The Big Ten is an Embarrassment to All Humanity

Big Ten 2014:  Now with 100% more Rutgers!   My weekly post typically previews Kentucky's upcoming football game.  However, with the Cats headed into a bye week, that was not an option this time.  Despite this, and according to a strongly-worded letter from KSR's legal team, I am still contractually obligated to generate a post this week regardless of Kentucky's schedule.  (They can't make me write a good one, though.)  Without a Kentucky contest to focus on, we will take this opportunity to focus on college football's national scene.  Specifically, the roaring dumpster fire that is the Big Ten.   For those younger readers, you may be surprised to learn that the Big Ten was once a viable conference .  Ohio State and Michigan were both annual contenders for the national championship.  Teams like Iowa, Illinois and Michigan State were also respected national programs. Nebraska and Penn State, of course, have celebrated football traditions, but not so much since their inclusion into the Big Ten.  As strange as it seems under the current model of college football, the Big Ten was considered to provide the greatest college football product for a great deal of the 20th century.   Things began to unravel for the Big Ten about the time the BCS era began in 1998.  Of the sixteen year tenure of the BCS, the Big Ten produced only one national title, with 2002 Ohio State.  During the same time-period, the SEC produced nine BCS National Champions among five schools. Tennessee, LSU (twice), Florida (twice), Alabama (three times) and Auburn.  Not only did the Buckeyes produce the Conference's only BCS Champion, Ohio State is the only Big Ten school to even play for a title in the BCS era. Beyond college football's biggest prize, the Big Ten has struggled mightily in all post-season matchups.  The Big Ten has not produced a winning bowl record since 2009.  But as bad as things have been for the Big Ten during the reign of the BCS, it may have hit  rock bottom in the early portion of the 2014 season.   If the Big Ten is looking to write some sort of redemption story that Tom Rinaldi emotionally narrates over soft piano music on a very special Sportscenter segment, it is not off to a banner start in 2014.  Three weeks into the college football season, the Big Ten is a combined 1-10 against Power Five Conference opponents.  That lone win is courtesy of storied Big Ten program Rutgers, who slipped past Washington State in a clash of college football heavyweights 41-38. On the bright side, the Big Ten is 5-3 against the MAC this season.  Other impressive Big Ten efforts to begin the season include Indiana losing to Bowling Green, Iowa once again falling to Iowa State, TCU throttling Minnesota 30-7, Washington State hammering hapless Illinois 44-19, Virginia Tech ending Ohio State's National Championship hopes in week two with a 14 point upset win at the Horseshoe, and Michigan being shut out at Notre Dame 31-0.  Based on all of this wreckage, it has become clear very early in the college football season that the Big Ten is already out of contention for the inaugural college football playoff.   So what does any of this have to do with the Cats?  It is arguable that no school has benefited more in the last couple of years from the collapse of the Big Ten than Kentucky.  It has been well documented that much of Mark Stoops' recruiting success has been tied to raiding the fertile recruiting state of Ohio.  Of the 28 players signed in Stoops' historic 2014 recruiting class, 11 hailed from the Buckeye State.  That ratio is even a bit higher with Kentucky's current 2015 commits, with 6 of the 14 being Ohio kids.  To be fair, Kentucky has only occasional beaten out Ohio State for players, but the Cats have frequently beaten out fellow Big Ten schools like Michigan State, Nebraska and Illinois.  At the height of Big Ten power in the 1980's and early 1990's, these kids would not have come south to Kentucky.  The Wildcats are currently locked in a recruiting battle with Ohio State for superstar running back Damien Harris, and may lead for his services, a premise which would have seemed absurd a few years ago.  This battle would be much more slanted in the Buckeye direction if the Big Ten was still a formidable conference.   In short, the Big Ten is terrible, and that is good news for the Cats.  I apologize to my friends and family in Big Ten land.  As our friend John Short might say, you are fine Americans, and frankly you deserve a conference which provides half-way entertaining football and a conference name that is more mathematically precise.  So to leave those of you who support Big Ten schools with a positive feeling, here is a picture of Purdue's giant drum.  Enjoy!