| | By Wayne Drehs
EPSN.com
Earlier this summer, Minnesota defensive line coach Mark Snyder was thumbing through preseason college football magazines, picking up on what he thought was a lack of respect.
Everywhere Snyder turned, the Gophers were picked around eighth in the Big Ten, despite coming off their best season in over 30 years. Agitated, Snyder approached head coach Glenn Mason, who listened and then calmly asked Snyder a few questions.
"You don't expect them to pick us ahead of Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan, do you?" Mason asked. "No," Snyder answered.
"And you wouldn't pick us ahead of Michigan or Michigan State, which had Top 10 finishes last year, would you?" Mason continued. "Well, No," Snyder said.
"And you wouldn't pick us ahead of Wisconsin, the two-time defending Rose Bowl champs, or Purdue, which has the best quarterback in college football, would you?" "Umm...no."
"So that leaves us and Illinois," Mason said. Snyder chirped up, pointing out that the Gophers beat the Illini last year. "Yeah," Mason responded, "But after that they beat Michigan at Michigan, Ohio State at Ohio State and killed Virginia in a bowl game."
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Perfect Ten
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The Big Ten might just be the dominant conference in the country. While they beat up on each other in conference play, they also beat up on everyone else outside of it. A look at what they've done lately:
The Big Ten was 28-7 against non-conference opponents in 1999.
The Big Ten has a 249-127-6 (.660) record against non-conference opponents in the 1990s.
The Big Ten has 30 bowl wins in the '90s.
The Big Ten had four Heisman Trophy winners in the '90s, including three of the last five in Ron Dayne, Charles Woodson and Eddie George.
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Finally, Snyder understood where his boss was coming from. This isn't the Big Ten of old, where Michigan and Ohio State reigned supreme, and every couple years, an Iowa, Michigan State, or Minnesota jumped up to bite a league giant. It's the balanced Big Ten, with seven teams ranked in the preseason Top 25 and nine teams supporting legitimate postseason dreams.
It's the main reason that many of the league's coaches believe this, not the SEC, is the nation's premier football conference. Sure, the Big Ten hasn't won an outright national championship since 1968 (Michigan split the title with Nebraska in '97), but top to bottom, no other conference can compete.
"Not that Nebraska isn't in a strong conference or that you can argue with the success of Florida State, they're an elite football team too, but if you put them in the Big Ten, I think there's no question they'd have a tougher road ahead of them," Illinois coach Ron Turner said. "It's just a phenomenal league right now. You better come ready to play every week, no matter who it is."
The Big Ten placed seven teams in both Top 25 polls for the first time ever during the 1999 season and all seven of those teams all went to bowl games. Four of them played on New Year's Day, including two, Wisconsin and Michigan, who played in BCS games.
Even more impressive is the Big Ten's record in those games and other non-conference contests. In 1999, the Big Ten was 28-7 in non-conference games and for those who question the Big Ten's scheduling, the league offers an 11-4 1999 mark against ranked opponents and a 4-1 bowl record against the SEC the last two years.
Don't forget the Big Ten was a perfect 5-0 in 1998 bowl games and 10-2 over the past two seasons. The SEC, by contrast, was 8-8 over the last two years. Add that with the Big Ten's 1999 non-conference success and it makes a strong case.
"As I look over the people we have to play and the tapes of the teams we have to play, I don't think there's any time in my life that I've had to coach against better teams and better coaches than I will have to coach against this year," Penn State's Joe Paterno said.
Folks in the SEC disagree with all this Big Ten talk. Boasting traditional powers Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Auburn, with regular surprises from schools like Kentucky and Mississippi State, the SEC makes a strong case for top conference as well. The 12-team SEC (The Big Ten has 11 teams) sent eight teams to bowls in each of the last two years. They also won three national championships in the '90s alone.
"I think the SEC has been as strong top to bottom as any conference in this country," SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer said. "We've always had the Tennessees, Alabamas, and Georgias, but it's the elevation of programs like Florida, Kentucky and Mississippi State that have had a major impact on our overall success."
Part of the reason the Big Ten hasn't won more national championships is its longtime commitment to the Rose Bowl. Until the league joined the BCS in 1998, any Big Ten champion was forced to play in the Rose Bowl, eliminating a potential spot in any national championship game. In 1994, undefeated Penn State went to the Rose Bowl and defeated Oregon, only to watch Nebraska win the national championship.
Under the new set up, any Big Ten team eligible for the national championship will play for the national championship.
"I guess to a degree, the system sort of cheated them," Kramer said. "In today's world, they would get a shot."
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The thing that makes it such a tough league is the number of premier teams. You're talking Wisconsin, Michigan State, Purdue, on and on. There really are no lousy teams or easy wins. ” |
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— Minnesota coach Glenn Mason |
For a long stretch in the late '80s and early '90s, the Big Ten was perceived as a slow, methodical conference with little individual talent and just a handful of talented coaches. Many argued that the conference was too slow to keep up with the SEC, Pac-10 and others, but it's the Big Ten who's had the last laugh in talent. Three of the last five Heisman Trophy winners (Eddie George, Charles Woodson and Ron Dayne) have come from the Big Ten with a fourth, Purdue quarterback Drew Brees, the early favorite this season.
Coaching staffs have improved as well. In 1997, four schools -- Indiana, Purdue, Illinois and Minnesota -- hired new leaders, with all four schools seeing drastic turnarounds in their program's success. Purdue, Illinois and Minnesota have all returned to bowl games under their new coaches, while Indiana continues to edge closer to the postseason.
"I think our athletic directors did a terrific job of maintaining quality coaches that were in place and hiring top coaches from around the country to really put a face on Big Ten football," Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said. "In 5-10 years when we look back, we'll realize that this was a time we did very, very well."
The ultimate result of which has been parity, which adds more gray hair to already frazzled coaches and allows more teams to get "excited" about finishing eighth.
"The thing that makes it such a tough league is the number of premier teams," Mason said. "You're talking Wisconsin, Michigan State, Purdue, on and on. There really are no lousy teams or easy wins. So yeah, I think we're pretty darn lucky to be picked eighth."
Wayne Drehs is a staff writer at ESPN.com. | |
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