[NU Sports] Big Ten bias ...

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Interesting to look at this week's rankings ...

* Unbeaten Iowa, with the nation's second-longest win streak and road wins in State College and Madison, is #7 in the AP, #8 in the coaches poll. Behind Cincinnati, Boise State and - in the coaches poll - TCU. Their most impressive wins combined are Oregon (at home) and South Florida on the road. In the words of the ESPN Monday Night crew, c'mon man!

* Notre Dame is #26 in the AP poll, #30 in the coaches thanks to NBC's hype of their epic game vs. SC and their coach's whining last week. They have the SAME RECORD as Michigan and LOST TO Michigan. Yet, the Wolverines are #30 in the AP and #35 in the coaches.

* Penn State is struggling to crack the top 10 and Ohio State is struggling to stay in the top 20, while Wisconsin is struggling to even receive votes.

This is why NU and other Big Ten fans need to get behind the idea of cheering for our league in non-conference games. The league now has less respect than the Big East, ACC or Notre friggin' Dame in the eyes of the national pollsters and it's a load of BS since the polls are 2/3 of the B(C)S. It hurts us in BCS revenue and hurts teams like NU and Indiana, who might be left out of a bowl if we can't get two BCS teams.

There's a lot of season left, but it's not looking good for the league in terms of getting respect -- close games with OSU vs. SC, Purdue at Oregon, MSU at Notre Dame, etc. don't get it done. We need big wins in September for the league and then we can beat each other up in October and November -- it's better for all of us. The SEC knows how to work the polls and the Big XII has done a good job recently of lobbying (Kansas hardly drops after a loss to Colorado???) - the Big Ten needs to start doing the same.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!