After watching the Bowl games -

[Rog]

Most of the top NCAA football teams are located along a broad path from Florida, across the southern part of the US and up the California coast. Look at the big 12. Southern half far superior to the northern half.

this tells me that the high schools in these "sunny" states are developing better players. Reasons? Longer schedules, ie Aug through early DEc. Football is number one sport.
Large populations with the right type of athelete, etc.

Yes the north schools get some of these but for the most part, the best are recruited and stay home.

It's difficult for a team in the B-10 to match up with these schools. Let's just be happy with how we do against the rest of the B-10 who more or less have the same conditions for recruiting and playing as we de in Minnesota.

Living in Florida is easy to see first hand why I make these statements.

 

[NateDawgUM]

It's all cyclical. Remember back in the early days of the Big XII, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas State dominated the league while Texas and Texas A&M hoped to pull an upset in the Big XII title game.

Oklahoma was garbage.

USC sucked for most of the '90s. Florida State and Miami are currently mediocre at best, Florida was pretty crappy under Zook.

Ohio State has probably been the most consistent program over the past two decades.

 

[GO4INLALALAND]

I hear the cyclical argument in defense of the Big 10's poor performance, but I am not buying it. I do think that the Big 10 is in trouble of becoming a mediocre conference. I do think that the weather plays a big role in a kid's decision of where to go to college. I am from Wis. (went to the U for undergrad) and now live in Los Angeles and believe me I do not miss the cold weather at all. Just look at the Rose Bowl yesterday, the weather was perfect. If you are a 17 year old kid and you have the choice between great weather with hot chicks wearing skimpy outfits all year long or crappy cold weather, most kids are going to take the former. In addition, so many great football players come out of warm weather climates and they just do not like cold weather. Let's face it, most people do not like to freeze their butt of 3 to 4 months a year.

Nate Dawg points out current warm weather teams that are mediocre, but it misses the point. I don't think anyone would say that every warm weather college FB team is going to be top dog, but there really is no dispute that the stronger conferences are in warm weather climates. I do not think that this bodes well for the Big 10.

 

[Cosmo Kramer]

There is more talent in the Southern states for various reasons and talent tends to stay home. Its no surprise that the best teams consistently have great talent at home. Florida, USC, Texas, Ohio State, Penn State has good talent at home, so does the other southeastern states.

 

[Rog]

I will bluntly state it>

It's all cyclical. Remember back in the early days of the Big XII, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas State dominated the league while Texas and Texas A&M hoped to pull an upset in the Big XII title game.

Oklahoma was garbage.

USC sucked for most of the '90s. Florida State and Miami are currently mediocre at best, Florida was pretty crappy under Zook.

Ohio State has probably been the most consistent program over the past two decades.

This was before the southern schools intergrated!!

 

[Gopher4Life]

Nate,

>>Oklahoma was garbage.<<

The Oklahoma program suffered while enduring three weak coaches. Nobody expected the drought to last forever. As evidence, look how quickly Stoops was able to turn the program around.

Rog,

>>This was before the southern schools intergrated!!<<

Utter nonsense.

 

[GopherBeef]

Ongoing problem

This is something my brother and I talk about quite a bit. I'm a U of M grad and he is an Arizona State grad now living in Iowa. He sees the balance of college football power continuing to shift to the southern and western states primarily due to the shift in population. Most southern and western states are growing rather quickly, while northern and northeastern states are seeing little population growth. Larger populations bring a greater talent pool of athletes as well as larger fan bases and more potential sponsors and donors to support the programs.

There certainly are exceptions to the rule, but I think this is a trend that will continue and that those of us that are Big 10 fans can't do a whole lot about.

 

[mlfbon]

Using the state of Arizona as an example

The high schools in the state of Az are now producing twice the number of D-1 / BCS prospects as they were 5 years ago. USC and Texas, along with the upper echelon Big10 schools, are recruiting this area like madmen. USC gets the best kids in California and is now able to cherry-pick the best kids in other states. This is the secret to USC's recent success. ASU and UofA are missing out on the top kids in their own states which allows the "rich" to only get "richer".