A Happy New Year to all. I returned from Orlando this morning after what was definitely a great close to four years of marching in the Hardest Working Band in America. Great show, but also a win. Doesn't get better. But I'm not here to write about that. I'm here to make some observations on the game.
Wisconsin won because of two things. First: there was excellent control of both the ball and the clock. Wisconsin had the ball for almost 40 of the 60 minutes and knew what it wanted to do with it. On the rare occassions when Wisconsin wasn't exactly sure, they remained calm and collected, made the fix, and proceeded. For example, at one point in the game, Wisconsin looked like that it was going to try for the FG. A called timeout allowed them to calmly reassess and opt for a well-placed punt instead. Many's the time when Wisconsin would have sent out it's FG team, had second thoughts, but proceeded anyway, and missed. In summary, Wisconsin executed a fantastic game. There are countless debates about "speed" vs. "size", but I'm pretty sure that the winner of the game executes better than their opponent.
Second: Miami is a team that doesn't seem to take its games seriously. It was talking all about taking the National Championship next year. Why on earth would a team think about the end of next season, when this season's not over? Miami also embraces this concept of "swagger". If you check out college football boards now and again, you may have heard of it. Apparently, at Miami, swagger is a verb, a noun, and probably serves the same purpose that the word "smurf" does for those little blue toadstool-dwellers. Essentially, it is bravado. When a Miami player makes a regular tackle and gets in the opponent's face, that is swagger. Late hits and blatant personal fouls (that aren't called by crappy SEC officials) are swagger. Swagger is a failure to look ahead, to consider the single act in the scheme of the bigger picture. As long as Miami has a mindset that places more importance on celebrating and bringing attention to themselves than making the play and moving on and repeating, it'll remain a mid-conference player.
Also: the turf was ridiculously soft, and it was basically sod that had been laid down perhaps that morning, or even that afternoon. It was noticibly hard to manuver on, and it definitely affected bounces and rolls, in addition to runs.
Anyway, those are some of my thoughts on the game.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
The Big Ten Gets Bigger
Alright, so everyone here knows that the "Big Ten" is a misnomer (hence the hidden "11" in the logo - cool, huh?). And, in fact, there are twelve schools in the academic Big Ten; charter member University of Chicago is the George Harrison of the Big Ten. Well, according to a recent interview with Barry Alvarez, the Big Ten will be redoubling its efforts to add school number twelve to its happy yet dysfunctional family. Coach Paterno also supports expansion, as well as a number of athletic faculty concerned over the six-week hiatus that occurs annually between the end of the Big Ten conference football season and the start of bowl season.
So, what would happen if the Big Ten got twelve teams? First of all, it would really have to change its name, and Big 12 is taken. We could become the Big North, the Midwestern Conference, or the Great Lakes Conference. I like the latter, myself. We could stay the Big Ten...but how long can that go on?
Second, it's very realistic that the conference might be split into two divisions, and a conference championship game. I'll say this now: East vs. West will not work. That will almost certainly put Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State into the East Division. No good. North vs. South may be the fate of the Big...Whatever. That will almost certainly keep most major rivalries in the same divisions (Illinois/Northwestern, Wisconsin/Minnesota), except for the special exception that will be made for Ohio State/Michigan.
Of course, this all depends on who becomes the mythical twelfth team. There are a few rules that must be adhered to (at least, at this moment): Teams may only come from states that already have a Big Ten member, or are in a state that borders a state with a Big Ten member. This gives us a list of possible locations:
Big Ten States: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania
Big Ten Borders: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York
Now, let us assume for the moment that the Big Ten could lure away schools from other conferences (by the way, if this happens, expect to see a major shift in all conferences), as well as look at independents. The new team would have to be not only a fair competitor athletically, but academically as well. Not to mention conerns about marketability and fan base. Schools must also belong to the Association of American Universities, which is an organization of top doctoral universities in North America. Below is the list of all potential schools:
ACC: Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland
Big East: Cincinnati, Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse
Big 12: Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska
C-USA: Marshall
Independents: Notre Dame, Army, Navy
MAC: Akron, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Kent State, Miami (OH), Ball State, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan
Wide selection. But we can scratch off Notre Dame (who won't really join a conference for a while yet, and even if they did, they'd join the Big East), Army, and Navy. Most, if not all of the directional schools lack the fan base and academic power of the Big Ten schools. I'm not arguing that they are bad schools; I'm saying that in terms of research dollars and funding, they don't come close. So good-bye, Central/Eastern/Western Michigan. Northern Illinois, I contend, is becoming an increasingly competent football contender, but it doesn't meet the research/funding requirements, and having three conference schools in one state might be too much. The rest of the MAC teams lack the fan base even remotely necessary for Big Ten interest. Same problem for Marshall. Thus, we have a short list:
Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland, Cincinnati, Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska.
The good news: most of these schools are competitive in either football or basketball. Most meet the minimum academic standards of the Big Ten in terms of both research and education. The inclusion of any of them would provide a potential for expansion of the Big Ten Network into new media markets.
The bad news: all of them already belong to a conference.
So. Which of these teams would be interested in switching conferences? Who could become the twelfth member of the Big Ten?
So, what would happen if the Big Ten got twelve teams? First of all, it would really have to change its name, and Big 12 is taken. We could become the Big North, the Midwestern Conference, or the Great Lakes Conference. I like the latter, myself. We could stay the Big Ten...but how long can that go on?
Second, it's very realistic that the conference might be split into two divisions, and a conference championship game. I'll say this now: East vs. West will not work. That will almost certainly put Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State into the East Division. No good. North vs. South may be the fate of the Big...Whatever. That will almost certainly keep most major rivalries in the same divisions (Illinois/Northwestern, Wisconsin/Minnesota), except for the special exception that will be made for Ohio State/Michigan.
Of course, this all depends on who becomes the mythical twelfth team. There are a few rules that must be adhered to (at least, at this moment): Teams may only come from states that already have a Big Ten member, or are in a state that borders a state with a Big Ten member. This gives us a list of possible locations:
Big Ten States: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania
Big Ten Borders: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York
Now, let us assume for the moment that the Big Ten could lure away schools from other conferences (by the way, if this happens, expect to see a major shift in all conferences), as well as look at independents. The new team would have to be not only a fair competitor athletically, but academically as well. Not to mention conerns about marketability and fan base. Schools must also belong to the Association of American Universities, which is an organization of top doctoral universities in North America. Below is the list of all potential schools:
ACC: Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland
Big East: Cincinnati, Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse
Big 12: Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska
C-USA: Marshall
Independents: Notre Dame, Army, Navy
MAC: Akron, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Kent State, Miami (OH), Ball State, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan
Wide selection. But we can scratch off Notre Dame (who won't really join a conference for a while yet, and even if they did, they'd join the Big East), Army, and Navy. Most, if not all of the directional schools lack the fan base and academic power of the Big Ten schools. I'm not arguing that they are bad schools; I'm saying that in terms of research dollars and funding, they don't come close. So good-bye, Central/Eastern/Western Michigan. Northern Illinois, I contend, is becoming an increasingly competent football contender, but it doesn't meet the research/funding requirements, and having three conference schools in one state might be too much. The rest of the MAC teams lack the fan base even remotely necessary for Big Ten interest. Same problem for Marshall. Thus, we have a short list:
Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland, Cincinnati, Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska.
The good news: most of these schools are competitive in either football or basketball. Most meet the minimum academic standards of the Big Ten in terms of both research and education. The inclusion of any of them would provide a potential for expansion of the Big Ten Network into new media markets.
The bad news: all of them already belong to a conference.
So. Which of these teams would be interested in switching conferences? Who could become the twelfth member of the Big Ten?
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