Big Ten is Back!

Okay, so what else did I do on Tuesday night? After posting the entry below, I wandered into the living room to watch the Orange Bowl on the DVR, having successfully avoided seeing the result all night at the casino and elsewhere!

WOW! I won't make any crazy statements that overestimate the Big Ten's performance in the bowls this year, but I will say with 100% certainty that the Big Ten is back and competitive with any other conference out there! The three losses suffered by the Big Ten this year were definitely overshadowed by the four wins. Wisconsin looked very good against Miami, but the ACC was down this year, so there was still a lot to be seen. Minnesota was disappointing in their one point loss, but Northwestern pretty much shocked the nation in their 3 pt. (or one yard) loss to the SEC's Auburn. Penn State took care of LSU, who many argued should have been in a BCS bowl if not for the rules of not allowing more than two in. Of course the Buckeyes were extremely impressive against the best the PAC-10 had to offer (did I see the stats right....41 minutes of time possession???). And then the Hawkeyes, who finished SECOND in the Big Ten and needed to get in at-large controlled Georgia Tech Tuesday, only allowing 7 offensive points for the game! The only bad loss was Michigan State, who had suspended half their damn team.

For some reason though, I keep thinking back to the Northwestern game. Remember, we're talking about the perenial doormat of the conference all of the "experts" keep saying is the weakest in the country. Say is again....Northwestern almost beat the SEC's Auburn!!! It's kind of surreal, isn't it?

At any rate, it almost seemed like the Big Ten entered the bowl season this year on a mission. Only the SEC can possibly boast of two BCS wins this year if Alabama pulls off the championship. As of tonight, I'm very proud of the hard-nosed play by the midwesterners this year and expect it to show in the preseason polls for next year!

A couple other observations from the bowls. First, I'm not too happy with whoever decided that Boise St. and TCU should play each other in the Fiesta Bowl. It's almost as if the BCS committees were tired of seeing 2nd-tier conference teams beat up on the big boys every year. So they made sure it wouldn't happen again this year by pitting them against each other. The Fiesta Bowl WAS a terrific game, but I would have preferred to see something like a Boise St./Florida Sugar Bowl and a TCU/Iowa or Cincy Orange Bowl....something along those lines. Oh well, I'm just glad I got to see so many of them this year.