Tressel resigns at Ohio State

“It’s the cover-up that got Tressel, not that crime itself,” said Brent Musburger, ESPN’s college football expert, on SportsCenter this morning.

On a day that many Americans gather as a family and grill out, kicking off summer and remembering the men and women of our armed forces, Jim Tressel decided to call it a career at Ohio State, resigning amidst a cloud of NCAA investigations.

The University released these statements earlier today:

“In consultation with the senior leadership of the Board of Trustees, I have been actively reviewing matters attendant to our football program, and I have accepted Coach Tressel's resignation,” said President E. Gordon Gee. “The University's enduring public purposes and its tradition of excellence continue to guide our actions.”

Jim Tressel said, “After meeting with University officials, we agreed that it is in the best interest of Ohio State that I resign as head football coach. The appreciation that Ellen and I have for the Buckeye Nation is immeasurable.”

Athletics Director Gene Smith said, “We look forward to refocusing the football program on doing what we do best representing this extraordinary University and its values on the field, in the classroom, and in life. We look forward to supporting Luke Fickell in his role as our football coach. We have full confidence in his ability to lead our football program.”

Ray Ratto of CBSSports.com wrote, “And no, this is not a tragedy. Tragedy is when you don't have it coming. Retribution is when you do. Jim Tressel took care of himself while acting like he would never do so, and shamed himself.”

And of course, after my dad, Ohio State class of 1984, made some pretty scathing comments in late April (http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/04/thoughts-on-ohio-state-and-jim-tressel.html) people may want to know what he thinks.

So here you go: “Can we get rid of the cheating players too?”

The Columbus Dispatch’s website still proclaims the amount of days that have passed since Michigan last beat Ohio State. The count sits at 2,746, and in 180 days, that count might re-start. On the last Saturday in November the two schools will meet in what should be a very muted rivalry game, depending on how many Ohio State players are still eligible at that point.

According to the ESPN.com Big Ten blog, “Tressel boasts a 9-1 record against archrival Michigan and is the only Ohio State coach to defeat the Wolverines in seven consecutive games.”

But, as my dad has noted on more than one occasion, it really doesn’t matter if you can beat Michigan if you’re not doing it the right way.

Bennett joins Big Ten Blog

If you are a fan of Big east football, you’ve certainly read Brian Bennett’s Big East blog on ESPN.com’s College Football blog network. If you’re anything like me, you’re a religious reader of the blog.

So when Bennett suddenly announced on Friday afternoon that he was leaving the Big east blog to go help Adam Rittenberg cover the newly revamped Big Ten (or 12, however you care to look at it) it shocked a lot of people, yours truly included.

I’ve been lucky enough to meet BB (as we in the UC football video office refer to him as) a few times. The most notable was in the Rutgers pressbox in 2009, hours before the perfect season kicked off.

Bennett had just finished a story about our new EA Sports video game system that our quarterbacks would use for the first time on that road trip. Brian had interviewed John Sells, UC Video Coordinator, about how the program worked and was being utilized by our program. Our Sports Information Director Ryan Koslen introduced us as “big fans” to BB. He stood and chatted with us for a few minutes before we parted.

So when it came around to getting help for my Journalism seminar class project this quarter, I reached out BB, and told him of the many times we’d crossed paths. He kindly obliged to answer a few questions via e-mail about our project and his view of the field of journalism.

I’m certainly going to miss Brian Bennett’s take on the Big East, but I do wish him well on his new venture in the Big Ten. I’m sure he’ll have a lot to write about there, and he’s damn good at what he does.

Enjoy it Big Ten fans. BB is a good one…and a great guy to boot.

Thoughts on Ohio State and Jim Tressel

It seems that everyone wants to see Jim Tressel ousted at Ohio State. But one OSU graduate had some very, very passionate remarks regarding his alma mater’s head coach.

I really could care less what the school up north of here decides to do with their head coach. It seems that they are in a lose-lose situation. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Paul Daugherty, “The question The Ohio State University needs to be pondering is this: At what point does its soul matter more than its football coach’s ability to beat Michigan?”

Well, a 1984 graduate of “The” Ohio State University, my dad, Steve recently took to everyone’s favorite quote machine to answer these questions. In response to a question posed to him by my former co-worker Joe Stanek, my dad said, “I say fire the coach and never let the players step foot on the OSU field again. Cleaning house is not a bad thing. OSU will still win games. They fired Woody, and lived through Earle Bruce.”

My dad, Steve (on the right), is a 1984 graduate of Ohio State. He's pictured here with me (left) and my brother Tony (middle) before the 2007 Brickyard 400

Well, they fired Woody Hayes right before my dad got to Ohio State, so he actually lived through the Earle Bruce era, and he always says that he was a part of the only class to go through Ohio State that never beat Michigan.

In fact, Tressel is revered for his record against Ohio State’s biggest rival. There’s even a counter on the Columbus Dispatch’s website counting the days it has been since Michigan last beat Ohio State on the gridiron.

“Tressel has done far worse damage than Woody’s 68-year-old weak right cross that player didn’t even feel. FIRE him,” my dad continued.

It’s always fun to hear my dad talk about Ohio State because he doesn’t necessarily care too much about the Buckeyes anymore. After all, he’s paying for his two sons to attend the University of Cincinnati (and one of them actually works for the UC football program—that’d be me, in case you were wondering). When Ohio State is on, he pays attention, and he wears Buckeye shirts, but he’s by no means a diehard fan of the program.

Which makes his argument stand up even more in my mind. Diehard fans of the OSU program are way too often blinded by their own fandom to see the facts. When I suggested in late 2007 that Ohio State was ducking UC and buying out a portion of the contract because they didn’t want to play against the Bearcats, I was mocked. A few months later, lo and behold, an official announcement was made that Ohio State was buying out UC.

Call me a hater, but I knew the facts before super fans wanted to admit. Not that they’ll ever tell me I was right beforehand.

And what about the five players, who now look like saints up against their head coach and protector. “Also, the players have disgraced the reputation of the school and should never set foot on the field again,” my dad said.

One grad has spoken. Do you agree? I don’t mind the reasoning behind my dad’s argument, but I could care less what Ohio State does. Until they want to play us.

Rodriguez out at Michigan: The (college) coaching carousel continues

If you miss a day of college football, you might as well miss a week of noteworthy news. Today in Ann Arbor, Rich Rodriguez was finally let go as head coach at Michigan. This news may have come to the Wolverine fan base as a necessary move, but probably came much to the chagrin of Ohio State fans.

Athletic director Dave Brandon said, “I believe this is the best decision for the future of Michigan football. We have not achieved at the level that I expect.”

Rodriguez left West Virginia after the 2007 season and never really made it click in Michigan, where he compiled a lackluster 15-22 record in three seasons, with only one bowl appearance. It definitely wasn’t what Michigan fans thought they were getting after Lloyd Carr stepped down after the 2007 season.

Sure Carr couldn’t beat Ohio State and wasn’t delivering with the success that his sweatervest-wearing counterpart at Ohio State was doing, but Carr wasn’t doing a bad job either. Michigan seemed to panic and hire a guy who, by all means, was a great coach. Trust me, I’d seen his offenses take the Big East and my own team by storm.

That being said, I’m once again shocked by the fact that this college football world (and the NFL for that matter) has turned into the, ‘what have you done for me now’ type of world. Rodriguez endured some hiccups in his first season, and that was expected because he had to change offensive styles, and recruit young men to fit his spread system.

ESPN.com’s Big Ten blogger Adam Rittenberg noted, “There’s the counterargument, of course, that Michigan didn’t give Rodriguez enough time to get things on track.” It’s tough to disagree with that, but some athletic programs want to win, and they want to win now.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that college football’s coaching turnover is really, really irritating. And while I understand it, I wonder if Michigan made the right move. Of course if Brandon hadn’t dismissed Rodriguez, next season would have been the make or break season for Rich Rod in the Big House (where he was 11-11 in his three seasons by the way). The media scrutiny would have been just as bad as it has been in the previous few weeks for Rodriguez, and every loss would have been even worse.

When I flipped open the newest copy of Sports Illustrated this week, I read the back page article by Joe Posnanski. He mentioned Urban Meyer’s stepping away and Joe Paterno’s seeming endurance in this crazy world of college athletics. “Not only is Paterno different from Meyer, but he is also likely the last of a breed: the coach who built a life around a single major college-football program,” he wrote.

With constant coaching changes I believe Posnanski is correct in his assessment. Heck, it’s tough to find high school head coaches that stick around their programs for a long time (at least in the Cincinnati area). Doug Ramsey has been the head man at Elder High School since 1997, and although he will probably last another decade or so at Elder, he was once rumored to have looked at other jobs (namely the Mason opening a few years back).

Even high school seems to be full of coaches that are on the move for one reason or another. All the changes that occur with a coaching transition hurt student-athletes and other staff members who may end up having to look for new jobs when coaching transitions occur.

When Mark Dantonio left Cincinnati after the 2006 season, my current boss, UC video coordinator John Sells, told me he was worried about whether or not Brian Kelly would bring in his own video guy, or if Sells would get to keep the job he had just gotten in June of that year.

“You never know,” he told me. “You think, ‘Is the new guy going to bring in his own guy?’ Because some coaches have their own guy, and some don’t.”

Obviously the carousel of coaches will stop spinning here in a week or two, but plenty of jobs are still open, including Michigan, Pittsburgh and Connecticut, just to name a few. When the wheels stop spinning it’s anyone’s guess as to where coaches and assistants (video guys included—hey gotta keep a look out on the folks I work around) will end up.

I can’t wait for the carnival ride to stop, and honestly, if my life hadn’t been affected so strongly by our own coaching transition last year (albeit not the same as the head coach getting fired, in fact, quite the opposite) I wouldn’t feel so strongly about it.

My advice to fans, athletic directors and anyone else who will take my advice is, be patient, be calm, and maybe, just maybe, your head coach will raise your program up to walk on stormy seas. If you fire him before you get the chance to see if he’ll raise you up, then the onus is on you.

Ohio State President up in arms about TCU and Boise State

“They will have to drag a college football playoff system out of my cold, dead hands,”—Gordon Gee, President of Ohio State circa January 19, 2008

Back in 2008 everyone’s favorite whipping boy in college football was Ohio State. And who could blame them? They had just gotten whipped in two straight National Title games by SEC opponents, and Jim Tressel looked a lot more befuddled than he had when he won a National Title in 2003 at Ohio State.

Now, two years after the defeats, Ohio State’s President, Gordon Gee, stuck his neck out and made some very provocative statements to the Associated Press about non-BCS automatic qualifying schools Boise State and TCU.

“Well, I don't know enough about the Xs and Os of college football,” said Gee. “I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it's like murderer’s row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day.

“So I think until a university runs through that gauntlet that there’s some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to [be] in the big ballgame.”

Well, at least he didn’t say this last year when the “little brother” down the road was within a second of making the National Title game. We all know that the Big East is basically the Little Sisters of the Poor, just in a different habit (take that comment as tongue-in-cheek).

I could go on and on and on about how TCU and Boise may, or may not deserve to be in the National Title game at year’s end. I could rant and rave about how we should have a playoff in college football, but honestly, no one wants to hear my babble. Plus, the ‘A’ I received on my English paper a few years ago arguing for a modified playoff system (just call it the Niemeyer theory) was pretty good.

Maybe one day I’ll share it with the world. Lord knows Gordon Gee won’t agree with me.

“It’s not about this incessant drive to have a national championship because I think that’s a slippery slope to professionalism,” Gee said. “I’m a fan of the bowl system and I think that by and large it's worked very, very well.”

Crazy thing is, I agree with that last statement. Stay tuned for more fun developments involving college football, including the week 13 Big East preview, and maybe a more in-depth look at the playoff vs bowl system debate. Maybe Jake would join me in that endeavor? We’ll see.

Expansion? Who cares?

All the rage in college football these days is talk of Big Ten expansion. In fact, without it, I’m relatively sure ESPN would be looking for actual stories to cover right now in college football. Instead, everyone is talking expansion, and the probable demise of the Big East conference.

I’m not having any of it. And neither is Pittsburgh head coach Dave Wannstedt.

He met last week with in-state comrade Joe Paterno to discuss Pennsylvania high schools adapting a new practice policy and announcing that the two schools would be hosting high school coaches for clinics.

According to the AP report, “Wannstedt declined comment when asked afterward of rumors that Pitt is a possible Big Ten target. Wannstedt said he has had ‘zero’ discussions about the issue and that any talks would be taken up by school administrators.”

This weekend Tom Luicci, of the New Jersey Star-Ledger wrote an in-depth piece about Rutgers joining the Big Ten. Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano took the same route as Wannstedt. “I hear the talk just like you do,” Schiano told Luicci. “But I don’t know anything more. A lot of powerful people are making statements that would lead you to believe maybe. I don’t know.”

On ESPN’s “College Football Live” on Friday afternoon analysts debated hypothetical expansion situations. Four teams from the Big East—Connecticut, Rutgers, West Virginia and South Florida—were wrapped up into a larger Atlantic Coast Conference. Two, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, left for the expanded Big Ten. Cincinnati and Louisville were the only two Big East teams to not make a new “super conference” according to the show.

Pat Forde, ESPN.com analyst spoke via phone on the show and noted that Cincinnati and Louisville own three of the past five Big East BCS bow berths, and felt it a little odd that the two schools would be left out of expansion of any kind. Boise State was another perennial contender that would be left out of a “super conference”.

Why should Big East schools want to stay in the eight-team league? Easy, just ask Notre Dame head man Brian Kelly, who, numerous times during his three-year tenure at Cincinnati, noted that the Big East was the easiest conference to win. In order to win and go to a BCS bowl, he’d note, all you had to do was win seven games, and there was no conference title game.

So, why should schools from the Big East want to jump ship to go to a conference where they’d have to play seven games and a conference title game? Money, money, money.

Big Ten teams earned an enormous sum of $22 million per team last season. The Big East earned $33 million by itself, and $20 million of that came from basketball deals. So, for Rutgers, Pittsburgh and other schools named in the hypothetical Big East expansion talk, money literally does talk.

Who will bite? Who will remain in the Big East? Will the Big East fold? Where will UC end up? Where will West Virginia go?

Want my thoughts? Who cares? A poll on UC’s student-run newspaper, The News Record, wanted to know where UC would end up after the Big Ten raided the Big East and the Big East ceased to exist? Four options: the ACC, a redesigned Big East/Other, the Big Ten or Conference USA.

Forty percent of those who voted (59 students) say Conference USA. Thirty percent said a redesigned Big East or other, and 27% said the ACC. Apparently the sky is falling down in Bearcat land.

Just don’t tell Athletic Director Mike Thomas that. “It’s difficult to speculate on what will happen,” he told the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Bill Koch a few weeks ago. A lot of “experts” think college football is headed to four 16-team “superconferences” to decide the national title. Thomas thinks UC would be one of those 64 teams.

If you came here looking for my opinion, well, you already got it: Who cares? When a co-worker of mine came into the office and said, “Bring back Rick Minter, we’re going to be in Conference USA,” I was shocked. I asked, “What the heck are you talking about?” He responded, “The Big Ten is going to raid the Big East and we’re done.”

Well, glad to know people who work on BCS level football teams are thinking the same thing. Hey, call me back when things actually happen. Maybe then we’ll do some talking. Until then, let’s sit back and talk about football—not hypotheticals.
--
Sooner or later I’ll begin looking at the Big East football schedules. This year I have decided to offer last year’s guest blogger, and WPTS Sports Director, Jake Meyer another shot at looking at Big East football. We’ll be looking at each team here shortly. When I have the dates, you’ll know. Thanks for reading.

Pike shines in Nippert Stadium finale

Tony Pike was one of sixteen seniors who took the field for the University of Cincinnati on Friday afternoon for the final time. The seniors—who decide which uniforms the ‘Cast will wear—decided upon red tops with black pants, a topic I shall breach later, but no matter what the ‘Cats seem to have on at home, they always come away with a win.

Led by Pike’s six touchdown passes, a new school single-game record, the Bearcats defeated the Big Ten bottom feeder Illinois 49-36. Pike threw 46 passes on the day, completing 32 of them for 399 yards. Two scores went to Mardy Gilyard who broke Dominck Goodman’s career touchdown mark with 24 career TD snags. Gilyard—also playing for the final time in Cincinnati—scored the ‘Cats first touchdown on a kickoff return.

Gilyard dives into the endzone in front of Channel 9 (WCPO) camerman Mark Slaughter

Ben Guidugli, a junior tight end, and brother of the former single game touchdown pass record holder Gino, caught seven passes for 149 yards and two touchdowns. Armon Binns and DJ Woods tallied one TD grab each.

And, for the first time in school history the UC Bearcats are 11-0. They head to Pittsburgh next weekend for the de facto Big East title game. Not to promote myself as the next Nostradamus or anything, but I stated back in March, “The December 5th matchup with Pitt is primed to be another decisive Big East game, at least that’s what the Big East office is hoping for. If this season turns out anything like last season did, then we’ll see the Panthers and the Bearcats duking it out on national television for the Big East trophy. The side pot for this game will then be the “River City Rivalry” trophy.”-- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2009/03/big-east-football-schedules-cincinnati.html

Even with the Pittsburgh loss last night, this game is for all the marbles. But, we’ve still got one whole week to discuss that one.

Some notes and thoughts on Illinois:
-First, people need to calm down about Brian Kelly to Notre Dame. And stop asking me if he’s going too. I don’t know anything more than you do. When I do, I might tell you, but it’s highly doubtful.

-Second, the uniform selection for this game was stupid. Period, end of discussion. I like our seniors, I love what they’ve done for this program and everything they’ve endured, but we only wear red jerseys once a year, the “Ring of Red” game. No other time should we wear red jerseys. But, I’ll forgive them for the faux pas, we won handily.
-Third, who cares that we didn’t run the ball that much? Obviously Big Ten supporters would proclaim their dominance over the ‘lowly’ Big East by pointing to this game and its end result. One person told me during the game, “My dad is telling me how bad UC would do in the Big Ten right now.” Gee, glad we don’t play in the Big Ten. Of course if we did, we might be the number two team in the nation right now.

-Which brings me to point number four: We need a lot of help to make it to Pasadena. Texas A&M gave Texas a slight scare but couldn’t pull it off. Auburn was about ninety seconds away from creating BCS mayhem on Friday too. So far, UC is fifth in all three polls (USA Today, AP and BCS). UC needs Nebraska to defeat Texas on Saturday and hope that their defeat of Pittsburgh is enough to jump TCU in the Coaches’ Poll to possibly make it into the national title game against the winner of the Alabama/Florida SEC title game. It almost makes your head spin.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Even this week is the final week of classes and I’m going to be quite busy with class and football I’ll try to sneak in some time to preview the UC-Pitt game in depth. You also may hear me on a radio station near you (if you live in Pittsburgh—stay “tuned” for more details).

Is UC the best football team in Ohio? Maybe…

In years past there has never been a debate as to who carries the banner as the best team in the state of Ohio. Yet, many Ohio State fans have all but erased the near loss to Cincinnati in their national title season of 2002. Ohio State fans dismiss the near loss as a lucky near win for the Cincinnati Bearcats—who weren’t even in a BCS conference at the time.

In just seven seasons the winds have changed in both Columbus and Cincinnati. After getting waxed by Florida and Louisiana State in two straight national title games and being embarrassed in other big games the groans toward former untouchable head coach Jim Tressel have fired up.

Meanwhile, two hours down the road in lowly Cincinnati the Bearcats have won an outright conference title and went to their first BCS bowl game ever. It’s only a small step for the school once better known for its basketball. Head man Brian Kelly is practically a god in the Queen City and his style of running the Bearcat program has excited the whole fanbase.

Although Ohio State bought their way out of a road trip to Cincinnati in 2011 by paying the Bearcats a cool million dollars to travel to Columbus that season, we won’t know until then who really is the best team in the state.

Ohio State fans easily outnumber UC Bearcat fans in the state and nationally, but through the winning ways of Kelly those who were never really a fan of either program in the city of Cincinnati have now changed their allegiance. Those who used to wear scarlet and gray on Saturdays in Cincinnati now wear red and black Bearcat gear.

Of course until the teams meet up on the field—which may not even happen in 2011, it’s honestly up to Ohio State—we truly will never know who is the better team. But this week a reporter asked Oregon State head coach Mike Riley, “Coach, you’ll obviously never get Ohio State to play a home-and-home series here, but are you playing the best team in the state of Ohio this weekend?”

(And I shall make no comment on the fact that what the reporter said was true because no sane Ohio State fan would admit that they’d duck an out of conference opponent… Well, one not named Cincinnati)

His answer Buckeye fans, will surprise you. You’re no longer alone at the top.

“We might be,” Riley responded.

To make a statement the Bearcats just have to win on Saturday afternoon. And until they actually play Ohio State, UC will just sit on the fact that Riley said the Bearcats are the best team in the state of Ohio. They’ve certainly played like it in the first two contests.

My Take: the Big East vs. the Big Ten

It’s an argument that pits the two best teams college football teams in Ohio: the University of Cincinnati (and our 2008 outright Big East conference championship) and the Ohio State Buckeyes (and their share of the 2008 Big Ten title, they lost to Penn State, also a “co-champ”).

Who is better? Well fans may have to wait until they die to find that out (Ohio State has repeatedly paid off UC to not play them in the near future; a fact, not an opinion) but we can at least look at statistics to see who plays in a better league.

By far the Big Ten is a better league for football right? They played in two straight national titles just a few seasons ago. Ohio State got throttled in both games. The only true way we would have had to see this Big East vs Big Ten battle play out is if West Virginia beat Pitt in 2007 (an oft talked about game on this blog). West Virginia would have played Ohio State. Big East vs Big Ten to settle the battle once and for all. Instead we were left to play it out on video games to see who would have won.

The Big Ten began in 1896. They have 25 national titles. By comparison the Big East has just one championship. The Big East began as a football conference in 1991. Since the Big East began playing football the Big Ten has captured two national titles (Michigan in 1997 and Ohio State in 2002) to the Big East’s one (Miami (FL) in 2001).

Miami (FL) no longer plays in the Big East. They defected for the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in 2004. Even though many writers, fans and college football gurus wrote off the Big East after that season, the Big East went on a tear in BCS bowl games. The first Big East loss in a BCS game since the re-alignment? The 20-7 win by former Big East member Virginia Tech over Big East newbie Cincinnati in last year’s Orange Bowl.

In the 2008 Sagarin ratings, done by college football expert Jeff Sagarin, the BCS conferences were ranked according to strength of schedule and more factors. The Big East was fifth of six BCS conferences. Not good at all. The Big Ten was sixth.

Michigan head man Rich Rodriguez—the same guy who was at the helm for West Virginia’s near national title game run in 2007—compared the Big Ten now to the Big East right after that re-alignment. “When Miami, Virginia Tech and BC left, everyone said the Big East was way down and wouldn’t survive,” he said. “I said then that the best thing for Big East was for each individual school to make a commitment to the program to do the very best it could. If every school got better individual, then the league’s perception would get better. That’s what happened.”

Last season the Big Ten went 1-6 in bowls. The Big East went 4-2. Arguments from Big Ten supporters state that the Big East didn’t play anyone in their bowl games. Why? Most experts know how much national support the Big East lost in 2004, and their bowl tie-ins were hurt as well. The Big Ten made up two of the ten BCS teams, the Big East had one. All three lost.

Ohio State is often known as a “pro factory” and one OSU magazine proclaims them as, “Wide Receiver U.” Last year the Buckeyes finished an abysmal 105th in the nation in passing offense out of 117 Division-I FBS teams. But, only six teams had multiple receivers drafted in the 2009 NFL Draft. Of those six teams, Ohio State ranked last in average passing yards per game. Rutgers, of the Big East, ranked second. It’s tough to argue with Ohio State headman Jim Tressel’s comments about his receivers.

“Yeah, you can go somewhere else and catch twice as many balls for maybe less yards per catch,” he said. “But come here and we’ll train you and see if we can win some games and send you on.”

Rutgers averaged 270 yards per game through the air, OSU averaged 150. Let’s say each team has two wideouts that split the catches and the yards. At ten catches a Buckeye would average 7.5 yards per catch. At twice that number—Tressel’s figurative suggestion—a Rutgers player would catch 20 balls for 13.5 yards per completion. Last time I checked 13.5 was greater than 7.5, case closed.

A few weeks ago Matt Hayes of the Sporting News released his list of the top five coaches in America. His list included Florida’s Urban Meyer (a UC alum), USC’s Pete Carroll, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops and Alabama’s Nick Saban. The fifth best coach in America? According to Todd Porter in the magazine named “Buckeye Battle Cry” (which by the way was mailed to Cincinnati media outlets, I guess that means these media folks should cover Ohio State and not Cincinnati. Yet another reason for UC fans to dislike the school in the state’s capital, but I digress) that fifth coach, who is referenced with the other four, is Jim Tressel.

Porter covers Ohio State football for the AP. Hayes, a guy who writes for The Sporting News, a non-team affiliated group, disagrees. Brian Kelly is the fifth best coach in America according to Hayes’s list released last month. Brian Kelly, the head coach at the University of Cincinnati. The “little brother” of the state. The second best team in the state.

Get the point? For as high and mighty as Big Ten fans—especially those wearing Scarlet and Gray—can be, they fail to realize the plain and simple truth: The Big East and the Big Ten are fairly similar. One just has more recognition. I guess having 113 years of history will do that for you. Check back in 100 years and we’ll see who is better. Until then, I guess we’ll have to wait for a Big East vs Big Ten matchup in a bowl game to prove it once and for all.

Honestly, Penn State and Minnesota wiping up Syracuse this season just doesn’t cut it. But don’t tell your Big Ten friends that. They’ll think it means they rule the world.