[NU Sports] The Big Ten's delusion of self-importance

[Mike Nolan]

> Whether this ends up with more BT representation in national championship 
> games, I don't know.  It should result in continued BT dominance of the 
> BCS and bowl landscape in terms of money flowing into the conference.  

My concern all along has been that having a conference championship game
actually seemed to cost the Big XII some BCS slots over the years when the 
higher ranked team lost.  

The Big Ten already has a reputation for taking itself out of the national 
championship picture every year during conference play due to team A beating 
team B which then beats team C which in turn defeats team A, or due to
an upset late in the season.  

I'm not sure that will change with Nebraska in the mix, if anything we
may be more likely to see a pair of one or two loss teams in the Big Ten 
championship game most years.  

Another factor here is how the non-AQ conferences lobby for more slots
to be allocated to them.  (I expect that lobbying effort to take place 
largely in Washington DC.)

That may wind up costing the 6 BCS conferences another at-large team slot 
each year, and the Big Ten has definitely benefited from those slots.

However, maybe sanity will prevail for a change and the BCS will wise up 
and realize that there could also be years where a conference may actually 
DESERVE three BCS slots.  2010 may have been one of them for the Big Ten.
--
Mike Nolan