How Do Back-to-Back BCS Championship Berths Equal a Declining Big Ten?

Since when did getting to back-to-back BCS National Title games, and three out of the last six, mean that your conference is getting soft?

THE Ohio State University Buckeyes have been one of the most dominant teams in college football's recent memory.  They have made it to three out of the last six BCS National Title games.  Sure, they're 1-2 in those games, but I don't see anyone else making this run.

The Buckeyes won it all in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl over Miami.  They actually went back to the 2004 Fiesta Bowl and embarrassed Notre Dame and the orb that is Charlie Weis.

The 2004 season was a down one by OSU standards, but it began to turn around with the emergence of Troy Smith (even if he did get suspended for the Alamo Bowl).  In 2005 they lost early to Vince Young and eventual National Champs Texas.  (They would have won that game if Jim Tressel had just let Smith play the whole time and sat Justin Zwick on the bench where he belonged).

In 2006 Smith won the Heisman, and the Buckeyes got pounded by Florida in a title game where everyone thought Michigan should have played OSU in a rematch for the title.  Last season, a wild one with teams losing all over the place, OSU made it out and again got embarrassed by an SEC team in LSU in the title game.

But enough with the OSU resume.  Why is it that because the Big Ten teams can't seem to win the big ones, some say the Big Ten is on the decline?  I mean, I understand when people say that Big Ten teams aren't as good because they lose to these out of conference schools.

But maybe it's not that the Big Ten is declining.  Maybe everyone else has finally caught up to one of the all-time great conferences.

It's definitely true of mid-major conferences.  Five to eight years ago, a Boise State would have never beaten the likes of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.  A non-BCS school like App. State would never have gone into the Big House and shocked the world in beating that team from the North (one of the greatest days of watching sports in my life!).

Maybe the smaller teams and other conferences have caught up.  There is so much more parity in college football than ever before.

I will give credit to the SEC—they produce some great teams.  But when does an SEC team come out undefeated?  Florida wasn't.  LSU had lost twice!

All of this shows how hard it will be to make a great dynasty again.  There won't be another Bobby Bowden or Joe Pa ever again.  There is too much riding on winning and money.

Tressel has locked himself in for a long time because of the fact that he keeps winning and making money for the school.  Also, unlike John Cooper, he does what all Buckeye fans really care about: He beats Michigan.  If he goes out and loses five or six in a row, his fate will be just like Lloyd Carr—out.

Maybe we should stop saying how bad the Big Ten is, and instead start saying that college football is the most popular it has ever been.  Every year you don't know who will emerge victorious in the BCS and its crazy system, and that's because all of the teams are beginning to level out.