How to Overhaul Big Ten Football

The Big Ten is slowly watching its own demise happen in College Football, with no real hope over the horizon.  I mean, how many pundits were ecstatic that Penn State lost so we wouldn’t be burdened with another overmatched Big Ten team in the National Championship Game?

The powers that be in the Big Ten need to figure out a way to overhaul a conference that is slowly becoming irrelevant in College Football and is only talked about on reputation alone.

Does anyone care to guess where an Ohio State or Penn State would fare in the SEC or Big 12 South this year, or year in and year out?  Let's just say it wouldn't be pretty, and the recognition of their storied programs would go out the window in a few short seasons.

Of course, this is speaking hypothetically.  Speaking hypothetically does absolutely nothing productive except to allow people to make up absurd possibilities. 

What are some ideas the Big Ten can do? 

Get Notre Dame into the Big Ten immediately.  This obviously isn't a new idea and has been thrown around as a possibility for years, but with Notre Dame and then Big Ten floundering, which has been going on for a number of years, these two need each other.

At some point this arranged marriage is going to happen.  It's just a matter of when.  It may not be for another 50 years, but this is going to happen, and the sooner the better.  The sooner the Big Ten can get its teams in order, the sooner they can begin their ascent back in college football. 

Once Notre Dame becomes a part of the Big Ten, it will give them 12 teams and they can split into two sub-conferences.  It will be a mess trying to figure out which teams go in which conference, but it will make for interesting sports fodder.

Can you imagine a sub conference consisting of Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and possibly Notre Dame?  Maybe these schools would lick their chops at this possibility or pee their pants.  Time will tell.  I'm sure there will be some sacrificial benefits allowed in adding Notre Dame to the fray.

With 12 teams now in the Big Ten, it's probably a good time to change the name. 

Can you even imagine that happening? Me either, but how about Big Ten: ps Notre Dame.  If anyone out there gets that, cheers! If not, no worries—it's lame.

Anyway, with 12 teams and two sub-conferences, it's now possible to add a conference championship game.  All this is going to do is gain more exposure for the Big Ten, more money, and allow the Big Ten Champion to play a game sooner than the 86 days in between its bowl game and last regular season game, like every other team in college football.

The Big Ten has now been revamped, but that doesn't necessarily make the teams any better or allow them to compete with USC, the SEC, or the Big 12 South.  College Football is a billion dollar industry, and with the invention of the Big Ten network, which is almost as obscure as the NFL Network, the Big Ten must be rolling in money and must have some extra cash to invest in itself. 

The Big Ten needs to start reaching out to high schools, junior high, and even youth divisions.  I went to high school in the state of Iowa, and maybe it has changed since I was there 10 years ago, but we didn't have spring football like almost every other state in the US.

I know that football is considered a religion in the South, but the schools in the Big Ten are going to have put some effort into developing players with more summer camps, developing quarterbacks, reaching out to high school coaches in the state, and holding seminars on year-round conditioning, football execution, and offensive and defensive playbooks

This is where it starts for programs—from the bottom up.  They need their five-star recruits coming in ready to contribute and to become big-time players right away. We don’t have time to develop any more in the college game—it’s a now or never type of business now.

Every team in the SEC has freshman players coming in ready for spring football. It seems to be more of the rule than the exception, and for the Big Ten, it’s certainly not the rule.

Who knows when the Big Ten will become relevant again when it comes to National Championships? Looking from the outside in, I don't think it is going to be anytime soon.