In a world where perception matters most, Urban Meyer and the Ohio State Buckeyes of 2013-14 appear to be paying the price for the Big Ten’s mediocre past.
Unfair or fair, it is reality—and it has been that way for a while now.
How else do you explain a team that is 20-0, has the longest win streak in the country and yet isn’t considered by most pundits to be worthy of playing in the national championship?
The Big Ten’s past failings are unquestionably holding the best teams back on the national stage, and unfortunately it could be Ohio State’s turn to pay for the sins of the past in the Big Ten.
It doesn’t help when the biggest goals you set for yourself as a conference—getting to and winning the Rose Bowl, playing for national championships and winning bowl games—are all failures in recent memory.
That’s what happens when you go 1-9 in the last 10 Rose Bowl appearances as a conference.
That’s what happens when you haven’t had any of your teams win a national championship in a decade.
That’s what happens when the Big Ten goes just 47-59 in bowl games since the start of the BCS era in 1998.
It’s hard to get respect when all of those things are adding up around you, regardless of your own good track record.
Ohio State has a 6-3 record in BCS bowl games and is the last team to win a national title from the Big Ten.
Of course, the Buckeyes haven’t helped their own case much either as of late, losing BCS…
Continue Reading: Urban Meyer, Ohio State Paying the Price for Years of Big Ten Mediocrity
