The Penalty Box: Big Ten Shows True Selves This Fall
December 16, 2020 at 2:07 a.m.
The Penalty Box: Big Ten Shows True Selves This Fall
By Roger Grossman-
The leadership of the Big Ten Conference proved to us what they are really all about last week.
The conference voted to overturn its own preseason rules and put Ohio State into Saturday’s Big Ten Championship football game at Lucas Oil Stadium.
When the conference announced its league-only, pandemic-shortened football season, which came weeks after it had cancelled that same season, it also released a set of rules to help determine who would play in their championship game.
They surmised, and were correct in doing so, that not everyone would be able to play the same amount of games because of COVID-related reasons. So they put in place a rule that said a team had to play at least six games to be eligible for the conference title game. Without that, a team that went 3-0 could advance over a team that was 7-1, for example.
So when Michigan announced that they would not be able to make their annual game with “the school from down south”, the Buckeyes were going to come up a game short of the required six.
And that’s when things got sideways.
The Big Ten stepped in, overturned its own rule, and is allowing Ohio State to play in the championship game against Northwestern.
They tried to tell us that Ohio State was clearly the best team in their division and they clearly deserved to be in this game.
In their defense, Ohio State looks like the best team in the Big Ten.
And that is the problem.
Sports, by definition, requires performance. Your success or failure is determined by how many baskets you make or how many touchdowns you score. It’s about how many strokes it takes you to get the ball in the hole or how many pucks you get by the other team’s goalie compared to how many they get behind yours.
Now, there are sports (gymnastics and diving, for example) where how you do it counts in your score.
Football is not one of them.
It’s not a beauty contest.
Well, it never was…until now.
The Buckeyes look the part of contender, so the conference has ignored their own direction and is doing whatever it wants to secure the outcome that fits the story they are looking for.
Why? Simple…the money!
The Big Ten gets a big chunk of money from Ohio State making it to the College Football Playoff. Like guys will do, the Big Ten chose the smokin’ hot girl in the little black dress over the one they should have invited on their date in Indianapolis.
That “other girl” would be the Indiana Hoosiers.
Yep, the Hoosiers lost to the Buckeyes head-to-head in Columbus this season. And depending on which half you look at determines your ultimate point of view. For a half of football, the boys from Bloomington were dominant. Unfortunately, they looked overmatched in the other half.
Not the point.
The point is, the Big Ten said “you MUST play six games to be considered eligible to be division champion.”
They said that. I didn’t make that rule for them. The NCAA didn’t make that rule for them. The conference did.
IU fulfilled that obligation. Ohio State did not.
Doesn’t matter whose fault it is, or isn’t. Doesn’t matter who had COVID issues and who didn’t.
In reflection, we shouldn’t be surprised at all. It wasn’t safe enough to play for the commissioners last summer, which is why they shut the season down to start with. That was, until all of the other conferences started putting plans in place for having a season, having a playoff and crowning a champ.
With that comes the money.
The Big Ten caved in at the thought that there was cash to be made and they wouldn’t be in the mix to rake it into their own laps.
And now they have done it in again.
At least we know for sure now what the Big Ten is all about.
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The leadership of the Big Ten Conference proved to us what they are really all about last week.
The conference voted to overturn its own preseason rules and put Ohio State into Saturday’s Big Ten Championship football game at Lucas Oil Stadium.
When the conference announced its league-only, pandemic-shortened football season, which came weeks after it had cancelled that same season, it also released a set of rules to help determine who would play in their championship game.
They surmised, and were correct in doing so, that not everyone would be able to play the same amount of games because of COVID-related reasons. So they put in place a rule that said a team had to play at least six games to be eligible for the conference title game. Without that, a team that went 3-0 could advance over a team that was 7-1, for example.
So when Michigan announced that they would not be able to make their annual game with “the school from down south”, the Buckeyes were going to come up a game short of the required six.
And that’s when things got sideways.
The Big Ten stepped in, overturned its own rule, and is allowing Ohio State to play in the championship game against Northwestern.
They tried to tell us that Ohio State was clearly the best team in their division and they clearly deserved to be in this game.
In their defense, Ohio State looks like the best team in the Big Ten.
And that is the problem.
Sports, by definition, requires performance. Your success or failure is determined by how many baskets you make or how many touchdowns you score. It’s about how many strokes it takes you to get the ball in the hole or how many pucks you get by the other team’s goalie compared to how many they get behind yours.
Now, there are sports (gymnastics and diving, for example) where how you do it counts in your score.
Football is not one of them.
It’s not a beauty contest.
Well, it never was…until now.
The Buckeyes look the part of contender, so the conference has ignored their own direction and is doing whatever it wants to secure the outcome that fits the story they are looking for.
Why? Simple…the money!
The Big Ten gets a big chunk of money from Ohio State making it to the College Football Playoff. Like guys will do, the Big Ten chose the smokin’ hot girl in the little black dress over the one they should have invited on their date in Indianapolis.
That “other girl” would be the Indiana Hoosiers.
Yep, the Hoosiers lost to the Buckeyes head-to-head in Columbus this season. And depending on which half you look at determines your ultimate point of view. For a half of football, the boys from Bloomington were dominant. Unfortunately, they looked overmatched in the other half.
Not the point.
The point is, the Big Ten said “you MUST play six games to be considered eligible to be division champion.”
They said that. I didn’t make that rule for them. The NCAA didn’t make that rule for them. The conference did.
IU fulfilled that obligation. Ohio State did not.
Doesn’t matter whose fault it is, or isn’t. Doesn’t matter who had COVID issues and who didn’t.
In reflection, we shouldn’t be surprised at all. It wasn’t safe enough to play for the commissioners last summer, which is why they shut the season down to start with. That was, until all of the other conferences started putting plans in place for having a season, having a playoff and crowning a champ.
With that comes the money.
The Big Ten caved in at the thought that there was cash to be made and they wouldn’t be in the mix to rake it into their own laps.
And now they have done it in again.
At least we know for sure now what the Big Ten is all about.
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