Big Ten balance
Parity prevents teams getting ranking to play for national title
By Terry Hutchens
terry.hutchens@indystar.com
July 26, 2002
CHICAGO -- Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State are considered the preseason favorites by the media to win the 2002 Big Ten football championship.
But can a Big Ten team ever challenge for the national title?
No conference team has played in the national championship game in the first four years of the Bowl Championship Series. In fact the highest ranking by a Big Ten champion was a No. 7 BCS ranking by Wisconsin in 1999.
Conference coaches say the current competitive balance in the league makes it difficult for a team to have a high enough ranking at the end of the season to play for the title.
"It's hard to run the table in the Big Ten," Purdue coach Joe Tiller said Thursday. "That's just the nature of the game. But certainly if you can, you deserve to be in the championship game."
In the past three seasons, no Big Ten team has finished the season with fewer than two losses. Illinois was 10-2 last year, and Wisconsin, Michigan and Michigan State all finished 10-2 in 1999.
It won't be easy this year. All Big Ten teams will play at least 12 regular-season games. Two teams -- Ohio State and Wisconsin -- are scheduled to play 13.
Michigan, picked by the conference media to win the 2002 Big Ten championship, has the toughest schedule of the three favored teams. The media poll did not include positions four through 11.
The Wolverines play both Washington and Notre Dame in the preseason. More importantly, however, the two Big Ten teams Michigan doesn't play this season are Indiana and Northwestern.
Both the Hoosiers and Wildcats are expected to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten standings.
Michigan State, by contrast, doesn't play Ohio State or Illinois. In addition, eight of Michigan State's 12 games are at home. The Spartans' first road game is their sixth game overall, Oct. 12 at Iowa.
"If it was up to me, we would play all 12 games at home, but it's a great advantage to have eight home games," said Michigan State coach Bobby Williams. "The players wake up in a familiar place and play in a comfortable environment."
But Williams knows that eight home games don't necessarily guarantee success.
"We circle all 12 games and it starts with the first one," Williams said. "Any team on your schedule can rise and knock you down. You can't just pick one team on your schedule and concentrate on one game."
The Spartans learned that the hard way in 2001 when they dropped a 37-28 home game to Indiana. Two weeks later, Michigan State fell at home to Penn State 42-37.
Illinois coach Ron Turner said it's just a nature of the Big Ten beast.
"I just think the Big Ten Conference is so tough and so competitive that it's extremely difficult to go undefeated in conference," Turner said.
"I think it's pretty much the same way it was 30 or 40 years ago in that the Big Ten didn't win a lot of national championships because it was so difficult to go through the conference season with an unblemished record."
Michigan, which has either won or shared the Big Ten championship in three of the past five years, is picked to win in 2002 based on a solid defensive group. The Wolverines return eight starters from a defense that led the Big Ten in both total and rushing defense last season.
"Defensively, we'll have probably the most depth and as good of talent up front returning," said Michigan coach Lloyd Carr. "The secondary is probably as solid as we've had, particularly at the safety position."
Ohio State returns 15 starters, including seven on defense, from a team that finished in third place in the Big Ten last year. One of those defensive starters is outside linebacker Mike Doss, a two-time first team All American. Doss was selected as the preseason Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.
Michigan State has 16 starters back, including eight from an offense that led the Big Ten in total offense, averaging 447 yards per game. Wide receiver Charles Rogers, the preseason Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, and quarterback Jeff Smoker, lead the Spartan attack.
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