mighty Big 10

[El-Moldo]

Look. The Big Ten is 3-4 against comparable competition in bowl games? What does that tell you? This isn't about non-conference games at the beginning of the season where the Big Ten plays weaklings at home. It's about seasoned teams going at one another at season's end, and the Big Ten lost 4 out of 7 games.

[Opinionguy]

As usual Moldo, you are spinning yourself in circles trying to discredit the Big Ten.

2 BCS Titles and a 3-4 overall conference record in bowl games is not that bad. In those loses, it's not like the teams were blown out either. They were very competitive.

I don't recall anyone on here claiming the Big Ten was going to go undefeated in Bowl Season.

Do me a favor. Instead of making all of these claims of why the Big Ten sucks. Why don't you name me a conference you'd take over the Big Ten this year. Take another conference's 7 top teams, and line them up against the 7 top teams from the Big Ten from this year. How do they compare?

[count2infinity]

4 BCS bowls... Big 10 captures half of them... see i can spin things too moldy...

[dragonfanz]

I don't think anyone on this board is trying to say that Penn State and Ohio State aren't very good football teams. I would have to say that Ohio State is probably the third best team in the nation RIGHT now. And for the matter Wisconsin is also an above average football team. From that point on, the Big Ten has no more than most other conferences. Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, and Purdue were severely overrated all season long. The bottom eight teams of the Big Ten had 2 quality wins all season (UM vs. PSU and MSU vs. ND). PSU going to Miami and beating FSU in 3OT is not a great win by any stretch of the imagination but PSU played great football throughout the year and did what they had to do, win. If you look at the percentage of quality teams in the Big Ten you see that 3 out of 11 teams are pretty good. If you look at the Big East you see that 2 out of 8 are pretty good. Looking at the ACC you see that most of their teams were relatively streaky this season. Florida State was not the best team in that conference but did what they had to do to get to a BCS game. What I believe angers many PSU-haters is this notion that the Big Ten is so superior to many other conferences or how "the teams of the Big Ten just beat up on each other week to week." I suppose no other conference plays tackle football. Would one ever think the reason the Big Ten had 2 BCS teams is for no other reason that the bottom 8 teams of their conference were not very good. Maybe this year the Big Ten had very little parity and the bowl results proved that theory. PSU and OSU are very good and after Wisconsin there wasn't much to brag about. Sometimes people have to self evaluate the situation and try to be open minded about things.

[Opinionguy]

Good Post Dragon, I do agree with some of your points but not all can be based on a bowl season.

Look at the Penn State game for instance. They lost their entire starting backfield except for Robinson, their best offensive weapon in Williams, and the best defensive player in football before the final gun of the Orange Bowl and they still won. Considering the fact that as Boddy Bowden said after the game "We couldn't of played any better", I think that win was very impressive.

A lot of things change during the course of a season and until bowl week. Florida state was ranked in the top 5 at one point in the season until they lost some key players on their O-line and their Freshman QB hit the wall midway through the schedule. Given the layoff for FSU, the line came together, and the Frosh QB played like a seasoned vet. Florida State not only played like an ACC champ last night, they played like they where a top ten team.

Point being that in football teams play better at different points of the season. But only the best teams in the Nation can endure it's top level play for the entire time and deserve to be National Champions.

Minnesota, Michigan, Northwestern, all played like top 20 teams for a good stretch of the season. Heck at one point this year people where saying Miami was the best team in the Nation. Things obviously changed and At some point you don't get the bounce, your season is going to go downhill.

This just doesn't happen in the Big Ten. It happens in every conference. I just get sick and tired of reading the junk when people try to spin a few things to prove a point. I'll never claim the Big Ten is the best conference in football year in and year out. But if is one of the top conferneces in football. Top 3 year in and year out.

[El-Moldo]

Austin: You had PSU=TBD. Let's hear your evaluation. I mean you thought Wisconsin's win was impressive. How about the PSU win?

[count2infinity]

PSU should have won the game numerous times...they just needed a kicker. Defense ruled the game on both sides.

[Gunner18]

amazing how much trash the kickers take...they never get credit for a win, only blame for a loss. amazing. theres 21 other positions out there but 99% of the time its the lone 1 that gets blamed for a loss..does he get credit for a win? nope....who do you think is going to get more media for a win...a kicker or the Dline stopping the other team from scoring, or the reciever that makes a 1 handed grab that changes the pace of the game, or the fumble or the int. kickers never get credit and its bull

[AUSTIN_22:22]

i think wisconsin's win was more impressive than penn state's. that does not mean that psu's wasnt a good win. florida state played about as well as they could. florida st. had a huge edge on special teams which almost won them the game. penn st's defense was really impressive at holding them to 3 and outs while fsu had great field position in the 3rd quarter. the offense struggled w/ some key injuries, but they held serve and did not turn the ball over. florida st. played like a top 15 team last nite, and penn state won w/o their best effort.

i think florida st. would beat ND.

penn state is the #3 team in the country. i think psu at full health could hang right w/ USC and texas, but based on accomplishment, they should ranked above the lions.

a great season for the lions which should set up further success as winning begets winning.

as for what it says about the big ten...i dunno, i mean, its not the best conference, but is just as good as any other. one thing you have to look at is that the big ten had 2 BCS teams which caused the match ups in the other bowls to be a lower big ten seed vs. a higher seed from the other conference. so make of it what you will.

[count2infinity]

gunner...if he'd have made the the first attempt to win the game, i'd give him credit, maybe even the second, i'd give him credit...but waiting until the third? MAN, that's rough considering that's his ONLY job...