A common theme over the past few years in college football has been the decline of the Big 10 Conference (which actually has 11 teams) among its sister conferences in the NCAA Football Bowl Series (formerly Division I-A - don't get me started on that change).

 

Really? Based on what? No commentator can convincingly articulate why he claims the Big 10(11) is weaker now than in years past, but yet the comment is heard routinely on college football shows every weekend.

 

I will concede that right now in college football, the Southeast Conference (SEC) is the premiere conference. But no one can provide enough evidence to give me reason to not place the Big 10(11) as the SEC's first runner-up. And any serious college fan would admit that there are only five major powerhouse conferences in college football; SEC, ACC, Big 10(11), Big 12 and Pac 10 .

 

The main "assumption" behind the decline of the Big 10(11) is the fact that on any given weekend in the conference, almost every school has a chance to win and the conference records are close to the .500 mark. That does not mean the conference is weak; just the opposite. It means the conference is tough and each week the teams beat each other up in pursuit of the Big 10(11) title.

 

Sports pundits all like to talk about the decline of the Big 10(11), but when the time comes to vote for the rankings, the Big 10(11) gets its credit.

 

Last year, three Big 10(11) schools finished in the top 10 of the Bowl Championship Series standings, to include National Title contender Ohio State.

 

Four conference schools were ranked in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 poll (Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Penn State) with three of them still remaining in the Top 25 poll - Michigan has obviously dropped off.

 

The Big 10(11) leads all other conferences with 15 BCS appearances; the SEC is second with 13. They also have two of the most frequent BCS visitors; Ohio State and Michigan combine for nine appearances, while the Atlantic Coast Conference's Florida State and University of Miami combine for 10 appearances. Seven of the conference's 11 teams have appeared in the BCS, which is tied with the Pac 10 for most in the nation.

 

Year in and year out, the Big 10(11) has a pretty predictable three-tier hierarchy, just like most conferences. Michigan and Ohio State are the clear front-runners heading into each new season. The second tier; consisting of Iowa, Purdue, Penn State and Wisconsin, all generally finish near the top of the conference and routinely contend for the conference championship and appear in major, if not BCS, bowl games. While the third tier (Minnesota, Northwestern, Michigan State, Indiana and Illinois) will occasionally have a break-out year but generally finish in the bottom half of the conference. I would almost tend to put Indiana and Illinois in a fourth tier because the rarity of them competing for the conference title rivals Baylor's chances of having a .500 season or becoming bowl eligible (with six wins).

However, other conferences are much more predictable.

 

Then there's the National Football League draft. The same top five conferences in the nation in dominance and popularity are also the top draft-choice producers.

 

The SEC, of course, led the 2007 draft with 41 draft picks from conference schools, featuring 11 of them in the first round.

 

The Big 10(11) was tied for second with the ACC with 31 draft selections from their conferences and six first-round selections each.

 

The Big 12 followed in fourth with 28 draft selections and four first-round picks, followed by the Pac 10 with 28 selections and only one in the first round.

 

The Big 10(11) also gets major bonus points for being the first college athletic conference to launch its own nationwide network. The channel, available for free on major satellite subscription services and many independent cable providers in Big 10(11) areas, is not available or is a premium channel service from most major cable providers.

 

It produces 24 hours of sports programming covering all collegiate sports in the Big 10(11). Right now you can catch women's volleyball, soccer as well as football on the Big Ten Network.

 

BTN also provides its own weekly highlight and preview shows, airs all of the conference's coaches' shows, and replays the week's games throughout the week (in case you wanted to watch the Appalachian State versus Michigan game everyday).

 

But the best part of the BTN is that it airs every Big 10(11) home and conference game that is not covered by a major network - even those get re-aired during the week on BTN because the network still owns the rights to all Big 10(11) home and conference games - in high definition.

 

It even has up to four secondary channels set aside to carry as many five conference games simultaneously. So you can flip between all five channels and watch all five games at the same time, for no extra charge.

 

BTN is such a hit and such a marketing innovation to push the conferences' product out to its alumni and fans spread out throughout the country, other conferences (i.e. Big 12, SEC and ACC) are making plans to create their own conference networks.

 

The Big 12 has already aligned with ESPN, BTN is aligned with Fox Sports, laying the ground work for the creation of its network as soon as next summer. The ACC is offering all of its collegiate sports online via live video streaming, also in a move to lay the groundwork for establishing a conference network.

 

There are so many good college football teams, even in the lower divisions, and conferences, which is why college football still dominates professional football in the hearts of sports fans.

 

But when it comes to talking about conference powerhouses, the SEC is king, but the Big 10(11) is a close second. No conference is more talented from top to bottom and the reason the records don't look stellar is because the teams are so tough they beat each other up each week.

 

Why do you think other conferences like the Big 12, Pac 10 and ACC almost never schedule a Big 10(11) team on their regular season schedule?

 

I wouldn't want my program embarrassed by Minnesota, Purdue or Wisconsin, either.

And why do you think teams from other major conferences (i.e. Oklahoma, Texas, Rutgers, Syracuse and independent Notre Dame) have all been considered or looked at becoming the Big 10(11)'s twelfth school? This would allow the Big 10(12) to create two divisions and hold a conference championship - establishing even more credibility in the national rankings. Now there's a scary thought.