[dropcap]I[/dropcap]’m sure that headline gave you a pause. In the age of super-conferences devouring teams left and right, a new playoff system, and players trying to unionize college football has never looked more different.
Many of the SEC lackeys look at the Big Ten as the second rate conference that has no real threat outside of Ohio State. Not only is this view rediculous, it’s down right sad. Why? School’s in session. Write this down as the day your college football eyes were open: the Big Ten is the last great college football conference!
The Big Ten is the last refuge for what used to make college football great. It’s a conference filled with history, rivalry, and promise. Sure, the SEC is the conference of the future, but let’s face it, the SEC is essentially the minor leagues of the NFL. It’s practically NFL light.
For those who have a more nostalgic heart for football the Big Ten is certainly superior. The Big Ten is for those who get goosebumps when they hear a band belting out a great fight song. It’s for those who love to marvel at the records and trophies of the oldests teams in the nation.
The history of the Big Ten continues to astound. Adding Rutgers takes the history of the conference to 1869; the beginning of college football. As the oldest conference, the Big Ten goes back to 1895, a good 40 years before the SEC.
Those 120 years have been filled with amazing catches, fans storming the field, fights over game clocks, and all the other exciting plays and peculiarities that make college football great. Of course these moments have been made even better by the fact that they have happened in the Big Ten’s many rivalry games.
Nothing screams college football more than a good old fashioned rivalry, and the Big Ten has some of the oldest and best.
The traveling hardware of the Big Ten should be the envy of the other conferences. From the 1903 Little Brown Jug of Minnesota and Michigan to the 2014 “$5-Bits-of-Broken-Chair-Trophy” that Minnesota and Nebraska have started passing around. As great as the Michigan vs Michigan State rivalry is, the other conferences have interstate rivalries, even if they aren’t as historic and entertaining. No one can hold a candle to the hate that drives deep between Michigan and Ohio State. Only two states that once literally went to war against each other could harbor the loathing the two fan bases hold for each other.
Even in years where one team is clearly the better team that game is a must see, because hate can put records to shame.
This does not mean the Big Ten’s best days are behind it. The current national champion calls it home. The single most underrated, underappreciated team in the Michigan State Spartans call it home. One of the best coaches in the NFL left the big leagues to call Michigan and this conference home. This season and the years beyond look to bring us exciting and competitive football.
You’re welcome, class dismissed.
