Let's rewind to January 1st, 2011 when the Big Ten played in 5 bowl games and got smacked around in all of them including Michigan and Michigan St getting absolutely crushed. It was a complete embarassment. The B1G's national image, which was already on a steady decline, dropped off a cliff.
It has been 10 years since a B1G team claimed the top prize, and since that day when Ohio upset Miami the conference have very little national stage wins. Most teams have had a shot or two in the last 10 years, only to lose (most of the time it was a blow out). Now all we hear about is how good the SEC is, which in all fairness it is a completely different brand of football down there. But it wasn't too long ago that Michigan was putting more players into the NFL than almost any other college program.
This last season did very little to change people's opinions. Yes, Michigan State pulled out the game vs Georgia and Michiga won the Sugar Bowl, but we there is still a canyon separating the SEC from the B1G. Somehow the biggest programs in the conference got rocked by scandals and will take at least a year to recover (Penn St might be more like 5-10), while the SEC can continually "bend" rules to help their football programs. We had our chances, like any other year, and we failed to capitalize: Penn St at home vs Alabama, Wisconsin vs Oregon for the Rose Bowl, Nebraska vs South Carolina, Minnesota vs USC, Michigan's performance in the Sugar Bowl just made people say that both teams didnt deserve a BCS bid.
When will this turn around? What will it take? Next year MSU plays Boise St in a non-conference matchup. As much as I hate MSU, and I will likely be rooting for them to lose, they cannot lose this game at home vs the Broncos. Yes, Boise will likely be very good again, but State will still be better. We get to play Alabama to open the season. Since most years any loss in the non-conference schedule all but eliminates the football team from national championship conention, I was worried about this game when I first heard about it. But now, the B1G will need to continue to schedule games like this one to give us regular season chances to take down a national powerhouse. The conference can only gain respect again by winning these marquee matchups. There is a very good chance that we will lose next year, but in reality if we can find a way to keep it within single digits it will be a win for the conference. The B1G's reputation has been scarred so badly that just going undefeated in a season isnt good enough. A team needs to step up and not just go to a national championship game, but compete and win it.
Yes, the Pac12 has 2 good programs and a few decent teams. Eventually they might be able to win a championship. The Big12 has 1 good program and 1 in rebuild mode sure they could beat somebody in a bowl game. The ACC and Big East are jokes. So, it is left up to the B1G to end the SEC championship streak.
I still believe that the B1G is the 2nd best conference in America, it is just taking us a little while to get up to speed with the talent base. In the meantime, we will need to keep scheduling Alabama, USC, and other top programs. Next year it will likely be up to 3 B1G teams to make a difference in the national perception: MSU, Nebraska, and Michigan. MSU needs to beat Boise St and play well in another bowl game. Nebraska will likely play on a Jan 1st game again, probably against an SEC team. This time they cannot get mauled. Finally, Michigan will need to show that this year was not a fluke and go through their tough schedule without any bad losses. When they go to Dallas they will have to take Alabama to the limit, and they will have to take care of business in another bowl game.
While the B1G still has a long ways to go, this bowl season was not a complete joke. It will be at least another year until the conference can prove itself worthy of SEC respect.
At least we are not the ACC... ouch...
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