I don't think that argument flies with the B10. There has been a significant amount of parity in the B10 the past 10 years with Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Penn State, Michigan, Purdue, and the Evil Empire winning titles. With regard to the other three, although MSU has not won a title since 1987, I doubt if many ND fans bad mouth them. Minnesota has a very credible program beating Alabama in a bowl game two years ago and having recent victories over all of the traditional B10 powers. Only Indiana has been a consistent dreg although they, early this decade, could put a ton of points on the scoreboard when Cam Cameron was their coach.
Ahhh...I love a good ole schedule debate... Anyway..I agree with Bobda on the Big 10. When I first got up here in the 80s I thought it was definitely the Big 2 and Little 8 but teams like Iowa and the occasional Illinois or MSU would tend to crop up now and then and then the unthinkable happened when NW raised it's ugly head to win the conference championship as well in the late 90s. In the SEC in any given year there are 5 or 6 teams that can be very, very dangerous to anyone in the country. That makes for a very rugged conference schedule year in and year out. It made Urban cry last year and I suspect the cryin aint over to be honest with ya.
A little testy aren't ya? <t>Like I said if you play, Navy, Washington, Syracuse, BYU, Pitt, BC and WVU some years those teams are pretty good but some years they aren't. You said you needed to join a conference to get some breathers, I was just pointing out that you already have some breathers. As far as the Bama schedule, yes we have some breathers, I never said we didn't but we also have Florida, Tennessee, LSU and Auburn (all preseason top 10 or 15 aren't they?), throw in Ole Miss and Arkansas (those two are in the category of sometimes pretty good but some years they aren't). I'm not slamming your schedule just defending mine. By the way, we scheduled Oklahoma home and home a couple of years of ago and we pick up Florida State in a year or two and Penn State a few years after that so we may be dodging ND but hey maybe ND is dodging us?</t>
Is there a more difficult situation for a team than playing on the road, at night, on national TV? Thanks to ABCs new Sat. night college football schedule the Irish have to play Ga. Tech., MSU and USC on the road on those Sat. night games. As though our opponents needed any more reasons to be sky high....
:shock: The ND-USC game is at night? At the Coliseum? Downtown South-Central LA between the Watts Towers and the Shrine Auditorium? Thanks for telling me. If I go this year, I'll take Mrs. JO'Co's car... :twisted:
Hey when I was in LA for the Olympics and went down to that area for some boxing matches I was fortunate to meet some nice teen who told me he'd watch my car for $20. I should have gotten his name so you could use him. He did a great job.
We have to play Texas and Iowa on the road at night on national TV this year, so don't feel like the lone ranger. Hell, I don't care...it's for the same reason for both of us...tremendous interest nationally in our games. Would you have it any other way? Not me (even though we've lost our last 4 regular season night games, three of which were on the road.) :roll: Some OSU Fans Are Afraid of the Dark stu
I'm never been quite sure why night games are tougher on the visting team than a day game. I don't have any stats to back it up but I doubt if the Irish road record at night is as good as the road record for day games. I know sometimes people say that road night crowds are lustier and all that due to drinking all day. Terry