Who is best team in Big Ten ?

by Joseph Birmingham

Monday November 30, 2009 

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Every poll has Florida way ahead of Alabama for number one in the country.   Having 6 undefeated teams in divison 1A is unprecedented in the BCS era, but closer to home there is a larger, more important controversy. Who is the best in the Big Ten ?

Iowa started strong, before losing 2 in a row, and Penn State and Ohio State were neck and neck all year.  But now that the games are all played and the three teams all finished at 10-2, Ohio State is getting the top spot in the Big Ten based on their single conference loss.  But wait a minute, if you want to rank the teams in the Big Ten strictly based on their head to head performance, it gets a little tricky.

OSU and Iowa both beat PSU this year, the Lions only two losses.  Iowa lost to Northwestern and Ohio State, with Northwestern not being ranked at the time of their victory.  Ohio State lost to Purdue and USC, with Purdue not being ranked at the time of their victory.

So according to strength of schedule, doesn’t Penn State have the best claim to the title ?  I know, they lost to both Big Ten competitors, but they swept the rest of their schedule, something neither Iowa or Ohio State was able to do.  But Ohio State beat BOTH their Big Ten competitors, and lost to #3 ranked USC, so don’t they deserve it ?  But they lost to Purdue ! The Boilermakers did not even finish .500 at 5-7 including losses to Northern Illinois and Wisconsin, so how good IS OSU if they couldn’t beat this team ? Iowa lost to Northwestern, a team that itself lost to Syracuse, a team PSU handled with ease !

If I had to pick a single team to represent this conference I couldn’t do it.  It appears the rest of the country is right there with me, as the AP ranks them 8-9-10, (Ohio State, Iowa, Penn State)  USA Today has them 7-9-10 (Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa) BCS has them 10-11-13,  (Ohio State, Iowa, Penn State) Harris poll has them 7-9-10 (Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa)   Ohio State leads all polls by virtue of its single Big Ten loss but then I come back to that 18-26 loss to Purdue and I can’t accept Ohio State as the best of the three.  No way would Iowa or PSU lose to Purdue, and if they did, it would not be by as many as 8 !!

If it is this hard to determine who the best team is in a conference that has no teams in contention for the national championship, maybe we do need to address the BCS process and have some sort of playoff.  What if all three teams had finished with a single conference loss ?    What if Penn State BEAT Iowa, and lost to Temple and Ohio State, and Iowa had lost to Penn State and Arizona instead of Ohio State and Northwestern ?  And Ohio State lost to Purdue and Iowa, instead of Purdue and USC ?  Then we would have three 10-2 teams that were all 7-1 in conference and no way to determine who was best.  You can’t have a championship playoff game between three potential contenders, and everything college football has in place to determine seedings in this case leaves something to be desired.  And what happens if Iowa and PSU crush their bowl opponents and OSU tanks in thiers ? Are they still the champions in the Big Ten ?

I know I am playing devils advocate, but I am positive a situation like this will develop again in the national picture soon, as it has already several times since the BCS format was adapted in  1998.  I know the quest for a college football playoff format is equivalent to the holy grail, but I still hope one day to see it come about.  Only then maybe a team like the 12-0 TCU Horned Frogs or Boise State Broncos will have a chance to be the #1 team in the land.  Until then, we will go with what we have but I for one refuse to accept the Buckeyes as the Big Ten Champions for 2009 given how hard these three teams played and how closely they match up.

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