The Big Ten Is The Biggest Winner Of This College Football Postseason

If there was a conference that needed to make a statement in this bowl season it was the Big Ten, largely seen as a slow, plodding conference.

But if there was a conference that played extremely well on the big stage and pulled off some great wins, there was the Big Ten getting it done.

With an unfavorable set of matchups in most circles, the conference many saw as not worthy of automatic BCS qualifiers finished up with a 4-3 record, with a legitimate chance to make it so much better.

The big wins came at the hands of the top four in the conference as Wisconsin, Penn State, Ohio State, and Iowa all beat top-15 teams, and held each one under 20 points.

The biggest part of the year was that the Big Ten joined the SEC as the only conferences to have multiple BCS teams, and they each went 2-0 in the BCS.

For awhile, the Big Ten has had a perception of being boring, bland football and the teams are a step slower yhan those in other conferences.

But if nothing else, they showed physical football combined with great QB play, coming from Wisconsin's Scott Tolzien, PSU's Daryll Clark, Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor, and Iowa's Ricky Stanzi. All were more than able to pull off some big, must-needed bowl wins.

And it's no surprise that these four are probably the best QBs in the Big Ten.

Remember that last year the Big Ten went 1-6 in bowls and became almost a punchline.

This year the script is very different, as they looked very good in most of their matchups.

So the question is "Is the Big Ten back?"

I say sure, because looking at the rosters of these four teams, a lot of key players return from most of these squads, especially Wisconsin and Ohio State.

Iowa gets back Ricky Stanzi and prized RB Jewel Hampton should return to the fold this season.

Penn State will lose Clark, LB Navorro Bowman, and DT Jared Odrick, but returning RB Evan Royster and sophomore QB Kevin Newsome could be the next big thing in Happy Valley.

And looking at the postseason top ten, no conference has more teams than the Big Ten in the top ten, with Ohio State fifth, Iowa seventh, and Penn State ninth.

Clearly, no conference had done as much to improve its reputation and perception on the national stage as the Big Ten, especially in the Rose Bowl.

Ohio State's 26-17 win over Oregon, a physically-dominating performance, was the Big Ten's first Rose Bowl win in nearly a decade, and it was a great win as well.

Few picked Ohio State, but their talented defense did enough to silence the critics.

Iowa was in a similar scenario, and the script was similar, as they locked down the Georgia Tech triple option on the way to a 24-14 win.

Last year, the Pac-10 became the darlings of college football after a perfect postseason, but disappointed this time around.

This time, the Big Ten goes into 2010 with elevated expectations and chances to improve their perception, as Penn State goes into Tuscaloosa to play defending national champion Alabama, and Ohio State welcomes Miami, all on September 11th.

The Big Ten was probably the biggest winner of anyone this postseason, but now they must live up to their higher billing or people will label this season as a one-hit wonder.