Around the Big Ten

[THE_WIZARD_]

The NCAA was a toothless animal before this...any shred of credibility they had (guffaw) is gone. Gone. The best thing that could have happened for the NCAA and PSU right now is the Ray Rice fiasco...takes some of the spotlight off them.

[Wild Hoss]

DSL:

I agree re PSU. The NCAA had no real business doing anything, IMO. However, once they did act -- regardless of their authority to do so -- they bound themselves up in the fiasco.

The whole thing was a transparent and desperate attempt to appear relevant IMO. PSU was the kid nobody was going to stick up for, and the NCAA piled on like the misguided, impotent dumbshits that they are. Now, forced to face the fact it was a bad decision to do so, they have to get slapped in the face for backing away.

[UMStan White]

No the best thin that could happen to the NCAA was to lose the O'Bannon case. Blood is in the water and we sharks are on the prowl.

[iam416]

The whole thing was a transparent and desperate attempt to appear relevant IMO. PSU was the kid nobody was going to stick up for, and the NCAA piled on like the misguided, impotent dumbshits that they are. Now, forced to face the fact it was a bad decision to do so, they have to get slapped in the face for backing away.

Yes. GFY.

[Optimus Prime]

Interesting article, helps explain why Hoke's 4.2M a year job is so tough. I guess .500 is the new ceiling.

Big Ten football's failures due to population shift to Sun Belt
Freep
Shifting demographics are beating the Big Ten more than swift defenses. The conference hit rock bottom on Bloody Saturday -- losing three prime-time televised games by a combined 64 points. Two weeks into the season and the Big Ten already is eliminated from College Football Playoff consideration.

But Saturday's blunt shot to the league's ego was the culmination of a steady competitive fall over the past decade.

The league sought solace Tuesday. Brady Hoke tried deflecting the furor over Michigan's first shutout loss -- 31-0 at Notre Dame -- in 30 years, insisting that the Wolverines' "main objective" was still within its grasp: a Big Ten championship. Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio, whose team lost, 46-27, at Oregon , focused more on the opportunity Saturday -- playing the third-ranked team on the road -- than the ugly fourth quarter.

But neither could defuse a building consensus that the Big Ten's doomed to remain a regional player in the new national championship playoff emphasis.

"There are no easy answers," Ohio State coach Urban Meyer -- whose team lost, 35-21, to visiting Virginia Tech -- solemnly explained Tuesday during the Big Ten coaches teleconference.

There are no answers, period.

The Big Ten lost a generation of promising football talent with the population flight from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt.

"I think people are moving out of the Midwestern towns that were industrial based," Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said last month. "I think it's more about economics. People are moving into areas where they can find a better lifestyle. Just take a look at Pennsylvania and the great high school teams that used to be in that area. Now, because of the steel towns and the exodus of so many jobs in that area, high school football is not what it once was. I think that's happened in a lot of these industrial cities throughout the Midwest as well."

But that exodus started more than 30 years ago. Look no further than the shifting electoral map since the 1980 presidential election, when Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania combined for 99 electoral votes. In the 2012 election, those four states totaled 74 electoral votes. The states that benefited most from this redistribution over that time were California, Texas and Florida -- the states that have become the most fertile high school football recruiting terrain in the country.

Those states have produced the most NFL draft picks over the past seven years. Ohio was the lone Midwestern state that ranked in the top 10.

In the 16-year history of the BCS, teams from those three states won seven national championships and were a finalist in four others.

College football is inherently regional. Ohio State, MSU and U-M occasionally can cherry-pick a quality player out of those three states, but the bulk of their recruiting base remains a 4-hour driving radius from their campuses. The Big Ten's national football reputation can't rebound until the population in its own backyard rebounds, thus improving the level of competition and the quality of talent.

But that's not happening.

Fewer jobs translates into fewer people, reduced tax bases, reduced public revenues and reduced public education funding. That demands taking a knife to school budgets, with extracurricular activities often getting slashed first, with football a ready target due to its relative expensiveness.

It also doesn't help the Big Ten that basketball has become the preferred sport of the Midwest's young athletes because it's a cheaper sport to play than football and it can be played year-round in the northern climate, whereas football is played year-round in California and the South.

"All we can do is keep recruiting," Meyer said.

Meyer has attracted strong recruiting classes in his first three years in Columbus, but it's increasingly noticeable that he's not getting the earlier production out of these generally Midwest-based recruits than he got from the Florida kids he recruited to the Gators when he won two national championships.

"It's still too early to tell," he said. "But it's about time."

[Hannibal]

Penn State has (probaby inadvertently) stumbled onto an excellent strategy that I expect to see repeated now that it has worked once.

1. Take what is essentially a plea bargain to avoid a long, embarrassing investigation while eliminating the risk of a supersevere penalty like the death penalty.

2. Claim later thatthe punishment was "unfair" even though you agreed to it as part of a plea bargaining style agreement to avoid a long, embarrassing investigation with the risk of a supersevere penalty like the death penalty.

3. Get the penalty cut in half later when emotions have gotten numb, people have forgotten the details, and nobody feels like reopening it.

Remorse or culture change not necessary.

[Jeff Buchanan]

No accountability except in the courts (and that is what they are there, of course) but on a personal level, the goal is to avoid it.

Like Hoke. He's proven to be a massive failure. I'd love the guy if he walked up to the plate and said, I'm not going to take a pay-check until the team starts winning and winning consistently.

........ or even better, Roger Goodell. It's easy to say, "I was wrong" (about Ray rice), it would be another thing for him to personally accept responsibility and accountability by shelling out a million bucks or so of his own funds to organizations that assist battered women.

Our American culture is sick. I am certainly no longer proud of it. Too much greed, lack of respect for others and failure to elevate human dignity, ducking accountability when one can get a way with it and poor leadership at the highest levels.

[Wild Hoss]

Interesting article, helps explain why Hoke's 4.2M a year job is so tough. I guess .500 is the new ceiling.

Big Ten football's failures due to population shift to Sun Belt
Freep
It also doesn't help the Big Ten that basketball has become the preferred sport of the Midwest's young athletes because it's a cheaper sport to play than football and it can be played year-round in the northern climate, whereas football is played year-round in California and the South.

Good Lord this is dumb. These states are not losing population.

Illinois has 1.4 million more people today than it did in 1990. Ohio has 700,000 more. Pennsylvania has 900,000 more. Michigan has 600,000 more, despite experiencing a brief population drop from 2008-2012, which has now ceased.

The electoral votes change because the total is set to 435...that means the southern states which are growing faster (because of Hispanics) get more of the proportional votes. That does not mean that we are seeing a flood of neo-carpetbaggers flowing North-to-South.

Good gawd...sportswriters.

[UMStan White]

It was Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press The dumb fuck has written the same column over and over and over nd over. He switches off with his other column. The (fill in the blank) sucks. Zthe fans of ( fill in the blank) are delusional morons. The (fill in the blank) staff /players/owners are the worst organization ever assembled. Leave it to the unsophisticated such as OP to fall for his crap!

[Dr. Strangelove]

Good Lord this is dumb. These states are not losing population.

Illinois has 1.4 million more people today than it did in 1990. Ohio has 700,000 more. Pennsylvania has 900,000 more. Michigan has 600,000 more, despite experiencing a brief population drop from 2008-2012, which has now ceased.

The electoral votes change because the total is set to 435...that means the southern states which are growing faster (because of Hispanics) get more of the proportional votes. That does not mean that we are seeing a flood of neo-carpetbaggers flowing North-to-South.

Good gawd...sportswriters.

This is a very commonly repeated trope. "The Midwest is losing population, FAST!". I've heard this said on MANY message boards. People confuse losing population with losing proportional population.

[Paul L]

Our American culture is sick. I am certainly no longer proud of it. Too much greed, lack of respect for others and failure to elevate human dignity, ducking accountability when one can get a way with it and poor leadership at the highest levels.

Couldn't agree more; spot on Jeff

[Wild Hoss]

People confuse losing population with losing proportional population.

Some people do. Most people are just too damned lazy and vapor-locked to bother questioning whether what they're told is accurate.

Even that pales in comparison to the disturbing reality demonstrated by the column. Not just the fact that a borderline retard has the pulpit that he does, but the fact that this was allowed to be published as-is in the first place. Either the editorial staff is just as ignorant as he is, or perhaps worse...simply doesn't care.

[entropy]

I'd suggest the freep spend more time looking at hs football than population changes

[bimmer84]

Our American culture is sick. I am certainly no longer proud of it. Too much greed, lack of respect for others and failure to elevate human dignity, ducking accountability when one can get a way with it and poor leadership at the highest levels.

This deserves another mention. Great comment.

[iam416]

Bide our time, Gentlemen. Soon the states that are experiencing population growth sag under the same huge infrastructure requirements that the larger B10 states have. Soon enough the Great Lakes bountiful freshwater (and algae!) will rule! I reckon if I live to see 85 or 90, the B10 will be back on top again dominating CFB as it did for so many decades! Wooooooot!!!!