ESPN: Better depth is B1G's path to sustained respect (MN - "there is more to prove")

[BleedGopher]

ESPN: Better depth is B1G's path to sustained respect (MN - "there is more to prove")

per Rittenberg:

The Big Ten remains a top-heavy league looking to build sustained depth. Schlabach's list isn't dramatically different from where the preseason polls had the Big Ten in August.

Ohio State should be No. 1 after its dominant Playoff performance and with possibly an even better team coming back. Michigan State's march into the national elite, along with the return of quarterback Connor Cook, merits a place in the top-8. Wisconsin's run of very good, not quite great, has withstood one shocking coaching change. It can withstand another, especially with a coach (Paul Chryst) who knows the landscape and can fix the program's primary hindrance (the passing game).

After those three teams, though, I can't make a strong case for more Big Ten Top 25 representation.

Minnesota is on the borderline. The defense once again should be solid, possibly more than solid. But the passing game remains a huge unknown, especially with tight end Maxx Williams gone. The Gophers have taken significant steps under Jerry Kill, but of their 16 wins the past two seasons, only five came against teams that finished with winning records. They also have yet to win a bowl game under Kill. There is more to prove.

This is the point where Nebraska fans have to catch their breath after screaming, "What about us?!" There are things to like about the Huskers' roster, as well as Mike Riley's ability to develop quarterbacks and wide receivers. But Nebraska lost its best offensive player (Ameer Abdullah) and best defender (Randy Gregory). Add in a coaching change and this isn't a Top 25 team -- yet.

Neither is Penn State, although if the Lions can figure out how to keep quarterback Christian Hackenberg upright, they could soon enter the national rankings.

So what does this mean for the Big Ten? The league is no longer the scourge of college football. Ohio State and Michigan State are considered elite programs by anyone who matters. But league-wide respect likely remains in short supply.

It goes back to the central question: How many Big Ten teams are capable of winning it all in a given season?

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/115489/better-depth-is-b1gs-path-to-sustained-respect

Go Gophers!!

 

[GopherinFlorida]

What a shocker...ESPN doesn't think the B1G is very good.

 

[MNVCGUY]

What a shocker...ESPN doesn't think the B1G is very good.

Where does he say that? He points out the conference is no longer the joke it was viewed as a few years ago but still has a ways to go to restore its image which is very fair. Outside of Ohio State and Michigan State you have a bunch of programs that all seem solid but not really spectacular. Things have gotten better and OSU winning it all certainly helps the overall perception of the conference, but it will take another solid year across the board to get people to really take the Big Ten seriously as a football power.

 

[bottlebass]

For once I agree with Rittenberg. I think our defense will once again be good, but if our passing game doesn't take the next step we will again be a borderline ranked team.

 

[gopher7]

This whole "respect" topic is getting really old. Let it go. Who even cares about this besides bloggers and talk shows?

 

[GopherinFlorida]

Where does he say that? He points out the conference is no longer the joke it was viewed as a few years ago but still has a ways to go to restore its image which is very fair. Outside of Ohio State and Michigan State you have a bunch of programs that all seem solid but not really spectacular. Things have gotten better and OSU winning it all certainly helps the overall perception of the conference, but it will take another solid year across the board to get people to really take the Big Ten seriously as a football power.

Im sorry...but why are they talking about the mediocre big ten instead of the mediocre SEC who went .500 in their bowl games this year, with the vaunted greatest division in history (the east) going 0-fer...where are the esecpn talking heads on that subject...at one point last year they were saying that the sec east should get 3 or all 4 seeds in the playoffs...but in the end, the sec didn't win ****. The premise was manufactured by esecpn to build up their new station and pander to thier fan base...the southern redneck inbred dink.

 

[Jike Spingleton]

This whole "respect" topic is getting really old. Let it go. Who even cares about this besides bloggers and talk shows?

The South cares deeply.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Im sorry...but why are they talking about the mediocre big ten instead of the mediocre SEC who went .500 in their bowl games this year, with the vaunted greatest division in history (the east) going 0-fer...where are the esecpn talking heads on that subject...at one point last year they were saying that the sec east should get 3 or all 4 seeds in the playoffs...but in the end, the sec didn't win ****. The premise was manufactured by esecpn to build up their new station and pander to thier fan base...the southern redneck inbred dink.

This came from a Big Ten Blog and Rittenberg writes about the Big Ten. So he wasn't worried about the SEC he was writing about what the Big Ten needs to do in order to improve its standing. I won't pretend like ESPN doesn't have a bit of an SEC bias on some stuff but in this case this is about the Big Ten so there really isn't anything to get offended about. On top of that what he says about the teams is very true for the most part.

 

[oleboy41]

Im sorry...but why are they talking about the mediocre big ten instead of the mediocre SEC who went .500 in their bowl games this year, with the vaunted greatest division in history (the east) going 0-fer...where are the esecpn talking heads on that subject...at one point last year they were saying that the sec east should get 3 or all 4 seeds in the playoffs...but in the end, the sec didn't win ****. The premise was manufactured by esecpn to build up their new station and pander to thier fan base...the southern redneck inbred dink.

Probably because this guy is the freaking B1G blogger for ESPN so he'd get fired for writing articles about the SEC

 

[minibeaver]

Im sorry...but why are they talking about the mediocre big ten instead of the mediocre SEC who went .500 in their bowl games this year, with the vaunted greatest division in history (the east) going 0-fer...where are the esecpn talking heads on that subject...at one point last year they were saying that the sec east should get 3 or all 4 seeds in the playoffs...but in the end, the sec didn't win ****. The premise was manufactured by esecpn to build up their new station and pander to thier fan base...the southern redneck inbred dink.

I believe it's the West, with Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Miss. State, Yada yada.

Agree with all the rest of your remarks. Living in the South is almost unbearable being a Gopher fan, these people are extremely arrogant about their team and conference. Even after this year's bowl season the arrogance remains.

As far as ESPN pandering to the SEC/South, it's always about money and the money in college football is down here. Why? Because their is more fans that support it, and said fans don't have a problem spending a lot of their money for tickets, jerseys, traveling to bowl games, etc. Their are more hardcore fans down here and that translates to dollar signs for everyone involved.

I'm a transplant, so I'm not inbred, but I have been referred to as a dink on occasion!

 

[Gopher Bandanna Guy]

I'm no big fan of Rittenberg, but I thought he did a good job summarizing what Minnesota football is right now. There is more to prove, and more growth we need to see. The defense should be pretty solid again, and there are major questions in the passing game. Some more growth from Leidner and the development of one or two of these RS frosh WRs or even one of the incoming true freshmen wideouts to improve our passing game is what is needed to get us to the next tier, and earn the program more respect.

 

[TheBulldog]

I don't buy anymore of this pro-SEC/anti-B1G national media propaganda anymore. Not after this year.

The SEC needed a significant amount of luck to finish .500 against the B1G (3-3). Ohio State beat the SEC, and national, darling (Alabama), Wisconsin beat the perennial second in command (Auburn), the SEC West champ (Mizzou) lost to one of the worst (but up-and-comping) in the B1G at home (Indiana), and easily could have (should have, in my opinion) lost to Minnesota in the Citrus Bowl. Wisconsin also snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against LSU early in the year.

Not to mention, Ole Miss and Mississippi State were absolutely destroyed by TCU and Georgia Tech in their other premier bowl games. Absolutely dominated in both games. But, of course the SEC is still untouchable to the national media ($$$).

It's not like the B1G played the bottom feeders of the SEC, either. They played Alabama, Auburn, LSU, and the champs of the West. That's basically the cream of the crop of the SEC year in, and year out.

Is the SEC better than the B1G right now? Sure. But it's not much. Not even close to what the national media thought coming into 2014, or will think going into 2015. I won't be surprised to see the B1G as the "best conference in the nation" in fairly short order (although, it will be never officially recognized). Call me crazy, but with Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Penn St., and Michigan looking like perennial top 25 teams in the near future, with some national championships mixed in at the top. Throw in teams like Iowa, Maryland, Indiana, and Rutgers that have the capabilities to put together nice seasons in the future, and I think this conference is going to be extremely good.

 

[414GopherFan]

I don't buy anymore of this pro-SEC/anti-B1G national media propaganda anymore. Not after this year.

The SEC needed a significant amount of luck to finish .500 against the B1G (3-3). Ohio State beat the SEC, and national, darling (Alabama), Wisconsin beat the perennial second in command (Auburn), the SEC West champ (Mizzou) lost to one of the worst (but up-and-comping) in the B1G at home (Indiana), and easily could have (should have, in my opinion) lost to Minnesota in the Citrus Bowl. Wisconsin also snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against LSU early in the year.

Not to mention, Ole Miss and Mississippi State were absolutely destroyed by TCU and Georgia Tech in their other premier bowl games. Absolutely dominated in both games. But, of course the SEC is still untouchable to the national media ($$$).

It's not like the B1G played the bottom feeders of the SEC, either. They played Alabama, Auburn, LSU, and the champs of the West. That's basically the cream of the crop of the SEC year in, and year out.

Is the SEC better than the B1G right now? Sure. But it's not much. Not even close to what the national media thought coming into 2014, or will think going into 2015. I won't be surprised to see the B1G as the "best conference in the nation" in fairly short order (although, it will be never officially recognized). Call me crazy, but with Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Penn St., and Michigan looking like perennial top 25 teams in the near future, with some national championships mixed in at the top. Throw in teams like Iowa, Maryland, Indiana, and Rutgers that have the capabilities to put together nice seasons in the future, and I think this conference is going to be extremely good.

Would you say your opinion is bias to the B1G? Would you say 1 year is a good sample size to determine what is the best? The SEC has produced 7 National Champions in the last 10 yrs, they also have produced more than double the amount of NFL draft picks than the B1G in that same time frame. If it doesnt support your narrative should we just ignore them facts?

 

[4four4]

What a shocker...ESPN doesn't think the B1G is very good.

ESPN is in bed with the SEC way more than the Big Ten. They have more business interest with them.

 

[OSUfan]

Would you say your opinion is bias to the B1G? Would you say 1 year is a good sample size to determine what is the best? The SEC has produced 7 National Champions in the last 10 yrs, they also have produced more than double the amount of NFL draft picks than the B1G in that same time frame. If it doesnt support your narrative should we just ignore them facts?

SEC won a lot of titles but they clearly benefited from the perception that their league was better than others, which ensured that their conference would have at least 1/2 of the teams playing in the national title game. No other league had that perception. Now in the playoff era, it's no longer good enough to beat the team with the best record, they are going to have to actually beat the best teams from other conferences around the country more often, and that as much as anything is going to slow down the SEC dominance of the NC. The results of the first playoff were a big red flag for the SEC domination narrative, clearly they would have routed FSU in the old system and the narrative would have been reinforced, but instead the expanded access to champs of other conferences proved already that the SEC perception was a key factor in them getting access to the game which helped them win as many titles as they had. No other conference has a chance at getting a team into the top-2 (a team that isn't even a divisional champ let alone conference champ) and into a national title game against a team they lost to on their home field.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

SEC won a lot of titles but they clearly benefited from the perception that their league was better than others, which ensured that their conference would have at least 1/2 of the teams playing in the national title game. No other league had that perception. Now in the playoff era, it's no longer good enough to beat the team with the best record, they are going to have to actually beat the best teams from other conferences around the country more often, and that as much as anything is going to slow down the SEC dominance of the NC. The results of the first playoff were a big red flag for the SEC domination narrative, clearly they would have routed FSU in the old system and the narrative would have been reinforced, but instead the expanded access to champs of other conferences proved already that the SEC perception was a key factor in them getting access to the game which helped them win as many titles as they had. No other conference has a chance at getting a team into the top-2 (a team that isn't even a divisional champ let alone conference champ) and into a national title game against a team they lost to on their home field.

Excellent thoughts. The crowning of a "champion" has been an abomination for ever and ever. It is and has been the black mark on the sport. Until we eliminate the selection committees and Condoleeza Rice's from ever being privileged to give their flawed opinions we run the risk of having numerous SEC teams in the playoff field. What if the season had ended in Oct? We would have had 3 out of 4 teams from the SEC.

The talent gap between many teams is thin and game plan, coaching, motivation are the key factors in differentiating them. IMHO even the small league, but elite Boise State, Utah, TCU teams from the last decade or so had a right to compete for the championship. They had the lightning in a bottle. Great defense, elite college QBs, and great coaches. And a HUGE chip on the shoulder.

Decide it on the field. Get the Condi Rice's out of the equation.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

First off, I'll remain on topic. I think Rittenberg gave a fair assessment. If our passing game doesn't improve, we will remain about where we were last season. I considered last year a success, but we were not a national power.

Second, for the Off Topic debate, ESPN does not stand to gain by demoting the Big 10. They are gonna love them some SEC but they aren't going to do it at the expense of the Big 10. The Big 10 still plays a lot of games on ESPN/ABC. An OSU/MSU game on Saturday night means a lot of $ for ESPN and a lot more $ if those teams are ranked high. Additionally, ESPN loves the debate, it gives them more to talk about. Lastly, think of it in terms of boxing. When a fight is promoted, you talk up EVERYONE. ESPN wants the general public to view the college football playoff as a battle against 4 dominant football powerhouses. They don't want it dominated by 1 region. Don't you think ESPN would love a dominant USC (LA market) over Ole Miss in that format? Ohio State has to bring more ratings than Miss St or Auburn.