It's official. The Big Ten stinks.

 I have always been an adament defender of the Big Ten in all sports. I'm a Midwest guy, born and reared in Michigan. I've spent my entire life in the Great Lakes state and, I must admit, attended Michigan State as much for its membership in the Big Ten Conference as for its academics. (All right, all you wisenheimers laughing about "Michigan State academics," shut your yaps. It's a darned fine land grant institution!). But this year, I have to say, the Big Ten was horrible in football. Northwestern hung with Missouri before losing in overtime (props to the Wildcats for pushing the Tigers to the limit in that game--just didn't have enough to win), Minnesota is blown out by Kansas (I could see that one coming), and my beloved Michigan State Spartans were simply over matched by the Georgia Bulldogs. The biggest surprise of New Year's Day was the way Penn State was pushed around in the USC Invitational...er, I mean the Rose Bowl. Let's not mince words here, USC flat-out kicked Penn State's ass. Now, some of that may be attributable to the fact that the game was in California, in USC's backyard--in short, a veritable home game for USC. I do wonder if the result may have been a bit different if the Trojans had to play the Nittany Lions in Happy Valley, in frigid weather in front of Penn State's maniacal fans. Who knows? The fact is that the Trojans rolled the Lions. Thankfully, Iowa was able to beat a weak South Carolina team for the Big Ten's sole bowl victory. Now it's up to Ohio State to salvage some dignity for the Big Ten, but I find it hard to believe that the Buckeyes will be competitive with Texas. Looks like this year, the Big Ten is just a slight notch better than the Mid-American Conference. I wonder if this is just a bump in the road for the Big Ten, or if this is the way things will be in college football for the foreseeable future. It seems like all the best football players now are in the SEC, Big 12, and Pac-10. I really wonder if this will ever change.