The Big Ten Conference can no longer be called a powerhouse, at least not when it comes to football.
It started in 2012 when Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany told the critics to fire away. A lack of top-10 teams, bowl bans and blowout losses led to a lot of criticism from all angles.
“We’ve underperformed, and I can’t argue with that,” he admitted in a 2012 press conference.
Things seem to have not gotten better. Despite a good start to the season for traditionally strong teams like Ohio State, Michigan State, Penn State and Minnesota, the league is struggling. Five of the top eight teams lost in the last two weeks, an AP poll record that sparked some heated conversations about what needs to happen to fix this.
A lot of people are asking what’s going on in the Big Ten. Unfortunately, the standard excuses are the best answers. The conference needs to find a solution for their three biggest problems: a tired coaching staff, poor recruiting and a striking inconsistency that hits teams on the field.
A number of college analysts are calling for the replacement of well-known and beloved coaches, saying many have become more and more ineffectual as new recruiting classes with different goals, new styles of play and diverse attitudes come into the college football arena. For a conference that holds the tradition of Saturday afternoon football sacred, the resistance to this move is naturally overwhelming.
It can also be said that the officials need to reach out to well-established coaches that have proven they can win. Aside from the newly incorporated teams this year, Penn State and Ohio State have the newest coaches, men that have pristine records when it comes to victory.
Ohio State and Penn State recognize the need for a coaching staff that can focus their game and adapt to each season. Urban Meyer is arguably one of the best things to happen to Ohio State, winning 28 of his 31 games for the Buckeyes. Penn State has seen three coaches in as many years as the legendary Joe Paterno was fired, Bill O’Brien came and went quickly, and new head coach James Franklin took over halfway through the sanctions that shocked the football nation. Since these coaches have taken over, they have turned their respective programs around, winning big games and getting big recruits, leading to the next issue that the Big Ten needs to tackle.
Recruiting has become a major point of contention. The “recruit better” mantra has been going around for years now, but the Big Ten is actually doing worse in getting the highly ranked players. The Big Ten’s foothold in the Midwest, the traditional bread and butter region for college football recruits, is losing ground. The conference is starting to shift its recruiting focus to the South, but that has proven to be ineffective as they now have to compete with a dense population of schools that not only have dominating football programs but also the loyalty of the high school players who grew up with a religious respect for Saturday afternoons at schools like LSU, Florida, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Georgia.
Coaching and recruiting go hand in hand. Meyer and Franklin are two former SEC coaches who know what to look for and how to lock in recruits. They are aggressive and they take their search nationwide to avoid falling into a stale recruiting pattern that comes from staying in their region. To win games and win players, coaches need to break with tradition and step outside their comfort zone.
Finally, the Big Ten must learn consistency. Teams are all over the place. Penn State, for example, was 4-0 for the first time in years before a bizarre 29-6 home loss to Northwestern. A meteoric rise is often accompanied with a burning crash, which B1G teams are learning as their winning record is just as threatened as it has been in the past few years. Fans need to strap in for the proverbial roller coaster ride as the season winds down and teams either crack or flourish under the pressure.
The Big Ten once declared themselves the “Leaders and Legends” of college football. They could retake that title, and it could happen very soon – provided it finds a way to make good on its promises and rebuild.
