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	Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany remains optimistic about next season.

His league has taken a beating on and off the field in recent weeks, and many are questioning the Big Ten's relevancy in college football. But league commissioner Jim Delany remains resilient, albeit realistic, about the recent struggles. The Big Ten went 1-6 in bowls this year, arguably the league's worst postseason performance ever. It extended the Big Ten's losing streak in BCS games to six.

Nine years have passed since the Big Ten won a Rose Bowl, and the league hasn't posted a winning postseason since 2002. I caught up with Delany on Friday to discuss the league's bowl performance and the future.

Obviously the Big Ten's record wasn't good, but how did you feel coming out of this postseason?

Jim Delany: I would rather have gone 6-1, but that's not what the predictors said we would be. I was optimistic going in. I thought we'd win more than we'd lost, but we did not, so it was disappointing. The margins in some cases were not good. In other cases, the games were more competitive. I've given it a lot of thought. I'm not sure I've arrived at any particular conclusions, other than we're playing elite teams. Certainly Southern Cal was playing at another level. That was clear to me. While Penn State got their way back into the game, [USC] really had their way by the half. I'd seen them play earlier against Ohio State and I saw them play last year [in the Rose Bowl] against Illinois. They're very good. They've got great athletes, they're well coached and they play at a level. We don't have a team that's playing at that level at this juncture. We just don't.

How do you think Big Ten teams competed in all the games?

JD: I saw the Michigan State-Georgia game and I saw the Missouri game, I saw the Ohio State game and I saw the Iowa game. Those games were more competitive. One we won and the other ones, we were definitely in the games. Obviously, our goal is to compete at the highest level. When you don't, you have to look internally. That's a football coach's role, to see exactly what needs to be done. We've got great coaches. I would say we have, probably more than people realize, five or six programs that are in the building stages. I don't think you can say anything other than that about Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Illinois and now probably Purdue and Indiana. So to be fair, a program that has got a coach in Year 1, 2 or 3, is different than a program that is in Year 5, 6, 7 or 8. So that has an effect, but that doesn't speak really to the issue. The last four or five years, we've played USC four or five times. We've gotten blown out a couple of times, we were competitive a couple of times, but we haven't been able to beat them. So clearly a better program. And while LSU and Florida got us on championship day, we've gotten them in other bowl games. Michigan got Florida last year and Iowa got LSU. So I'm not despondent about our ability to compete. But I think at the very highest level the last three or four years, we have not had a team. When Florida, LSU and Southern Cal have had championship teams, to me they have been the crème de la crème in terms of coaches, athletes, et cetera.

So when you're going through this and trying to figure out why it's been like this, do you pinpoint quality of athletes, recruiting, anything like that?

JD: Well, I'm not an NFL scout. It's great for people to speculate. I look at the NFL rosters, and they're filled with guys like Drew Brees and Tom Brady, lots of great players from all of these conferences. So I don't know. If you were looking at any factor, I would think that overall, I'm not sure anybody plays up as much as we do. And we're not playing in our backyard, that's for sure.

I get that from fans all the time, and I'm sure you do, too. But the bowl locations aren't going to change. We're not going to have bowls in Chicago and Minneapolis.

JD: That's why it's not worth mentioning. That's the way it's been historically and I presume, as long as the bowl system survives, that's the way it'll be. And so if you're going to be at the top, you're going to have to beat the best in their region, not in your region.

Does having to play USC in the Rose Bowl every year, in your signature game, hurt the Big Ten's perception more than other games?

JD: I don't know. We lost five in a row, but we won six of seven before that. The way I was always raised is that you compete against the best. If you're a player, you go to the best school you can go to. You don't transfer after one year for sitting on the bench. You compete and become as good as you can become. Then you go out and play the best teams you can play. Then you find out where you are. Then you go out and you try to make changes and adjustments to your game to try and get better. But where we are is, if you win, that's a wonderful thing, and if you don't, then somehow, something is wrong. Well, I would say you do have cycles. I've seen them happen to us. I've seen them happen to others. And I just think we're in a window where success and failure is judged quickly. It's taken apart and dissected. And I think our coaches do the same thing. They feel the pressure to perform. They don't have tenure.

The cyclical thing, history has certainly supported that argument. I just wonder if it's risky to put it on that. The game is changing, recruiting is changing.

JD: Well, you look at [offensive coordinator] Kevin Wilson at Oklahoma. Kevin was doing his thing at Northwestern before it ever got to Oklahoma. And Joe Tiller was doing his thing at Purdue before it was being done at Oklahoma. And Rich [Rodriguez] is doing his thing. And Galen Hall is spreading the field at Penn State. So it can be overdone. Kirk [Ferentz] rode his running back to a pretty convincing win. You play really high-quality teams. No disrespect to anybody who's not playing two or three SEC teams or two or three Big 12 teams or [USC]. But that's all we play.

Well, you talked about how five or six teams are in the building phase. Would the league be better off with an easier bowl lineup?

JD: You can't change, though. You can't change to say, 'Well, we're in the building stage, so we're not going to play the Pac-10 at the Rose Bowl. We're in the building stage so we're not going to send someone up to the BCS.' You don't have those choices. What you do is you have a philosophy of scheduling. Our philosophy of scheduling has been, 'The Rose Bowl is the most important relationship we have.' Maybe if USC had gone to more [BCS] championship games, we would have played Cal more often. Or maybe we would have played Arizona State. I don't know. But the fact of it is they've been there when we've been there, and they've been a terrific opponent. We haven't been able to beat them. But that doesn't mean you stop playing them. I don't know what choices you have. The SEC's had a very good ride in the last four or five years. We're playing their teams. The Big 12 was good. Missouri was in and around [No. 1], Texas was in and around [No. 1], Kansas was highly regarded. That's who we're playing. If you're a competitor and you compete against the best and you do your best and you get whipped, you go home, you practice, you get stronger, you recruit harder and you go out and play them. I'm resilient as a fan, I'm resilient as the commissioner, I was resilient as a competitor. I respect the people that have won. I dropped a note to [SEC commissioner Mike Slive]. They've had a BCS hat trick. It's fabulous. His teams have done well and his coaches have coached well, his players have played well. That is what it is. We haven't won in the Rose Bowl in five years. That is what it is. So what do you do? You go back and you work harder and you play harder. That's the nature of competition.

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Don’t miss the awards show tonight (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET). I’m guessing the Big Ten takes home some hardware. 

Time to read up. 

• College football’s love affair with quarterbacks and the spread offense has made it nearly impossible for elite running backs like Ohio State’s Chris “Beanie” Wells — or Iowa’s Shonn Green, for that matter — to take home the Heisman Trophy, Doug Lesmerises writes in The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Big backs have struggled to get in the Heisman mix since Ron Dayne. 

“The Heisman campaign of Ohio State running back Beanie Wells didn’t end when he hurt his right foot in the second half of the season opener against Youngstown State. It ended when quarterbacks at Oklahoma, Texas and Florida lined up under center and put defenses under attack. When it comes to the Heisman these days, you’ve got to throw for show. That’s why anointing Wells as the preseason favorite, which was a popular opinion that I shared, was faulty logic from the start. “Genial quarterback with mind-blowing numbers for successful team” was the real favorite all along.”

• Delaware might be Pat Devlin’s next stop after deciding to transfer from Penn State, Don McKee writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Seemed to work out well for that Flacco guy. 
• Finding a replacement for offensive coordinator Mike Locksley is only one of several key decisions facing Illinois head coach Ron Zook this offseason, Loren Tate writes in The (Champaign) News-Gazette. Illinois will host Northern Illinois in September 2010, Terry Bannon writes in the Chicago Tribune. 
• Hard-hitting Wisconsin safety Jay Valai has become a YouTube sensation, Tom Mulhern writes in the Wisconsin State Journal. 
• Shonn Greene’s name made it onto the Heisman ballots of two voters, Mike Hlas and Marc Morehouse of The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette.
• SEC teams are making a push for offensive lineman William Campbell, a Detroit native who still has Michigan in the mix, Sam Webb writes in The Detroit News. 

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It’s time to play “Who’s the biggest Homer?”

Here is the actual final poll, so you can see how the teams ended up, and then compare how some esteemed and knowledgeable coaches voted versus their brethren.

1. Oklahoma

2. Florida

3. Texas

4. Alabama/USC (tie)

6. Penn State

7. Utah

8. Texas tech

9. Boise State

10. Ohio State

11. TCU

12. Cincy

13. Oregon

14. Oklahoma State

15. Georgia Tech

16. BYU

17. Georgia

18. Michigan State

19. Va Tech

20. Northwestern

21. Pitt

22. Ball State

23. Mizzou

24. Ole Miss

25. Oregon State

First up is Urban Meyer, coach of the Florida Gators. Just how unbiased was he?

He voted Florida No. 1, Alabama No. 3, Utah (his former team) No. 4, USC No. 6, BYU No. 20, Georgia No. 21, and the biggie, Ole Miss No. 12.

Let’s see now, Ole Miss beat Florida. Bada bing. They must be great, right? BYU is his former team’s nemesis while Georgia is his current nemesis, so there’s no bias whatsoever in giving them the shaft, now is there? 

Our second coach needs no introduction when it comes to hating other conferences. Howard Schnellenberger, coach of the Florida Atlantic Owls, hates the Pac-10. Don’t believe me? Check out his votes: USC No. 8, Oregon No. 19, and he didn’t place Oregon State in the top 25. Yes, Howard, you deserve the booby price for the second straight year (Last year his venom was directed at the Florida Gators).

Our third coach is Bobby Bowden, who truly has shown how sharp his brain is this year. Dadgummit Bobby, either retire or shape up. Oklahoma State got a No. 18 from him, and Michigan State got a No. 13. Did he actually confuse these two teams? It looks like it.

Todd Dodge, coach at North Texas, voted Ball State, the loser to Buffalo in the MAC Championship, No. 15. Let that one sink in.

Dan Hawkins, Colorado’s coach, voted Mizzou at No. 16, Oklahoma No. 1  and Texas No. 2. He just loves the Big 12, doesn’t he?

Mike Leach voted Texas Tech at No. 2. Surprised, anyone?

Pat Hill, Fresno State’s coach, must not have had his coffee when he casted his votes: Boise State No. 6, Ball State No. 17, and Va. Tech No. 12.

Then there’s our lovable Les Miles, who has preached about the tough path of the SEC and its opponents. How did he vote? Like a good ‘ol Southern boy. Florida No. 1, Alabama No. 4, Oregon No. 17 (hate the Pac-10, Les?), Georgia Tech (ACC) No. 12, Georgia No. 13, and Ole Miss No. 14. Surprised Vandy and South Carolina aren’t in there? They may be- there is one team he voted for that didn’t make the top 25. Could it be LSU?

Mark Richt, Georgia’s coach, has also expressed his fondness for the SEC, just like Coach Miles. He ranked Florida No. 1, Alabama No. 2, and Ole Miss No. 20. How does a second place SEC team get ranked ahead of a Big 12 conference champ?

Funny, there are some teams he voted for that didn’t make the top 25- can we guess who they are? (I’ll put ten bucks on South Carolina, LSU and Auburn) If you want to know how five SEC teams were ranked in the top ten at one point, now you know.

Then there are coaches like UCF’s George O’Leary, whose hatred towards one particular conference is pretty evident. O’ Leary’s wrath this year is aimed at the Big Ten- he voted Michigan State No. 25, Northwestern No. 24, and Penn State No. 9.

But he’s not the only one who hates the Big Ten. Chris Petersen (Boise State) voted Penn State at No. 10, Boise State No. 7, and Michigan State No. 23. Ouch.

Gary Pinkel of Missouri placed Oklahoma No. 1, Texas No. 2, Texas Tech No. 6,  Oklahoma State No. 11, and Mizzou No. 18.

Tyrone Willingham voted Mizzou No. 11. How does a four-loss team that got smoked by Texas and Oklahoma get a No. 11 ranking? The other questionable vote by a Pac-10 coach was Rick Neuheisel’s ranking of Oregon State at No. 17, and Texas No. 1.

So which coaches were the most biased? Who gets the Homer Awards this year?

You have to give it to Gary Pinkel (Missouri) for his blatant bias towards the Big 12, Les Miles, Urban Meyer and Mark Richt for their SEC bias, and George O’ Leary for his hate on the Big Ten. Their motto should be, “Individually, we are strong. Together we are stronger.”

The polls are pretty disheartening, and sometimes we don’t understand why they are so skewed. By making the polls public, a fan can now see that polls don’t work. Some coaches were very fair in ranking the teams, while others used it as a platform to give their conference a boost. Disgusted yet?

Ready to scream for playoffs? Can we ditch the coaches poll?

coaches poll: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2008-12-08-final-coaches-ballots_N.htm

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An earlier post today explored the pros and cons of the Big Ten ending its regular season so early. Well, here’s another con.

While Big Ten football sits on the sidelines, the nation gets a chance every year to poke fun at Big Ten basketball during the first week of December in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Though the Big Ten is holding its own this year (3-3 entering tonight’s matchups), don’t be surprised if the Challenge becomes yet another Big Ten beat-down (North Carolina = scary good).

Jim Polzin, who does a great job covering Wisconsin football for The Capital Times, brings up the idea of an ACC-Big Ten football challenge in his blog today. Polzin matches up the teams according to the Sagarin ratings, which love the ACC and hate the Big Ten, and his calculations have the ACC winning 7-4 in neutral-site contests. 

Here are the pairings:

• Penn State (11-1 record; Sagarin No. 7) beats Boston College (9-3; Sagarin No. 14)
• Ohio State (10-2; Sagarin No. 10) beats Florida State (9-3; Sagarin No. 15)
• Iowa (8-4; Sagarin No. 24) beats Georgia Tech (9-3; Sagarin No. 17)
• Michigan State (9-3; Sagarin No. 29) beats Clemson (7-5; Sagarin No. 19)
• North Carolina (8-4; Sagarin No. 23) beats Northwestern (9-3; Sagarin No. 39)
• Virginia Tech (8-4; Sagarin No. 27) beats Wisconsin (7-5; Sagarin No. 49)
• Wake Forest (7-5; Sagarin No. 31) beats Illinois (5-7; Sagarin No. 58)
• Miami (7-5; Sagarin No. 32) beats Minnesota (7-5; Sagarin No. 66)
• Virginia (5-7; Sagarin No. 44) beats Purdue (4-8; Sagarin No. 73)
• N.C. State (6-6; Sagarin No. 45) beats Michigan (3-9; Sagarin No. 90)
• Maryland (7-5; Sagarin No. 47) beats Indiana (3-9; Sagarin No. 116)

I think the results would be a little more even if these games actually took place. The Big Ten is a league with two very good teams (Penn State, Ohio State), some solid teams and three bad teams (Indiana, Purdue, Michigan). The ACC has achieved incredible parity this season with no great teams but no real bad ones either. 

I highly doubt Northwestern, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota all would lose their ACC Challenge matchups, but the ACC’s lack of bad teams likely would give it the edge. 

A series like this seems highly unlikely in football, but the Big Ten would definitely fare better against the ACC on the gridiron than it does on the hardcourt. It probably wouldn’t hurt the Big Ten to have more bowl tie-ins with the ACC and Big East instead of Big 12 and SEC teams that often play the bowls in their backyards. 

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An earlier post today explored the pros and cons of the Big Ten ending its regular season so early. Well, here’s another con.

While Big Ten football sits on the sidelines, the nation gets a chance every year to poke fun at Big Ten basketball during the first week of December in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Though the Big Ten is holding its own this year (3-3 entering tonight’s matchups), don’t be surprised if the Challenge becomes yet another Big Ten beat-down (North Carolina = scary good).

Jim Polzin, who does a great job covering Wisconsin football for The Capital Times, brings up the idea of an ACC-Big Ten football challenge in his blog today. Polzin matches up the teams according to the Sagarin ratings, which love the ACC and hate the Big Ten, and his calculations have the ACC winning 7-4 in neutral-site contests. 

Here are the pairings:

Penn State (11-1 record; Sagarin No. 7) beats Boston College (9-3; Sagarin No. 14)

Ohio State (10-2; Sagarin No. 10) beats Florida State (9-3; Sagarin No. 15)

Iowa (8-4; Sagarin No. 24) beats Georgia Tech (9-3; Sagarin No. 17)

Michigan State (9-3; Sagarin No. 29) beats Clemson (7-5; Sagarin No. 19)

North Carolina (8-4; Sagarin No. 23) beats Northwestern (9-3; Sagarin No. 39)

Virginia Tech (8-4; Sagarin No. 27) beats Wisconsin (7-5; Sagarin No. 49)

Wake Forest (7-5; Sagarin No. 31) beats Illinois (5-7; Sagarin No. 58)

Miami (7-5; Sagarin No. 32) beats Minnesota (7-5; Sagarin No. 66)

Virginia (5-7; Sagarin No. 44) beats Purdue (4-8; Sagarin No. 73)

N.C. State (6-6; Sagarin No. 45) beats Michigan (3-9; Sagarin No. 90)

Maryland (7-5; Sagarin No. 47) beats Indiana (3-9; Sagarin No. 116)

I think the results would be a little more even if these games actually took place. The Big Ten is a league with two very good teams (Penn State, Ohio State), some solid teams and three bad teams (Indiana, Purdue, Michigan). The ACC has achieved incredible parity this season with no great teams but no real bad ones either. 

I highly doubt Northwestern, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota all would lose their ACC Challenge matchups, but the ACC’s lack of bad teams likely would give it the edge. 

A series like this seems highly unlikely in football, but the Big Ten would definitely fare better against the ACC on the gridiron than it does on the hardcourt. It probably wouldn’t hurt the Big Ten to have more bowl tie-ins with the ACC and Big East instead of Big 12 and SEC teams that often play the bowls in their backyards. 

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   It is sometimes easy for some fans to hit the panic button when things aren’t going well. For a program such as Michigan to go 3-9 is absolutely unheard of. Michigan had the longest streak going for most consecutive seasons in making a bowl game, If anyone deserves to have a down year, it is Michigan. So as a buckeye fan, I am not so naive to believe that Michigan football will not be making a return to its past glory. And in my opinion, I think it will be sooner than everyone thinks.

  One good thing going for my beloved Buckeyes is we are not in a rebuilding stage. We have a year of experience now with Terrelle Pryor, and a talent like that doesn’t come around very often. We will be set for a few more years with him at the helm. The Michigan-Ohio State rivalry will only get more interesting. Especially, with Justin Boren coming into the mix next season.

  In order to restore credibility to the Big Ten, we need our teams to represent us well in the Bowl games. I am rooting for Penn State to have a good showing in our only BCS bowl game this year, most likely playing against USC in the Rose bowl. I also think Ohio State will end up getting a chance to once again play an SEC school. In the beginning, most experts predicted it would be Ohio State vs Georgia for the National Championship game. Now it will most likely be these two playing in the Capital One bowl. So, OSU seniors will once again get their shot at beating the supposed best of the best conferences.

   I must admit the Big Ten is no doubt weaker than years past, but it shouldn’t be discredited. I think our teams can play against anybody on any given Saturday. However, to a certain degree, I am glad our best Big Ten school will not be on the National stage in the Championship game. Due to the fact, I don’t think that  Penn State could hang with Florida. I know I might get a lot of flack for saying this, but let’s be real, Florida’s talent right now is sick. I think Alabama is going to get a healthy dose of speed in the SEC Championship game against Florida, and I don’t think it will be pretty. However, they will still stay high enough in the polls for a BCS Bowl game. This would set up the Ohio State vs Georgia showdown. 

   I am greatly looking forward to watching how these next few weeks of Conference championships will shake up the BCS polls. I think Ohio State still has a shot at a BCS bowl; however, it is more probable they will be on the outside looking in. We will wait and see how this all plays out, as we almost every year go through this same drama coming down the final stretch. That is why I love college football, you never know what is going to happen until it happens. Hopefully, Ohio State will get a BCS bowl, but if not, we got what we earned.

So, let’s get to work on painting the bowl picture for the Buckeyes.  First, remember that there are 10 possible slots for the BCS bowl games.  Six of these spots will be filled by conference champions, leaving four potential openings for the Buckeyes.  Since Utah finished the season undefeated, they have essentially clinched one of these four spots.  This leaves Ohio State, USC, the loser of the SEC Championship game, and one of the three Big 12 South teams fighting for three bowl spots.

Now, if everything goes according to plan (meaning that all of the teams in the BCS mix continue to win), then in all likelihood Ohio State will be the odd man out.  After all, it’s been a foregone conclusion that there will be two Big 12 and SEC teams in the BCS, and since Ohio State decided to embarass themselves on national TV against USC last September, there’s no chance that the Buckeyes would be picked to go to a bowl ahead of the Trojans.

Luckily for us, nothing ever goes according to plan in college football, meaning that Ohio State still has an excellent shot of going to the Fiesta or Sugar Bowls.  Any of the following should guarantee Ohio State a BCS bid, in order from most likely to happen to least likely to happen:

1.  Oregon State loses to Oregon next week.  If the Beavers fall to the Ducks next week, they will be eliminated from the BCS discussion, and USC will receive the automatic PAC-10 bid, meaning that instead of four teams fighting for three open at-large bids, each team will find a way in.

2. Florida loses to Florida State next week, then again to Alabama in the SEC Championship.  Two straight Gator losses to end the season would not only leave a terrible taste in the mouths of voters across the country, but it would also give the Gators a total of three losses on the season, whereas every other team competing for a slot would have zero, one, or two losses.  Alabama could potentially be eliminated with two consecutive losses as well, but the BCS selection committe would probably be much more willing to put in a 2-loss SEC team over a 2-loss Big 10 team.

3. USC loses two in a row.  Very unlikely to happen, considering the Trojans have games against Notre Dame and UCLA to finish the season.  If USC only loses one of its next two games, OSU still has a slim chance to receive the benefit of the doubt of the selection committe since they finished the season on such a high note and their two most productive offensive players hardly played (or didn’t play at all) against the Trojans, but it is doubtful.

4. The men behind the BCS come to their senses and issue a radical new rule change that states that if every single team in one (or two, in this case) of the six major conferences absolutely blows, then the conference champion does not deserve an automatic BCS Bid.  This will not happen, mainly because the season is almost over, but also because it just makes too much sense for college football to do it.  Chances are good that Ohio State will be left out of one of the “Big 5″ bowls, despite the fact that the general consensus is that they are better than at least three of the teams (ACC Champ, Big Least Champ, and Utah) that do get bids.

So, Buckeye fans, prepare to complain.  Because odds are, we’re going to get screwed and have to watch our team play in the Capital One Bowl on New Year’s day.  At least we can take solace in the fact that we’ll have a pretty good shot to take out an SEC team along the way.

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The following are updated through October 27, 2008:

1 BIG 12 (78.18)
2 BIG TEN (77.24)
3 ATLANTIC COAST (76.97)
4 SOUTHEASTERN (76.54)
5 PAC-10 (74.33)
6 BIG EAST (73.44)
7 MOUNTAIN WEST (70.27)
8 I-A INDEPENDENTS (67.33)
9 WESTERN ATHLETIC (65.57)
10 MID-AMERICAN (65.18)
11 CONFERENCE USA (63.31)
12 SUN BELT (61.11)

A find a couple facets of the current rankings rather fascinating:

- The SEC is the fourth best conference, top-to-bottom? Seriously? The SEC is 20-7 out-of-conference against DI-A teams this year. Granted, three of those seven losses are to the ACC, but… the ACC returned the favor in losing three to the SEC. Sagarin has three SEC teams in his top ten, but the ACC gets the slight nod when you contrast the middle and bottom of each conference, which makes sense when you consider that there are… like… forty-seven teams tied for first in the ACC.

- Is another non-BCS blowout in the offing? Cinderella teams from the WAC (Boise State), Mountain West (Utah, TCU), MAC (Ball State), and C-USA (Tulsa) are all looking to qualify into a BCS bowl this year. Sagarin’s ratings would seem to indicate that their resumes might be lacking if and when they get to the big stage.

- The BCS conferences are head-and-shoulders above the non-BCS conferences. The separation between the Big East and Mountain West is statically significant, and I don’t think we’ve seen any rankings that dispute that designation in the last four years.

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