Will the B1G ever recover and be considered great again?

[ClevelandPizzaCompany]

Serious question. The 2006-07 bowl season was a massive blow to the entire conference, and we still haven't recovered. With the exception of the 2009-10, the whole conference has played mediocre football in bowl season and in interleague play. We hear constantly on ESPN, online, etc., about how weak the conference is. I'm just wondering how long this will last.

 

[Blackshirt]

Bowl games don't mean/translate much. B1G does fine in them year in and year out....

Its the early season OCC that makes the B1G look bad. Lost almost 90% of the games that having meaning.

 

[Smart]

It's not that we play bad in bowl season. We just play a tougher schedule than everyone else. All of our games are against SEC teams (best conference) or higher finishing teams from other conferences. Any conference besides the SEC would get killed in our schedule.

Case in point: Wisconsin's hasn't been favored in our bowl game since the 2000 Sun Bowl, and we're gonna be underdogs again this cycle. We are 5-7 in the bowl games, but it's not like we've been overrated going into bowl games. It's actually quite the opposite, since we are 9-3 against the spread.

 

[tech_iceman]

2 words:


Appalachian State

 

[Shanemansj13]

They added Rutgers and Maryland...does that help

 

[Hook'Em0608]

The Big 10 plays no harder bowl games than the big 12 or SEC.

 

[Octoberfest23]

Seriously? It's about recruiting. It's not the stuff in the air. The big ten will dominate the nation again. Every conference will dominate again. It's a cycle.

 

[GoBlueNavyNuke]

Too much money, too big of alumni bases and too big of names to stay down forever.

Though fun fact, since we are talking bowls here I think we can agree the gold standard right now is the SEC, well since the BCS started in 1998, in their bowl matchups against the SEC the Big Ten is batting just under 0.500, and that's with 90%+ of the games being psuedo home games for the SEC team.

 

[ForkEmBucky]

I know I say this a lot, but I think it's psychological. It used to be a big problem for the Badgers against Michigan. When the big games get close, lately the B1G players miss opportunities or make mistakes. And the discipline isn't there like it used to be.

I don't think Bielema was all wrong, either. If you can't hang on to staffers like Bob Bostad, Paul Chryst, Dave Doeren....you can't maintain the edge you need over the course of several years to finally put together the kind of team that walks into the post season with the will to win, the talent to win, and the coaching to win.

 

[WhiteMamba]

lots of kids in todays day and age have destinations of the South and West Coast lately.

 

[Robotech]

Seriously? It's about recruiting. It's not the stuff in the air. The big ten will dominate the nation again. Every conference will dominate again. It's a cycle.

With Midwestern talent seemingly not as abundant as it was before, recruiting is going to be a problem for most B1G teams. I think Ohio State will be fine because they have Urban Meyer who can recruit well in the South. Another reason Ohio State will be okay is because Ohio itself is rich in talent. I think others in the B1G teams will struggle. Nebraska should do okay because they can get some players from Texas. Michigan has a national brand, so they should do okay, too. However, overall I think that Ohio State will be the recruiting powerhouse of the B1G.

 

[tshirt]

Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State need to be perennial top 10 powerhouses

Minnesota, Northwestern, Indiana, Illinois, Purdue all must become better programs

 

[cwerph]

2 words:


Appalachian State

Is that equivalent to Georgia Southern?

 

[BigAppleBadger]

The Big 10 plays no harder bowl games than the big 12 or SEC.

Really?

Baylor plays UCF. The Fiesta Bowl seems to always have last pick so the Big 12 team often draws the easiest BCS matchup.

Look at the Big Ten vs SEC matchups... the SEC team has the better record and will be favored in at least 2 of 3:

South Carolina (10-2) vs. Wisconsin (9-3)
LSU (9-3) vs. Iowa (8-4)
Georgia (8-4) vs. Nebraska (8-4)

 

[BamaFanAlways]

Really?

Baylor plays UCF. The Fiesta Bowl seems to always have last pick so the Big 12 team often draws the easiest BCS matchup.

Look at the Big Ten vs SEC matchups... the SEC team has the better record and will be favored in at least 2 of 3:

South Carolina (10-2) vs. Wisconsin (9-3)
LSU (9-3) vs. Iowa (8-4)
Georgia (8-4) vs. Nebraska (8-4)

USCe - 4th in SEC standings WIS - 3rd in B1G
LSU - 5th in SEC standings - Iowa - 4th *tie* in B1G
Georgia - 6th *tie* in SEC standings - NEB - 4th *tie* in B1G

yeah, looks really bad for ya'll.

 

[sakau2007]

Really?

Baylor plays UCF. The Fiesta Bowl seems to always have last pick so the Big 12 team often draws the easiest BCS matchup.

Look at the Big Ten vs SEC matchups... the SEC team has the better record and will be favored in at least 2 of 3:

South Carolina (10-2) vs. Wisconsin (9-3)
LSU (9-3) vs. Iowa (8-4)
Georgia (8-4) vs. Nebraska (8-4)

where do you slide wisconsin, iowa, and nebraska in pecking order in the big 10? i'm guessing 3,4, and 5 in some order. south carolina, lsu, and georgia are 4,5, and 7 in the SEC. and both LSU and Georgia lost their star quarterbacks at the end of the season so that should help the big 10 teams out.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

Eventually - yes. When will that be? Who knows. I think there's a clear separtation (even in a bad year for the SEC) between them and everyone else. The big 12, pac 12, ACC and the Big ten are just not that good. There are a few good teams sprinkled in but the majority of the teams are bad.

And I'm not sure what it is to be quite honest. Why, with top 10 classes, are Michigan and OSU that far off from Alabama? It's very clear, based on their last two games, that OSU isn't all they're cracked up to be. Michigan's on a downward spiral. Texas has been recruiting like crazy for the past 10 years and has been struggling the last 3-4 years. USC is gone. Oregon disappointing. Some bright spots are Michigan State, Stanford and Oklahoma - but all have major flaws. Florida State seems to be the best team, but we'll see what happens in the NCG. We've seen this before, and the SEC team usually comes out on top.

The point being, it's not just the big ten -- it's everyone outside the SEC. None of us have been able to produce a team do take out the SEC in a NCG in how long now? Even the independents had a shot with ND last year.

Hopefully it will change soon. CFB isn't as fun to watch when so much of the power is in one place. It makes the other games happening elsewhere lose their luster. In the early 2000's CFB was much more fun to watch - not only because Michigan was still winning - but because you had major teams from all over competing for a title. OSU was in there, Miami was in there, Nebraska was in there, USC was there, some of the SEC schools, Texas, Oklahoma -- they were all really good. It made for a much better product.

I wonder if the BCS has anything to do with the power shifting all into one conference? I'm not sure how, but that's the major change CFB made right around the time all the power shifted to the SEC.

 

[fishinabarrel]

Is that equivalent to Georgia Southern?

At least app state was in the process of winning 3 straight fcs national championships

 

[HuskerinBig10]

where do you slide wisconsin, iowa, and nebraska in pecking order in the big 10? i'm guessing 3,4, and 5 in some order. south carolina, lsu, and georgia are 4,5, and 7 in the SEC. and both LSU and Georgia lost their star quarterbacks at the end of the season so that should help the big 10 teams out.

Nebraska has played without star QB Taylor Martinez just about all season.

Nebraska lost All American Guard at the Purdue game.

Nebraska lost two more starting offensive lineman the rest of the season.

Nebraska played a defensive lineman on the line, Vincent Valentine, he hadn't played O line since junior high probably.

Nebraska has as many excuses as the SEC teams.

Plus, the SEC bandwagoners can't brag how awesome the SEC is all year long and that Kentucky and Arkansas are SOS enhancers and then pull these lame ass excuses. The B1G fans know our teams are bad, except for Wisconsin and Ohio State. Even Michigan State fans were down on their team in the early part of the season because their offense was not very good. That same point in time, Georgia was still a top ten team. Heck, Michigan State was not even rated in the Top 25 at that time.

 

[boxedlunch]

The Big Ten's decline started around 2000. They've put together a couple of great season since then, but have been in decline. Since the decline has been so long, I do wonder if the elements that made the conference great are still there.