Posted on 08/05/2008 6:24:42 PM PDT by GOP_Raider
The Big Ten isn’t as bad as you think.
Because of the geographical location, media coverage, and history, the Big Ten is the most popular conference in college sports. Big schools, big fan bases, big rivalries, big stadiums, its own network … big, big, big. It’s such a big league that it has too many teams for its name.
Since there’s so much attention and so much coverage, fans from other leagues love to pile on when things aren’t going so well. However, for all of the bad PR and all the shots the Big Ten has taken over the last few years, it’s getting a bad rap. No, it’s not as good as the SEC, but it’s been better than the ACC and Big East and it’s been every bit as good as the Big 12 or Pac 10, if not better.
First of all, it’s time to stop punishing Ohio State for losing the last two national title games. There’s no shame whatsoever in losing to the national champions.
Second, it’s not fair to impugn an entire conference because one of its teams loses to USC every year. USC would’ve beaten at least 116 other teams in the last six BCS games its been in; there’s no reason to rip on the Big Ten just because it keeps getting in the way of the steamroller.
Third, the league simply hasn’t been as bad as you think.
(Excerpt) Read more at cfn.scout.com ...
“The USC/Ohio St is the regular season game of the year.”
The free market seems to agree with you (taken from a scalper website):
The following sets of tickets are available for USC Trojans vs. Ohio State Buckeyes. To sort the list, click the column header. To purchase tickets from a set, click the purchase link in that row.
All prices are PER TICKET and shown in US dollars.
Section: 22 Row: 6
47 to 50 Yard Line Dead Center Behind USC Bench Perfect view over the bench area Like your on the sideline The Ultimate Tickets
$7,500.00 PER TICKET
Ok, now let's cue up the Fight Song because we know the lesser teams from the lesser universities will wither under its power:
Fight On for ol’ SC
Our men Fight On to victory.
Our Alma Mater dear,
looks up to you
Fight On and win
For ol’ SC
Fight On to victory
Fight On!
About 23 years ago, USC did have a dirty program with players getting academic credit at Los Angeles City College without even showing up for class. And they paid the price for that.
The Reggie Bush thing looks suspect because an agent was giving his parents cheap or even free housing for a period of time. But it wasn’t the agent he eventually signed with so it looks more like a stupid agent than anything else.
How far is a university supposed to go in investigating family and friends of a player? If your brother is playing college football, should you expect private detectives trying to figure out if your getting any freebies from someone? Is each college supposed to have the resources of the FBI?
It’s not clear that Reggie Bush did anything wrong. And it’s even less clear that USC could have known about whether or not his parents were paying rent at market values to someone who happened to be an agent.
I don’t think there’s much chance that the agent wasn’t trying to curry favor from Bush, but it obviously didn’t work. You’re getting into the six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon to allege that what happened was USC paying Reggie Bush.
It’s nonsense, and that’s why nothing has happened. USC doesn’t have to pay its talent to play there. They want to play there because it’s a successful program and kids want to be part of that. It may or may not lead to an NFL career, but for a great many of the starters on the team, it does.
“23 years ago, USC did have a dirty program with players getting academic credit at Los Angeles City College without even showing up for class”
I remember that, and SC paid dearly for it. And I agree that a player’s parents living arrangements are well beyond the institutional control of the university. It’s just the usual USC haters grasping at straws. I give you props for giving ‘em hell. The fight song is going to be ringing in their ears this fall. They won’t know what hit them. Fight on!
I don’t know what got into the Coaches Poll to make USC #2 and Georgia #1.
But if USC goes on the road in three weeks and beats Virginia and then defeats #3 Ohio State then they’d be smoking crack not to make USC #1.
Georgia opens up against Georgia Southern, whoever they are, and then plays Central Michigan. I’m guessing George will be 2-0 after that blistering non-conference schedule.
I have no idea what you're talking about. I was as happy as anyone when Michigan lost to App St. We don't do the SEC thing where we root for all our conference teams no matter what. But it's nice to see you SEC fans are demonstating your uh uh class.
Excuse me SEC Einstein. App St has won the college championship in their bracket 3 years in a row. I would hardly call that team a "doormat".
btw, nice question dodge.
I am just geussing since I’ve never been to the Univ of Hawaii. But I would think Hawaii would be a great attraction for a 17 or 18 years old kid looking for a college to go to. If Hawaii just had a decent football program you would think alot of kids would want to go there. OTOH I geuss it would be hard for the parents of those kids to be traveling to Hawaii 6 times a year (even from California). Not to mention how expensive it would be.
Actually you could make the case that Georgia Southern should be defending national champion. Georgia Southern beat App St., App St beat Michigan, Michigan beat Florida, Florida beat Kentucky and Kentucky beat LSU. SO there ya go. LOL!
The six degrees of Kevin Southern Georgia Bacon!
When's the last time LSU beat a Big 10 team when it's below 70F? When's Georgia beaten anyone at all up north?
College Football Previews!
Excellent! The big day is less than four weeks away.
As long as we're on the Big Ten here, can we get some pictures of maybe one of the most underrated teams in all of college sports? That being, of course, the Northwestern University Cheerleaders!
They only let smart young ladies go to school there, you know...
Yep, beating UF in the Florida Citrus Bowl doesn't count.
All I know is that if UF played Hawaii last year, the final score would’ve resembled a basketball score, with how terrible our secondary was.
The school just doesn’t invest enough in the programs to make them very attractive to alot of mainland kids to come and play for them. The distance doesn’t help either. Anytime you need to go home or parents visit, its a plane ride. That also makes recruiting much more difficult as well.
The practice facilities are complete joke. Hawaii was going to make a major payday by going to the BCS game, and the school wanted to horde it for other things, and not invest it back into the program. That was kind of the last straw that pushed June Jones to go coach elsewhere.
They also suffer from a lack of deep pocket local based alums. Most reside on the mainland US. So that hurts them as well.
What round do they have to stop playing home games?
Well, the only thing we all can agree on in this thread is that Notre Dame sucks.
I believe Georgia beat Michigan in 1965 by the score of 15-7. Now Georgia did play VMI in 1966 at Roanoke. I geuss we can all debated whether Roanoke qualifies as "up north." LOL! Here is a great college football site for all sorts of worthless information
http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia_team_index.php
SEC fans don't seem to agree on much, except that we can't stand the Little Ten. :)
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