Is the B10 5th, 6th, or 7th best conference?

B10 is worst BCS conference this year and umich has one conference win....depressing.

Our Big 10 champion this year is not even the best team in Ohio. Since it is Ohio st in a BCS bowl, that's a guaranteed loss, thus continuing the trend of embarrassing the Big 10 on the national stage.

As for assessing the performance of other big 10 teams in the bowls, it's always a crapshoot. I think we had a good run of getting 2 big 10 teams in the bcs bowl, and we will probably not repeat that this year, so our true #2 and #3 will be matched up better. As for the perception, there isn't anything we can do about it, other than win the bowl games.

PSU isn't the best team in Pennsylvania either..but let's hope Pitt holds on and beat Notre Dame so Purdue can be a better team than them or something in the state of Indiana.

I wouldn't read too much into games like this. USC was far better at the beginning of the year compared to now. Also, Purdue almost beat Oregon on the road, which then obliterated USC before losing to Stanford.

If you look just at the BCS rankings:

SEC - 3 teams (including top 2)
ACC - 4
Big 12 - 2
PAC 10 - 4
Big East - 4
Big 10 - 4

So of the BCS conferences, Big 10 is fielding a relatively deep conference but with no dominant teams. Personally, I think the Pac 10 is the best conference this year, followed by the SEC and ACC. The Big East and Big 10 look to be about equal, and the Big 12 taking up the rear. I think the Big East has the best 1-3 teams (Cincy, Pitt, and WVU), but the drop off after that is rather steep. The Big 10 has some good teams in the middle and a lot of teams that should be good next year because they return quite a few players. The SEC looks to be the most overrated conference, because after Alabama and Florida, you have a bunch of mediocre teams that win against each other and nobody else.

I won't argue with any of this. Just remember, this is why we went out and got RR - to remake Michigan in a way that could compete with the SEC and Pac 10 in bowl games and national championships. We are seeing that it is not an incremental process. The whole culture of the program has to change. It happened once 40 years ago and it is going to happen again now. We don't want to just compete with Ohio State - we want it all and that takes work, and some pain.

Once again, everyone overrates the SEC. Florida and Alabama are good, but have they really gotten tested that much going through the conference? Is there really not one of ten teams that can upset either one of those teams? It's like Michigan and OSU running through the Big Ten schedule back in the day.

Pac-10 is the best by far, and then maybe the SEC, Big XII, and Big East.

Anyone who honestly thinks the Big East is better than the Big Ten is an idiot.

is there any one out there old enough to remember when penn st. left the ranks of the independents and joined the big 10? the talk was that penn st. was gonna dominate the big 10 as they were NC contenders and great teams every year. but what happened once they were a part of the big 10? just 1 championship (if my memory serves). so the real question is can any team really survive in someone elses conference? maybe? but my guess is that a big 10 team would find an easier time going through most conference schedules than most others would find going through the big 10.

I won't call anyone an idiot for having an opinion, but I do agree that the Big Ten is at least slightly better than the Big East. The Big Ten sorely needs UM to get back to elite status (and back it up on the field) to provide not only depth but another high-profile, upper-level team to get back to being somewhere toward the top. I don't think they can surpass the SEC right now, but they might get as high as second if UM makes it all the way back, OSU jettisons Pryor, and Iowa and Wisky can tread enough water or even move their programs up another notch.

If it wasn't for our friends up in EL proving themselves to be SOS, the conference could go six deep with very good teams. I think RR's entrance, once he starts winning big, will eventually turn the Big Ten's conservatism around and this will help them restore the conference's former elite status. The throwback routine isn't really working anymore.

I never understood the idea of trying to rank conferences. I realize it's important when deciding the BCS implications, but to actually rank them according to applicable win/loss in conference play is ridiculous. Everyone should know that conference play is much more intense and unpredictable because of the fierceness.