NCAA College Football: BIG 10 … BIG JOKE … BIG FLOP … What Has Happened to this Conference, Disastrous Day for BIG TEN

WHAT WAS THAT? Sorry, but the BIG 10 can now longer be considered a power conference …

For years many have questioned the conference and the strength of scheduling of non-conference games. Now it is just time to question whether the BIG 10 can be considered a power conference after the disastrous Saturday they just suffered through.  Two weeks into the 2014 NCAA college football season, there have been no Big 10 conference games and there is already one team with 2 losses and 5 teams with one loss. However, nothing compared to the carnage that took place yesterday, when an already questioned conference was thoroughly embarrassed.  How can the best thing that can be said of your conference be that at least Michigan St. was ahead at half time over the Oregon Ducks before they completely fell apart in the second half, or Wisconsin beating Western Illinois (who?) or Penn St. beating the Akron Zips, 21-3? Maybe PSU should play all their games in Ireland?

Of the 13 games played by Big 10 teams yesterday, mercifully Indiana was idle, they went 8-5. Sound not so bad, eh? WRONG! From the 8 wins, 2 came late in the game against much less talented opponents. Nebraska barely squeaked by McNeese State 31-24, Iowa needed a 4th quarter rally to defeat Ball St. 17-13 and Illinois had to muster all they could to defeat Western Kentucky 42-34. ARE YOU KIDDING? Then there was Purdue and Northwestern who lost to teams from the MAC. Folks, the reason why so-called power conferences schedule these games is to bad their win totals and treat them like pre-season for conference play.

What happened to the Big Ten, Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes, Henry Williams, Bernie Bierman and Duffy Daugherty are all rolling over in their graves.

But instead of breaking the perception that the BIG 10 is a weak conference, yesterday’s play only further exposed the Big 10, yet again. The BIG 10 is once again not ready for prime time. Sparty and the Michigan St. Spartans actually lead at the half against the high powered Ducks and appeared to be on their way to an impressive win, then the wheels came off. Sure Ohio St. is without their starting QB, but they were the #8 team and should have been able to find a way to defeat an unranked VA Tech team. Instead, the Ohio St QB was sacked all day and threw 3 interceptions. Then came what may have been the clunker of the day from the Big 10 when the Michigan Wolverines traveled to Notre Dame for the last scheduled time in this storied rivalry. One would think that would be all the motivation? NOT! The Fighting Irish destroyed Michigan 31-0. It could have been worse than that.

No. 3 Oregon 46, No. 7 Michigan State 27
Virginia Tech 35, No. 8 Ohio State 21
No. 18 Wisconsin 37, Western Illinois 3
No. 16 Notre Dame 31, Michigan 0
Central Michigan 38, Purdue 17
Iowa 17, Ball State 13
Maryland 24, USF 17
Northern Illinois 23, Northwestern 15
Penn State 21, Akron 3
No. 19 Nebraska 31, McNeese State 24
Illinois 42, Western Kentucky 34
Rutgers 38, Howard 25
Minnesota 35, Middle Tennessee 24

What we learned yesterday from the Big Ten … None, and I repeat none of these teams belong in the conversation for the Final 4 and the National Championship. A two loss SEC team is better than any team in this conference. Hey Cornhuskers, its time to go back to the Big 12, Big 8, whatever they call the conference these days.