"The State of The Big Ten"

The BCS standings recently came out and there were two opinions on the subject.  The first one was that Penn State(from Penn State/Big Ten fans) got screwed out of one of the top two spots and the second, from every college football sports reporter.  Who referenced last year as the polls are going to change one zillion times before the Championship Game rolls around, so Penn State will still get their chance to kick Paterno out the door with a parting gift.  I agree that both of these groups are correct. 

Penn State is undefeated and was 3rd in the polls.  Texas Tech was 7th before running out to an early lead, blowing the lead, and literally scoring a last second touchdown to win the game. But that’s not the point.  The point I want to make is that, there is no reason Penn State should be in this subject to begin with.  Being from the Midwest myself, I was fan of all the great Midwest teams.  Watching Michigan, Penn State, Notre Dame and Nebraska win National Championships was exhilarating.  Those times have certainly changed.  With the spread offense being run at almost every level, football has evolved.  The athletes at the specialty positions win games. 

No longer is the game played between the hash marks or is there a "pound the football" down their throat mentality.  We found that out with the demise of the floundering Notre Dames and Nebraskas, who used to run the option offense until their teams, could no longer score anymore. Both of those teams have since tried to spread the offence around and are now mediocre teams trying to get back into the top 25.   All the big time athletes go and play in warm weather or come from warm weather states where football is a religion and until then the Big Ten teams figure out a way to counter this, they will continue to flounder and beat up on themselves. 

In, no way, shape or form should any team from the Big Ten be allowed to play a southern school in a Championship game.  It's embarrassing.  I'm talking to you Ohio State.  They get run off the field every time because every Championship game is played in a dome or in warm weather.  The way it is now, the WAC should be getting an automatic birth to BCS games before the Big Ten and all of the schools playing in cold weather are embarrassing themselves and ruining the best bowl games for college football.