Big Ten (again) - Why the SEC, Pac 10, and Big 12 just don't get it.

Firstly, I'd like to say that the SEC, Pac 10, and Big 12 have good football teams. In the case of the Pac 10, just one good football team. I had to get that out of the way that I can appreciate the good teams in those conferences despite their weaknesses (which I will explain). I want to give credit where credit is due, and my point isn't to bash those conferences. They really do have some good football teams, and I am not trying to take that away from them, but what I would like to do is clear up some confusion that they have because, as I said before, they just don't get it.

The new, cool, hip, trendy thing to do in college football anymore is to adopt the spread offense/west coast offense (or some combination thereof). The Big Ten is the kind of conference that bucks the trend and there is a good reason for that.

To answer that question, I will simultaneously explain the answer to those Big Ten haters out there who think that Big Ten football is second rate. I extend a scenario to you:

-It's January.
-Your team is in the BCS national championship game.
-The game is being played in (choose from: Columbus, Ann Arbor, Madison).
-The temperature is well below freezing.
-It is snowing steadily.

What kind of offensive scheme would you use?

If you can't answer the question for yourself, I'll help you out. How well would your SEC, Big 12, or Pac 10 team do if their bowl game were played in freezing temperatures and snow in January somewhere up north... or Big Ten country? Say goodbye to those silly bowl statistics about your conference outplaying the Big Ten and the comparative bowl records. It wouldn't even be a contest. You don't see more spread offenses in the Big Ten because they don't work as well in cold weather and snow which is what happens as you get further into the Big Ten schedule.

That poses a big problem for Big Ten teams. That means that we are more likely to lose to Michigan (if you know anything about OSU, you know we'd rather lose all of the rest of the games in the season and beat Michigan than win all of the games except the Michigan one). That means that we would play poorly from late October through the end of the year if we adopted the spread offense, which is often the most critical time of the season to play well.

They have the bowl games hosted at warm weather sites for one reason-money. They make more money, attract more fans, and attract more advertising revenue by having the games played in warm weather cities. It's just a business decision.

Now, I realize that my scenario is hypothetical, but your precious SEC, Big 12, and Pac 10 teams would have to learn a thing or two about running the ball, holding onto the ball, getting physical, game clock management, and field position. Soon enough, Michigan will chase out Rich Rodriguez. It's going to take a couple more years, but once they realize that they are putting the Michigan v. OSU game in jeopardy every year for this new and hot-for-15-minutes coach, they will fire him. It's the last game of the year before the bowl... something Michigan won't see this year. No program in the Big Ten can afford to sacrifice such an important game each year.

Now, the spread offense has its merits. The spread offense can exploit a slow defense, and it can wear down a defense by tiring them out, but as the weather grows colder and the elements come into play (rain, snow, sleet, etc), it loses effectiveness and sheer size, strength, and power wins football games.

That's just going to be a difference between the conferences. Different weather conditions, different fields (turf/grass), and different stadiums (indoor/outdoor) will heavily influence the offensive style of our teams.

The most frustrating part of my scenario is that the Buckeyes (and all other Big Ten teams for that matter) finish out their season with their Big Ten opponents. So on the off-chance that we are able to schedule games against these opponents from other conferences, they do not get the chance to play the Buckeyes in the weather through which the Big Ten plays builds its teams around.

I just want to close by saying that if we turned the tables (and had bowl games played up North in January), you'd see a lot more programs abondoning the spread offense... or at least for their bowl games. The classic i-formation and running-biased offenses would dominate, and we would really see what happens to these "faster", lighter, weaker defenses when they face the power run game in cold weather. Let's just say that it wouldn't be pretty.

Random thoughts on the Big Ten this year

So we're about half-way through the football season, and I think that we can all say that we're surprised (as usual) at what's happened so far this year. That's a big part about why we all love college football so much.

Anyway, I'll spare you the recap details. What I really want to talk about today is the Big Ten conference (and the Buckeyes, of course). First, some random observations:

• Javon Ringer looks like a beast. He is currently my pick for the Heisman trophy. Here is a guy who is averaging something like 160 yards per game and 2 touchdowns per game through the first 7 games of the year. If the voting for the Heisman took place today, he is my runaway pick. He is consistent, and he is a work-horse back there for the Michigan State Spartans. Why is he barely even being mentioned during the press' early Heisman trophy talks? If that's not a hardcore anti-Big Ten bias, I don't know what is. If Javon Ringer were putting up those numbers at USC, LSU, or Florida, you can bet your paycheck that you would be hearing his name all over ESPN, FSN, and the sports world blogs. With that being said, I think that this weekend is a much scarier matchup for the Buckeyes than most might think. We're playing at Michigan State and Javon Ringer has not skipped a beat all year. Here's hoping that the Bucks knock him out of Heisman contention.
• Penn State. Just writing that scared me a little bit. Penn State looks like the best team in the Big Ten right now. Notice that looks is the key word in that sentence. The best team in the Big Ten is The Ohio State University Buckeyes. But back to PSU. I think the Buckeyes will have its hands full against MSU and PSU. These will be extremely close games, and I think that winning them will require us to play turnover-free (or near turnover-free) football and a strong kicking game (both punting and field goals). We will need to win the field position battle which I think that we can do. PSU does not look weak on either side of the football. On offense, their Spread HD works like the posi-track rear end on a Plymouth... it just does. On defense, they're not making headlines, but they are playing very well. They don't seem to miss many tackles (a rarity these days), and they have held their opponents even when they haven't needed to... which is a lot. The Nittany Lions are putting points on the board, and you typically see defenses which loosen up a bit when that happens, but for the most part, they aren't giving away much.
• The Ohio State Buckeyes have this weird tendency to play to their competition's level (except for a certain game against a certain team that shall remain unnamed). I think that our offense has looked somewhat anemic lately, but my gut tells me that the Buckeyes are just doing what it takes to get it done and nothing more. Obviously, we'll have to wait and see, but I wouldn't be surprised to see us squeeze out a couple of close victories against MSU and PSU in the coming weeks. I am also hoping for the rankings to shake up a lot like they did last year. As good as USC looks, I'd really like to see the Buckeyes get another shot at the Trojans (with a healthy Wells and Pryor at the QB reins) whether it's in the National Championship game or not.
  

Do you remember the Pledge of Allegiance?

It's funny, but we (most of us) started off our days for years by saying the Pledge of Allegiance before/after morning announcements at school. While we were still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (yeah right), we were supposed to profess our oath to our country.

Recently, I ran across this saying that someone from a news forum had in their signature (and I'm pretty sure that they didn't come up with this, so I won't even bother giving them credit). I don't consider it political, but I just thought that it was funny enough to share with everyone:

I plead collusion to the fraud of the United Socialist States of Amnesia and to the recession for which it stands, one Notion under Debt, unforgiveable, with sub-primes and bailouts for All.

What are your thoughts on this?

Stay Tuned...

I will be updating this blog soon. I have all kinds of stuff that I want to share with you. Everything from:

-More thoughts on OSU Football
-My hilarious Italian Festival charicature (I will scan it and post it too!)
-Reusable grocery bags
And much, much more!

(Yeah, I love reusable grocery bags that much that I'll write a whole blog entry about them! Now you know how boring my blog is.)

I'll delete this stupid temporary post soon and give you something worthwhile. Thank you for reading!

My Blog - Where is the dedication?

I would like to start with a sincere apology for my lack of dedication. I should be apologizing to myself, but I noticed something really surprising. Someone actually mentioned that they have been checking my blog regularly for updates, and that they were disappointed that I hadn't done so recently because they enjoyed it. *ahem, Nate, ahem*

Well, thank you, whoever you are that actually cares to read what I've typed. It's both flattering and inspiring... enough so that I am actually updating my blog with a new entry specifically because of their motivating flattery.

For now, I just had to get that out there. I hope that whoever reads this finds some redeeming value in it; whether it's keeping up on my life, keeping up on random events, or keeping up on random blurbs that I just have to share with someone.

This is my way of saying thanks, and I hope that if you have any inkling to start a blog of your own, that you'll do so because chances are, I'm interested in what you have to say too. You wouldn't be my friends if I didn't care to know.