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.