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My take on the Big 10/OSU football

OhioTrojan

Newbie
Greeting all. first time poster.

I saw the last warning about not bashing the Bucks, and I hope that this post does not come off that way. I am an aspiring sportswriter, and looking for feedback on this column. I tried to be as unbias as possible, while still getting my points across. I will let everyone know that I live in Ohio and root for the Buckeyes, however I am not a die hard fan. I am hard on the Big 10, but I believe my points are fair. If you disagree, please let me know.

I simply wanted to share my thoughts on the Big 10, Ohio State, and college football in general. I welcome any criticism, praise, and counter points. Here are my thoughts?.

1 - Ohio State is the cream of the crop in the Big 10. They beat the teams that they should beat, and play tough against the teams that they should play tough against. Until the Big 10 rebounds from their lack of depth in talented teams, or OSU stumbles? the Bucks should be two ?big game wins? away from a national championship every single year. Beat the ?out of conference? team on the schedule, and beat (insert flash in the pan Big 10 team of the year here), and you come up roses. Every time.

2 - The Big 10 isn?t as bad as everyone thinks, but it also isn?t as good as you think. The Big 10 is not the MAC. The Big 10 is not the WAC. The Big 10 is still a place where quality football recruits want to play. Unfortunately, the Big 10 is losing top recruits to "warm weather schools", and the records show this to be a trend that could have a negative impact on the conference in the future. Less top recruits means less playmakers. Less playmakers mean less wins. The Big 10 has the lowest number of teams with winning records from any BCS conference. The breakdown looks like this?

Big 12 ? 8 teams with winning record
SEC - 8 teams with winning record
ACC - 8 teams with winning record (very surprising to me)
Pac 10 ? 6 teams with winning record (also surprising, I thought it would be lower) Big East ? 6 teams with winning record
Big 10 ? 5 teams with winning record

On a positive note, the Big 10 has as many teams (3) ranked in the BCS top 25 than the ACC (3), MORE than the Pac 10 (2) and the Big East (2) however less than the Big 12 (5) and SEC (5).

As I mentioned before? the Big 10 isn?t as bad as the national media says. Let?s pretend, for a moment, that we are a mid level team in a conference looking to make a run. To do this, we must knock off the top 4 teams in our conference.

Facing Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State, and Minnesota (shockingly, 4th in the Big 10 at 7-3) seems to be much more difficult than facing Big East foes Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, West Virginia, and Connecticut.

In the same regard, staring down the barrel at Alabama, Florida, Georgia and LSU or Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri seems to be a much greater task.

To bring my point full circle, The Big 10 is not that bad? but it isn?t that good either.

3 - Terrell Pryor is an absolute player. He is the sole reason that the Buckeyes will be relevant for the next few years on the national scene. I believe he can pull a ?Vince Young? and lead the Bucks to victories over superior teams. Package that with the schedule over the next year or two and the Bucks should get to the BCS title game with wins over 2 or 3 good teams. I also think Pryor is the type of player that could WIN the big game. BCS Champions in the next few years? I wouldn?t be surprised.


4 - Penn State losing to Iowa is 50 times worse than Ohio State losing to Illinois last year. The Illini were a complete team who went on to play in a BCS Bowl game (I won?t mention that they got throttled by USC by 5 touchdowns). Iowa this year is a stepping stone. An irrelevant team that lost to Pittsburgh. Penn State should have beaten this team by 3 scores. Ohio State would have handled a team like this without missing a step.

Again, I will commend Ohio State for being the cream of the crop in the Big 10 and taking it to teams that they should take it to. Ohio State knows how to win that game. Penn State apparently doesn?t.

5 - Just a fun fact? in the past 2 seasons, the Big 10 is 0-4 in BCS games, and have been outscored by an average of 40.25 ? 18.25. That?s a difference of more than THREE touchdowns. I thought that was just an interesting fact.

6 - Heisman race is an interesting debate. If Teabag Tebow gets it, I will be [censored]ed. He shouldn?t even be in the conversation. Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree are the most exciting and excellent players on the most exciting team. If the Red Raiders navigate the Big 12 undefeated, it should be Harrell hands down in my opinion. Sam Bradford has more TDs than Harrell, so if the Sooners can upset Texas Tech this weekend, Bradford could make a case as well. Colt McCoy is a tool. Period.

7 - Another fun fact? Eddie George won the Heisman Trophy despite NOT leading his own conference in rushing. He was outgained by Darnel Autry of Northwestern.

8 - The BCS Bowl Games are a joke. Does anyone here want to see Pittsburgh take on North Carolina (potential Big East champs vs. potential ACC champs) in the ?Fiesta Douche Bag Loserville Nobody Cares About Us Bowl?? Tell me the sponsors want to see this game when teams like OSU, Oklahoma, and Florida may not be on the big stage? Eliminate this system IMMEDIATELY!


9 - Michigan still sucks.

I'd love to hear any feedback as far as writing style for this particular blog, content, and any counter points that I may be missing. I also just love college football and would enjoy hearing other people's thoughts.

 
OhioTrojan;1321523; said:
9 - Michigan still sucks.
I'd love to hear any feedback as far as writing style for this particular blog, content, and any counter points that I may be missing. I also just love college football and would enjoy hearing other people's thoughts.
As for writing style, your font decreased at the crescendo bolded above, how come?

As for substance. The majority of football fans will tell you that the B10 is down and we realize it and to your point, it is not as bad as the national media will lead us to believe. Further your point though; and I really have no idea what you will find with this or how you will prove/disprove; what about the bottom of the barrel too? The top four of the Big 12 and SEC are strong, what about the bottom 4 in relation to the Big 10's bottom 4?

Can any of them claim to have a historic program like Michigan in their bottom 4? We can!

That was nothing more than taking another shot at Michigan being awful, dont worry about responding to it.
 
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OhioTrojan;1321523; said:


Unfortunately, the Big 10 is losing top recruits to "warm weather schools"

3 - Terrell Pryor is an absolute player.

That's the main inconsistency I find in your work. Pretty good overall. But, even though I agree many recruits want to play in the "sexy" SEC and/or PAC10, looking at Pryor and Beanie Wells makes me doubt that we are losing all the top recruits. And, Pryor committed just last year. I think distance from home still means a great deal to most players.

That said, yes, Michigan still sucks.
 
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OhioTrojan;1321523; said:
Unfortunately, the Big 10 is losing top recruits to "warm weather schools", and the records show this to be a trend that could have a negative impact on the conference in the future.


I'm not seeing this trend. tOSU has landed recruits from the Bible Belt and west. If I'm not mistaken there are national tendencies among other Big 10 programs as well. I'd have to see some data on your part to recant my opinion.

OT said:
The Big 10 has the lowest number of teams with winning records from any BCS conference.

This point is actually irrelevant. I'll explain below:

OT said:
The breakdown looks like this?
OT said:
Big 12 ? 8 teams with winning record
SEC - 8 teams with winning record
ACC - 8 teams with winning record (very surprising to me)
Pac 10 ? 6 teams with winning record (also surprising, I thought it would be lower) Big East ? 6 teams with winning record
Big 10 ? 5 teams with winning record


The Big 12 has a strong South division and the North sucks balls. By the end of the season, the number of winning record teams could be lower or at least more that are closer to .500.
The SEC doesn't play any BCS OOC games sans a couple this year by Georgia and Tennessee. Thus, they run into a situation similar to the Big 12.
The ACC just plain sucks. They all have 2 or 3 losses as they beat up on each other now. This could be a prime example of parity or a number of other considerations. Ultimately, this should be Exhibit A as to why this point is not relevant.
The same can be said for the Big East.

The salient point to make is that conference superiority is difficult to determine with a lack of teams from other BCS conferences playing each other. Those scant games that have been played this year have shown where some conferences are better than others. Furthermore, it's difficult to make to many reaching assumptions considering there are a few weeks left before final standings come out.

OT said:
6 - Heisman race is an interesting debate. If Teabag Tebow gets it, I will be [censored]ed. He shouldn?t even be in the conversation. Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree are the most exciting and excellent players on the most exciting team. If the Red Raiders navigate the Big 12 undefeated, it should be Harrell hands down in my opinion. Sam Bradford has more TDs than Harrell, so if the Sooners can upset Texas Tech this weekend, Bradford could make a case as well. Colt McCoy is a tool. Period.

I don't understand the disdain for Tebow or McCoy, but that's your thing.
 
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Who exactly is the audience for this piece? LA/USC fans? There are quite a few not-so-subtle jabs, which were more than just "fun facts."


6 - Heisman race is an interesting debate. If Teabag Tebow gets it, I will be [censored]ed. He shouldn?t even be in the conversation. Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree are the most exciting and excellent players on the most exciting team. If the Red Raiders navigate the Big 12 undefeated, it should be Harrell hands down in my opinion. Sam Bradford has more TDs than Harrell, so if the Sooners can upset Texas Tech this weekend, Bradford could make a case as well. Colt McCoy is a tool. Period.
This reads like an emotional message board rant, not an aspiring columnist.

8 - The BCS Bowl Games are a joke. Does anyone here want to see Pittsburgh take on North Carolina (potential Big East champs vs. potential ACC champs) in the ?Fiesta Douche Bag Loserville Nobody Cares About Us Bowl?? Tell me the sponsors want to see this game when teams like OSU, Oklahoma, and Florida may not be on the big stage? Eliminate this system IMMEDIATELY!
Same with this. BTW, I think the Big East is somewhat close to losing their automatic bid status, but someone would have to check the numbers on that.
7 - Another fun fact? Eddie George won the Heisman Trophy despite NOT leading his own conference in rushing. He was outgained by Darnel Autry of Northwestern.
First of all, that's false. Eddie ran for 1927 yds & 24 tds. Darnell ran for 1786.
Second of all, that's not much of a rebuttal. Raw numbers aren't the only deciding factor.

Big 12 ? 8 teams with winning record
Will that continue with Oklahoma State, Kansas & Missouri? At least as perennial top-15 teams?
4 - Penn State losing to Iowa is 50 times worse than Ohio State losing to Illinois last year. The Illini were a complete team who went on to play in a BCS Bowl game (I won?t mention that they got throttled by USC by 5 touchdowns). Iowa this year is a stepping stone. An irrelevant team that lost to Pittsburgh. Penn State should have beaten this team by 3 scores. Ohio State would have handled a team like this without missing a step.
50 times worse is a bit sloppy. Iowa this year... needs to flow into the following sentence with a comma.

Again, I will commend Ohio State for being the cream of the crop in the Big 10 and taking it to teams that they should take it to. Ohio State knows how to win that game. Penn State apparently doesn?t.
reword to not end with to & doesn't.


3 - Terrell Pryor is an absolute player. He is the sole reason that the Buckeyes will be relevant for the next few years on the national scene.
You might want to do some research on the other talent they're bringing in, talent they have not had (on paper - according to recruiting sites - anyway) since the epic 02 class (which produced incredible talent).

For all of OSU's talent even this year, they have a lot of question marks on the OL. They had limited incoming talent, took some risks/projects, and it came back to bite them. If Shugarts was healthy, he likely would have been the 2nd true frosh to replace a multi-year, veteran starter. That is a telling trend with OSU's struggles.
 
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Thank you for clearing all of that up for us. The internet is a wonderful thing. Tonight it served to convey your message of the blatantly obvious to an audience that really does not care what you think about the Big Ten, tOSU, college football, or anything else. Thanks to the internet you can set up your very own blog or website (you can even charge people $77 or a reduced "act now" price of $49.95 for your insight). Doing so would be a much better idea than downloading the full contents of your brain as in your first post here. If you're a Buckeye fan, great and welcome, but take a deep breath, look around and then post something, just one thing, that is actually somewhat provocative or thoughtful. If you're not, then move on.

There are a lot of people here (and I don't claim to be one of them) who put an enormous amount of time into this thing and know more than we ever will about Ohio State and football, generally. Again, take a look around and then try post something worth reading.
 
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OhioTrojan;1321523; said:
2 - The Big 10 isn?t as bad as everyone thinks, but it also isn?t as good as you think. The Big 10 is not the MAC. The Big 10 is not the WAC. The Big 10 is still a place where quality football recruits want to play. Unfortunately, the Big 10 is losing top recruits to "warm weather schools", and the records show this to be a trend that could have a negative impact on the conference in the future. Less top recruits means less playmakers. Less playmakers mean less wins. The Big 10 has the lowest number of teams with winning records from any BCS conference. The breakdown looks like this?

Big 12 ? 8 teams with winning record
SEC - 8 teams with winning record
ACC - 8 teams with winning record (very surprising to me)
Pac 10 ? 6 teams with winning record (also surprising, I thought it would be lower) Big East ? 6 teams with winning record
Big 10 ? 5 teams with winning record

On a positive note, the Big 10 has as many teams (3) ranked in the BCS top 25 than the ACC (3), MORE than the Pac 10 (2) and the Big East (2) however less than the Big 12 (5) and SEC (5).

In addition the reasons jwinslow mentioned, this isn't the best metric because the conferences listed have different numbers of total teams. For example, 8/12 teams in the Big 12 and SEC have winning records (67%), while 6/8 in the Big East do (75%), but the way you have it listed, the Big East is nearly the worst (which it may be, but not for this reason). The only positive I see to this method is that by the end of the year, no teams in the one-team "Notre Dame" Conference will have winning records, making it the weakest one.

Personally, I find the computer rankings to be an convincing way to assess conference strength; although they aren't perfect, they takes much more into account than this method.
 
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Thanks to those of you that gave thoughtful responses. Your feedback is appreciated.

It seems people have an issue with the claim that warm weather climate is a factor when a recruit chooses a school. From Rivals.com, 8 of the top 10 recruiting classes for 2009 are from warm weather schools. (Rivals.com - Football Recruiting) Notre Dame and Ohio State are the only exceptions. From ESPN.com, the same holds true for 2008 and 2007. (ESPN - Miami claims top 2008 recruiting class - Football Recruiting) and (2007 Recruiting Classes - AthlonSports.com).

I also never claimed Ohio State couldn't bring in top talent. It is quite obvious that I don't believe that with the mention of Pryor. They can, but one team bringing in talent does not change the facts that the conference is struggling to do so. (which was my original statement)

Again, for those of you that took the time to piece together valid counter points, I appreciate it. Those of you that acted like neandrethals... I guess I shouldn't be surprised. :oh: :io:!!!
 
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OhioTrojan;1321622; said:
Those of you that acted like neandrethals... I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

sports journalism, so easy a caveman can do it...

geico_caveman.jpg
 
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Are you a trojan fan?

What is the point of the article? And how does the later portion fit into it at all?
It seems people have an issue with the claim that warm weather climate is a factor when a recruit chooses a school. From Rivals.com, 8 of the top 10 recruiting classes for 2009 are from warm weather schools. (Rivals.com - Football Recruiting) Notre Dame and Ohio State are the only exceptions.
First of all, most of the football talent is in the south. Regarding the north, there's almost nothing in the left half of the country, and very little in the north east. Michigan has a very thin amount of top talent, same with Indiana & Kentucky.

Second of all, you seem to be selling this as a recent trend. It's been like this for awhile.
 
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OhioTrojan;1321622; said:
I also never claimed Ohio State couldn't bring in top talent. It is quite obvious that I don't believe that with the mention of Pryor. They can, but one team bringing in talent does not change the facts that the conference is struggling to do so. (which was my original statement)

Again, for those of you that took the time to piece together valid counter points, I appreciate it. Those of you that acted like neandrethals... I guess I shouldn't be surprised. :oh: :io:!!!

That's assuming rivals/scout knows what the fuck they are talking about. If you'd like, I'm sure a few of us could throw some names your way that rivals/scout missed the fucking boat on completely. :wink:

Unga bunga, fuck off.
 
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