Why Big Ten Will Continue to Struggle in Bowl Games

As I basked in the glory of the Iowa slaughtering of Minnesota in the last Golden Gopher football game in the Metrodome, I could not help but think about the severe disadvantage Iowa will probably have against whatever opponent it faces in a bowl game. The Hawkeyes will have no live football action from November 22 until, in all likelihood, December 27 (I project them going to the Champs Sports Bowl). This is a problem that faces not only the Iowa Hawkeyes, but every football team in the Big Ten that plays in a bowl game. This could be one of the reasons that the Big Ten has not had a winning bowl season since 2002 and since that year have compiled a record of 14-22. I understand that there are other factors that have led to that record, but there is no doubt this is a severe disadvantage.

Every team in the Big Ten is now done with the regular season. Compare this to schools from the two major powerhouse conferences this year, the Big Twelve and the SEC. Some teams from these schools have games this coming Saturday, November 29. That alone would not be much of an advantage, but that may not be the last game of their pre-bowl season. Members of the SEC and Big Twelve have the opportunity to play in an additional game on December 6. Another advantage of these title games is ensuring a high level of play in this additional game. For an elite team in the Big Ten, it is possible to have the last two teams on your schedule be teams at the bottom of the conference. These games are rarely competitive and could mean that the time between competitive games could be as high as 2 months. It is not hard to see why this would be a big disadvantage to Big Ten teams.

What can be done about this? The optimal solution would be to add a team to the conference, split the conference into two divisions of six teams, and have a conference championship game. This turns out to be a very complicated proposition. First, a school in the same geographical are needs to be chosen. Second, that school needs to agree to join. I propose that there is such a school that would fit the Big Ten perfectly. The problem lies in getting them to agree that it is in everyone's best interest for them to join.

That school is Notre Dame. It hurts me to say it, because I personally despise proposing anything that might benefit that school, but that is a whole different story. From a strictly football perspective this makes way too much sense. Notre Dame is a program that many believe is a prestigious program, which would make it a better choice than promoting a program from the FCS such as Northern Iowa. Notre Dame is also geographically optimal, located in the center of the area covered by the Big Ten. This would allow for a split of the Big Ten into two divisions, the Big Ten East and Big Ten West. The Big Ten East would include Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Indiana, and Purdue. The Big Ten West would include Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois, and Notre Dame.

Unfortunately, this is all wishful thinking, or at least it always has been. The savior from this crisis may be one of the most talked about men in college football right now. The man who may bring Notre Dame to the Big Ten may very well be none other than Charlie Weis. The logic is simple. While Notre Dame had an upper end program, their independent status allowed them to keep every penny of the bowl payouts. This does not happen to teams that are part of a conference. In a conference, the money for bowl payouts goes to the conference to be split among the member programs. Notre Dame often had millions of reasons not to be part of a conference. Enter Charlie Weis. The contract he signed makes it too expensive for Notre Dame to fire him. His performance on Saturdays will soon make Notre Dame wishful for any payout from bowl games, even if it is only a piece of a conference pie.