[NU Sports] Big Ten pride ...

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Nice way to cap off a strong year for the conference in football -- maybe now the league will get a little more respect from the folks over at ABC and in the polls next year.

All year you kept hearing "1-6" ... "too slow" ... "weak league" ... blah blah blah as The Moron & The Mimbo at ABC kept trying to prop up the Big East and Big XII and ACC with bitterness at the Big Ten for having their own network.

But this bowl season was a terrific success ...

Our three losses were close ones, with Minnesota continuing their tradition of stinking up their last few games of the year and still only losing by one after a fumble in field goal range ... and MSU faced huge odds and a home crowd and led until the final few minutes ... and we all know how NU racked up more than 600 yards on one of those vaunted SEC speedy defenses and only blew a game no one gave 'em a chance to win with five interceptions.

But the better story lies in the four wins ...

* Wisconsin plays #15 Miami, in the state of Florida, and enters as a big underdog against "The U" and their vaunted speed. But Bucky brings the horses, outgains the Canes by 200 yards, holds Miami to under 250 total yards and holds a 2-1 time of possession edge.

* Penn State plays #12 LSU and again is an underdog with LSU's all-world speed and Les Miles 4-0 bowl game record. All the Lions do is outgain LSU by 100 yards, hold the Tigers under 250 total yards and have another 2-1 edge in time of possession.

* Ohio State plays #7 Oregon, again a heavy underdog against the unstoppable Quack Attack. No chance, right? Not quite, as the Bucks outgain Oregon 419-260 and have a better than 2-1 edge on the clock.

* Now Iowa plays #9 Georgia Tech, and yep, they're underdogs against Tech's dynamic offense. Yardage? 403-156 and a 5 minute edge on the clock.

I love it when the Big Ten plays Big Ten football, with dominant defense and offenses that simply shove the ball down the throat of their opponents, controlling the clock and extending a giant middle finger to John Saunders and all the folks out there harping on the Big Ten for the last three years. Of course, it would have been sweeter had NU made that kick at the end of regulation, but this is still a successful bowl season for the league and NU.

Why us? Well, it means that our strength of schedule jumps by leaps and bounds next year as the league will have more teams ranked (most of the teams above have most of their teams coming back) and more teams higher ranked. It means our wins over them will be noticed more and we'll get more respect from the pollsters.

It really is a nice parallel to Big Ten basketball last year. They came in with little respect but the young teams performed well in the postseason. As a result, they came into this year with a lot of returning players and more national respect - more ranked teams and more confidence to shut the ACC up in the annual challenge. And we'll get more NCAA teams because of it (hopefully one in purple!).

Tomorrow we can all go back to hating the Buckeyes, Hawkeyes, Badgers and the rest. But for tonight, it's a good time for Big Ten brethren to smile together, hold our heads high and proudly announce to the world that we're back (even if most of us felt we never left as an elite conference).

Go Big Ten!
GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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