aurorasooner
10/3/2014, 11:55 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/sports/ncaafootball/as-big-ten-declines-homegrown-talent-fades-and-flees.html?_r=0
Through the first five weeks of the season, Big Ten teams are 6-11 against the other major conferences and 4-9 against out-of-conference teams in ESPN’s Football Power Index top 50. Indiana lost to Bowling Green. Minnesota was crushed by Texas Christian. Michigan was roundly defeated by Utah at home in a game that the Wolverines paid the Utes $1 million to play.
Big Ten teams won only one title during the 16-year Bowl Championship Series era (Ohio State 2002) and have captured only one other national title since 1971 (Michigan 1997). Penn State won two titles and Nebraska won three titles in the past four decades, before joining the conference
Analysts point to several explanations for the Big Ten’s decline, among them: the delayed adoption of the hurry-up, pass-heavy offenses that others favor; a succession of mediocre coaches; and even players’ preference for warmer locales.
Today, Texas and Florida each produce more than twice as many Division I football players as Ohio does, per Scout. com. In the last three classes, according to ESPN, the Big Ten’s 11 states produced six five-star recruits. Florida alone produced 11.
“Can the Big Ten compete?” Mike Farrell, Rivals’ national recruiting director, wrote recently. “My simple answer is this: only if it recruits in the Southeast.”
Yet in the class of 2014, Illinois’s top recruit went to L.S.U., and Iowa’s went to Alabama. In the class of 2013, SEC and Atlantic Coast Conference programs poached premier prospects from Indiana and Pennsylvania, and Maryland’s top recruits went to Virginia Tech and Southern California. By contrast, Texas’ best went to Texas A&M, Louisiana’s to L.S.U., California’s to Southern California and Virginia’s to Virginia.
Financially, the Big Ten is robust, and over time, money and expansion should translate to wins. It has a billion-dollar deal with ABC/ESPN as well as its own network, a joint venture with Fox, which was the first of its kind when it debuted in 2007. Forbes recently rated the Big Ten the most valuable conference, saying it collected $318 million in one year from television deals, bowl games and N.C.A.A. tournament payouts.
By 2017, the Big Ten will negotiate a new national television deal, and Delany has told trustees that they could see payouts for each member reach $40 million.
Through the first five weeks of the season, Big Ten teams are 6-11 against the other major conferences and 4-9 against out-of-conference teams in ESPN’s Football Power Index top 50. Indiana lost to Bowling Green. Minnesota was crushed by Texas Christian. Michigan was roundly defeated by Utah at home in a game that the Wolverines paid the Utes $1 million to play.
Big Ten teams won only one title during the 16-year Bowl Championship Series era (Ohio State 2002) and have captured only one other national title since 1971 (Michigan 1997). Penn State won two titles and Nebraska won three titles in the past four decades, before joining the conference
Analysts point to several explanations for the Big Ten’s decline, among them: the delayed adoption of the hurry-up, pass-heavy offenses that others favor; a succession of mediocre coaches; and even players’ preference for warmer locales.
Today, Texas and Florida each produce more than twice as many Division I football players as Ohio does, per Scout. com. In the last three classes, according to ESPN, the Big Ten’s 11 states produced six five-star recruits. Florida alone produced 11.
“Can the Big Ten compete?” Mike Farrell, Rivals’ national recruiting director, wrote recently. “My simple answer is this: only if it recruits in the Southeast.”
Yet in the class of 2014, Illinois’s top recruit went to L.S.U., and Iowa’s went to Alabama. In the class of 2013, SEC and Atlantic Coast Conference programs poached premier prospects from Indiana and Pennsylvania, and Maryland’s top recruits went to Virginia Tech and Southern California. By contrast, Texas’ best went to Texas A&M, Louisiana’s to L.S.U., California’s to Southern California and Virginia’s to Virginia.
Financially, the Big Ten is robust, and over time, money and expansion should translate to wins. It has a billion-dollar deal with ABC/ESPN as well as its own network, a joint venture with Fox, which was the first of its kind when it debuted in 2007. Forbes recently rated the Big Ten the most valuable conference, saying it collected $318 million in one year from television deals, bowl games and N.C.A.A. tournament payouts.
By 2017, the Big Ten will negotiate a new national television deal, and Delany has told trustees that they could see payouts for each member reach $40 million.