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**BCWWF** · 01-02-2007, 04:10 AM

Now that I have an objective post down, I am going to go on a rant about how Michigan and the Big Ten is overrated, as was seen today with Michigan's loss.

I never thought that Michigan deserved to be in the national championship game, and I had a few reasons. One, in the current setup, without the playoffs, Michigan already lost to the top team. Another loss proves that they never belonged, a win proves nothing. You can argue that Michigan almost beat Ohio State at the shoe, but I will argue that rivalry games, especially the biggest rivalry game in the nation, are not standard. I think Michigan showed today how good it really is. A top 10 team, but probably not No. 2.

The second reason I think Michigan did not deserve to be in the BCS championship is because they went undefeated for 11 weeks as a product of the Big Ten being in an off year. People look at the Big Ten and see an undefeated team, a one loss team and a two loss team, and think the Big Ten is having a great year. The reality is that behind those three teams, the Big Ten as a whole is having a big down year. Penn State fell flat for most of the year, Purdue was nothing special, Iowa had a horrible breakdown for the second half and Minnesota was a disgrace to a bowl game. I have said before that Wisconsin had so many wins because of an easy schedule (nobody in nonconfernece, no Ohio State in conference). Today might have proven that they are actually a pretty good team, but you can also argue that Arkansas is not the team today that it was when it was getting all the big wins. I would normally consider the Big Ten the second best overall football conference. The SEC always has some top tier teams and a lot of very good teams as well. The Big Ten is usually the same way, but this year it simply had no depth.

So basically what I am trying to say is that instead of judging Michigan by the teams they lost to, it is more accurate to judge the teams that they beat. Michigan lost to the No. 1 team, but Florida beat No. 13, 9 and 8. Any team can lose to Ohio State, but not every team can win 12 games with the nations best strength of schedule. Yeah, Florida lost to a worse team than Michigan did, but they also beat more better teams. Michigan beat all of its opponents except Ohio State, but in their 11 wins, they didn't beat teams the caliber of Tennessee, LSU and Arkansas. For Michigan to prove that they wouldn't have lost to Auburn, they would have had to go undefeated, in my opinion, because the Big Ten was not a great conference this year.

I think the right decision was made, and I am glad there will not be controversy when the BCS game is done.

01-02-2007, 04:10 AM	#893
BCWWF The People's Member Posts: 18,092	Now that I have an objective post down, I am going to go on a rant about how Michigan and the Big Ten is overrated, as was seen today with Michigan's loss. I never thought that Michigan deserved to be in the national championship game, and I had a few reasons. One, in the current setup, without the playoffs, Michigan already lost to the top team. Another loss proves that they never belonged, a win proves nothing. You can argue that Michigan almost beat Ohio State at the shoe, but I will argue that rivalry games, especially the biggest rivalry game in the nation, are not standard. I think Michigan showed today how good it really is. A top 10 team, but probably not No. 2. The second reason I think Michigan did not deserve to be in the BCS championship is because they went undefeated for 11 weeks as a product of the Big Ten being in an off year. People look at the Big Ten and see an undefeated team, a one loss team and a two loss team, and think the Big Ten is having a great year. The reality is that behind those three teams, the Big Ten as a whole is having a big down year. Penn State fell flat for most of the year, Purdue was nothing special, Iowa had a horrible breakdown for the second half and Minnesota was a disgrace to a bowl game. I have said before that Wisconsin had so many wins because of an easy schedule (nobody in nonconfernece, no Ohio State in conference). Today might have proven that they are actually a pretty good team, but you can also argue that Arkansas is not the team today that it was when it was getting all the big wins. I would normally consider the Big Ten the second best overall football conference. The SEC always has some top tier teams and a lot of very good teams as well. The Big Ten is usually the same way, but this year it simply had no depth. So basically what I am trying to say is that instead of judging Michigan by the teams they lost to, it is more accurate to judge the teams that they beat. Michigan lost to the No. 1 team, but Florida beat No. 13, 9 and 8. Any team can lose to Ohio State, but not every team can win 12 games with the nations best strength of schedule. Yeah, Florida lost to a worse team than Michigan did, but they also beat more better teams. Michigan beat all of its opponents except Ohio State, but in their 11 wins, they didn't beat teams the caliber of Tennessee, LSU and Arkansas. For Michigan to prove that they wouldn't have lost to Auburn, they would have had to go undefeated, in my opinion, because the Big Ten was not a great conference this year. I think the right decision was made, and I am glad there will not be controversy when the BCS game is done. Last edited by BCWWF; 01-02-2007 at 04:16 AM.