It's True, The Big Ten Is The 2nd Best Conference in College Football!

Most of the college football world has grown to see The Big Ten as a big brother of the Mid class 'corn belt' MAC Conference, in other words 'mediocre at best.'   Lead by its banner bearer Ohio State, The Big Ten has not done well the past few years on the national stage. The Big Ten was 1-6 in the 2008 Bowl Campaign and it's been nearly a decade since The Conference of '11' won a Rose Bowl game.  The national perception has been lead by the failures of Ohio State against elite talent; blow out losses to Florida and LSU, a blow out loss to USC on prime time and no marquee conference wins gives evidence that the Big Ten is nothing more than a glorified mid major.

However this past season and especially The Big Ten's 2009 Bowl performance gives credibility that it is now the 2nd best conference in football. That's right and before one snickers, let's consider; 

1.  The Big Ten was 4-3 in this past year's bowl performance.  What makes that noteworthy, just isn't a winning %, but all four wins came over mostly top 15, if not top 25 teams; Conference champs, Oregon and Georgia Tech and top 25 teams of Miami and LSU.

2. The Big Ten was 2-0 in BCS games.  Only the SEC can match that.  The other lone winner of a BCS game was Boise State.  The Pac 10, ACC, Big East, Big 12 came up empty handed on this year's grandest bowls. 

3.  Impressive 4 wins; it wasn't as if The Big Ten won 4 nail biters. Ohio State mostly dominated Oregon with nearly a 42 to 18 minute TOP advantage, Iowa held Georgia Tech's high powered offense under control.  Wisconsin strong armed Miami and Penn State beat a good LSU sqaud.

4.  True The Big Ten had 3 losses in this year's bowl season and a loss is a loss. However, those were mid to lowered tier games.  Big 12 fans may object as their conference won its two bowl games over Big Ten squads, but that was in those mid tier bowl games and compare The Big 12 victories over the top 25 in the bowl campain against The Big Ten. 

5.  Slowhio and the Slow Big Ten were common misconceptions of the Big Ten, but look at what the beef and cheese eaters of WI did to The Hurricane's speed, it was Ohio State that seemed to have the speed advantage in Pasedena as Terrel Pryor by himself outgained that potent offense, and the corn belt Hawkeyes beat 'fast' Georgia Tech by double digits.  As Auburn did beat NW, NW racked up over 600 yards against Auburn and the majority of that was in regulation. How many yards did AL have against The Tigers?

6.  Next year can be further vindication as many pre season polls have 3 Big Ten teams in the top ten and many have 2 in the top 5; Ohio State, Iowa and Wisconsin.

It may be true, The Big Ten is the 2nd best conference in the nation, at least the facts point that way. Of course, The SEC is the best and until someone can knock them off their BCS Title throne and dominate their oppenents as they do, they continue to be the best.