is not the Big 12, it's far deeper. In football we have other blue chip programs; Michigan, Penn State, and you guys. Right at their heels we have Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Iowa who are perennially good and can compete for titles every 3ish years. Even Minnesota and Illinois have robust Football traditions with 12, albeit old, National Titles between them. We are far deeper both currently and historically speaking than the Big XII was in Football.

 

Looking at it more broadly there was a lot more than Longhorn Football that drove NU, TAMU, CU, and MU to bail on the Big XII, I'm sure the Nebraska fans understand that better than I could ever explain it but Ohio State is not the Texas of the Big Ten in those areas...revenue, conference decision making, other sports etc. Ohio State is a powerful voice but not the only voice and the Big Ten is much more egalitarian than the Big XII ever was and we don't have any of the revenue sharing arguments.

 

As to image, If we look at College sports and say that there are four very popular ones; Football, Basketball, Baseball, and Hockey probably in that order,  the Big Ten has to be one of the most if not the most competitive and successful conference in the country if you accept Hockey as a substitute for Baseball. I'm talking team sports that are spectator friendly, the Pac 12 claims the most NCs overall but many are in obscure sports.

 

- Football: Most National Championships at 38 fairly evenly spread between 9 teams...the SEC is 2nd at 29 between 9 teams but Alabama has 3x the next closest

- Men's  Hockey: Most National Championships at 23 spread between 4 teams

- Men's Soccer: Second Most NCs at 14 behind ACC at 16

- Men's Basketball: Fourth Most NCs at 10 but again, much more evenly spread across the conference than others like UCLA with the PAC 12 and Kentucky with the SEC

- Baseball: Fourth most NCs at 6 in a sport we barely try at

 

...and then in to the less popular sports

- Women's Hockey: Most NC's at 10

- Women's Lacrosse: Most NCs at 22

 - Men's Wrestling: Second behind Big XII but have dominated the last 10 years

- Women's Volleyball: Second behind Pac 12 15 to 11

 

Quote

The big 10 is going to start losing credibility on schedules. Wisconsin going undefeated and getting no love. Big ten had a very soft image this season.

 

That stared happening almost 15 years ago. It isn't starting, I think we hit rock bottom and are working our way up. Ohio State won an NC. Wisconsin beat LSU, there are bright spots. What hurts us is these SEC teams that generally refuse to travel outside the SE (UF is a perfect example) and the ridiculousness of the bowl games. Wisconsin is playing a bowl game...against Miami...in Miami's home stadium. Imagine how different our bowl records would be if Ohio State played USC at Soldier Field or Wisconsin played Miami at Lambeau, this is a complaint every year but it's a valid one.

 

As far as football goes we now sort of live in this bi-polar CFB world. As Big Ten fans we talk about it all the time (traveling, media attention, so on) and you're starting to hear louder and louder voices from the PAC 12 talk about it like Petersen and Shaw. It's really a region of the South and everyone else.

 

 

Football has become (or always has been) this very regional sport and even if our image was great it's not like Southern eyeballs would be turning off SEC games to watch ours. There are many reasons for that...demographics and population shifts, pro-sports, weather, sports emphasized in HS and so on...I"m not sure that the other 3/4s of the country will ever over take that one corner. I personally don't care that much. This past year is up there with 2006 as far as the most interesting and entertaining Big Ten seasons I've watched...I enjoyed it WAY more than the SEC season and I say that as a grad of an SEC school...I really only watched my team's games and UGA-Auburn-Alabama. The rest of that conference is terrible and I grow more and more sick of it every year.

 

I'm very happy with where the Big Ten is as a conference...and that's not even touching on the academic side of the house where the CIC is without peer against the other big conferences. I think it's the best conference when looking at all aspects of athletics, traditions, attendance, academics and so on.

 

There are regrets, I would have liked to have added ND and Mizzou instead of RU and MD. I wish we could find a way to balance our divisions a little better. But overall we've done quite well. 

 

Edited December 6, 2017 by Excel

[Excel]

Interesting stuff about the "image" of different conferences...here is the record of each conference against P5 OOC opponents this year so far:

 

PAC 12: 6-2

Big Ten: 7-5

ACC: 8-9

SEC: 7-9

Big XII: 3-6

 

...and we're favored in 6 of 8 bowls. We're not as bad as the media acts like we are.

Edited December 6, 2017 by Excel

[Hooked on Huskers]

2017 .....

 

 

2018 ......

 

[nic]

Wiscy as Barney Gumble is classic.