2011 Bowl Season: Why the Big Ten Isn't As Bad As You May Think

Being a fan of a Big Ten school hasn't been pretty for many of us the last week. January 1st, 2011 will be remembered as the day the Big Ten was officially murdered by the rest of college football.

Hopefully the new "Big 10/12" fairs slightly better.

Being a Michigan State fan in the new year has been a disaster, which is really unfair to Spartan fans, who had a great last four months of 2010.

MSU didn't fade down the stretch. They showed up relatively well in big games this season (Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Michigan). For the last two months Michigan State could use these performances to defend their team's thrashing at the hands of Iowa as a road game anomaly.

But the loss to Alabama puts MSU's team into perspective.

The Spartans are a good team with a great coaching staff. However, they don't have the big guns or killer instincts to match up with the best of the BCS. There are too many matchups for elite competition to exploit.

Take the Alabama game.

MSU had no pass rush from their defensive line all year. Watching the front four defensive linemen play patti-cake with the opposition's O-line was embarrassing. This never really killed Sparty during the regular season because Greg Jones single-handedly stopped team's running games and the cornerbacks covered receivers just long enough.

One could also argue that MSU didn't play very many elite quarterbacks capable of tearing up a weak pass rush, other than Ricky Stanzi of Iowa. When Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy had five or six seconds to throw the ball, he killed MSU on third down.

'Bama ran the ball with ease after implementing their "find Greg Jones and double team him" strategy. Take away B.J. Cunningham at wide receiver and there's your recipe for a blow out.

Put that loss aside for a moment, Alabama is a world-class team that should have played in a BCS game if not for a few late game collapses in SEC play. Fans of the Big Ten shouldn't give up hope just yet, and here's why:

1. Insight Bowl:

Iowa 27, Missouri 24.

Flash back to before December 28th. Nobody gave Iowa a chance in this game. This team had a disappointing year and was destined to be destroyed by an up-and-coming Missouri team. I wrote an article saying Missouri would win by a touchdown and received plenty of emails saying the Hawkeyes would lose by 21.

Iowa matched Missouri's intensity and by the fourth quarter, I was reminded why betting on sports is stupid. Iowa closed the gap with a great defensive play and kicked off Big Ten bowl mania the right way.

2. Texas Bowl: 

Illinois 38, Baylor 14

OK, not as big of a shocker as the last game, but I still recall plenty of people saying Illinois didn't deserve a bowl game. The Illini's defense was awful and Robert Griffin III was going to have a field day in what basically looked and felt like a home game for Baylor.

Illinois shut out the Bears in the first half and dominated the afternoon. Things were looking great for the Big Ten, all we would need would be an average showing on January 1st and nobody could talk trash on the conference.

3. New Year's Day

Ticket City Bowl: Texas Tech 45, Northwestern 38

This is another bowl game that works out as a home game for Texas Tech and a road game for the Big Ten team. Northwestern was athletically outmatched and the Red Raiders executed their game plan well. Northwestern started badly and then almost pulled off a great comeback. I consider this game more of a Texas Tech win than a Northwestern loss, if that makes any sense.

Gator Bowl: Miss. State 52, Michigan 14

With rumors flying around that Rich Rod was soon to be done at Michigan, the team played like it was ready for a regime change. I'm picturing Rodriguez giving the least inspiring halftime speech of all time, complete with attempts to recruit any young Wolverine players into coming with him to his next job. In his defense, you would need a whole lot more than a halftime speech to fix the Wolverine defense.

Outback Bowl: Florida 37, Penn State: 24

I'm beginning to notice a theme here, where SEC teams get to stay relatively local for bowl games and Big Ten teams have to travel considerable distances.

I'm not saying this is wrong, Pennsylvania in January isn't what many people think of when they hear "bowl game destination." But the fans play a huge role. Look at the crowds from the Capitol One Bowl and Outback Bowl, there's a thousand-to-one ratio of fans in favor of the SEC teams.

Urban Meyer has never been a loser, and the guy wasn't going to lose his final(?) college football game.

Side note: Anybody else notice the whole head to head match up between Urban Meyer and Joe Paterno in which Joe Paterno should be the one retiring, if anybody? Not saying Joe Pa should ever leave Penn State, I'm saying Urban Meyer was everyone's top pick to catch Paterno and Bobby Bowden's win numbers one day.

Meyer instantly tops the discussion of recent coaches who left the most potential on the table when they walked away from the game.

Rose Bowl: TCU 21, Wisconsin 19

Sure, Wisconsin fans can be disappointed in the game. But as Big Ten fans, I'm not sure we all can be. This was a great bowl game in a noticeably weaker bowl season and went back and fourth, until TCU finally pulled it out.

TCU made the strongest argument of the decade for "please give us a playoff system to truly decide a national champion." Wisconsin played their style of football and showed that they belonged in such as prestigious bowl game.

4. Sugar Bowl:

Ohio State 31, Arkansas 26

Arkansas' spring drills will include picking up and running with fumbles and praying for an NFL lockout.

That game had the distinct feeling of a comeback for the entire second half. It felt like Ohio State could do nothing to stop it, Arkansas was getting all the lucky bounces and calls from the officials. The defense was uncharacteristically perfect.

Then Ryan Mallett and the uncharacteristically sloppy offense couldn't quite seize the moment and win the game. The second half of this game was exactly like the second half of every Houston Texans game in the past two seasons.

For Terrelle Pryor, it was a great way to end a terrible holiday season full of controversy. The best part, you knew going into this game Ohio State wouldn't win unless they got some help from the five suspended players allowed to play in this game.

It turned out that those five suspended players were huge in the Buckeye's win.

Let the controversy on whether they should have been allowed to play begin.

Who was the real winner in all of this?

Jim Tressel. He tells the players they can't play in this year's bowl game unless they agree to come back next season. You knew Pryor wouldn't let the scandal be his final moment at OSU. He had to redeem himself for his fans and teammates. Tressel gets the performances from his star players to win the bowl game, and he gets all of them back for most of next season.

So Big Ten fans, continue to defend the conference against ridicule. If people bring up the Legends and Leaders divisions, just change the subject for now. And remember, MSU fans, March Madness isn't too far off, where giving up 49 points isn't so bad.

Let's just hope the hoops team can score more than seven.