It’s Friday afternoon, in the middle of college football’s hottest season, and the SEC’s social media account X wants to tell its 775,000 followers what the media thinks about the 2024 season.
“2024 FOOTBALL MEDIA POLL,” the account shouts, with a snazzy graphic pitting Georgia and Texas against each other in the SEC championship game and a link to a score spread from more than 200 voters. There are three All-SEC preseason teams. Even three long snappers.
This is a league that is excited about its flagship sport in an expansion year, and an X-account that is liberally using the hashtag #itjustmeansmore to boost its brand among college football fans.
And what about the Big Ten, which includes the defending national champion, a huge television deal with three networks and four shiny new additions in Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC?
The Big Ten does not conduct a formal preseason poll. Instead, the media conducts its own poll, consisting of 28 sportswriters, rather than the league promoting its own product.
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And even though the Big Ten is a coast-to-coast conference in and near huge metropolitan areas like Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Columbus, Detroit, New York, and Washington DC, its main X account has just over 180,000 followers.
The football account, which has 152,500 followers, has been busy this summer wishing former league stars like Troy Smith happy birthdays while counting down the season.
The majority of the Big Ten main account’s content since July 13 has focused on former league athletes at the Olympics.
On Saturday afternoon, the account posted a stock photo of Mount Rushmore.
“Big Ten Mount Rushmore…who do you have?”
No further criteria were specified.
Former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, who expanded the league, created the Big Ten Network and put the conference on a solid financial footing, deserves a face. Current league commissioner Tony Petitti, who is rarely heard from or about, would not deserve a face. Petitti avoids the word salad of his predecessor, Kevin Warren, but his comments are of little consequence compared to the quips of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.
How about using helmets from two schools 300 kilometers apart to create a rock sculpture in two parts?
For the past 60 years, Michigan and Ohio State have dominated the headlines and the competitive landscape of the Big Ten.
The last decade of conference play has been no different.
Since 2014, OSU and UM have combined to win eight of the league’s 10 conference titles and both of its national titles. During that span, they have the Big Ten’s two highest winning percentages, at 88.5% (Ohio State) and 74.6% (Michigan). Wisconsin, which enjoys a weaker, now-defunct West Division, is the only other Big Ten program with over 70%. Nine of the 14 teams have won less than 60% over the past decade. Six, including Nebraska, have won fewer than half their games.
According to Sports Media Watch, TV ratings for the Wolverines’ victory over the Buckeyes in 2023 drew 9 million more viewers than the Big Ten Championship game between UM and Iowa. Including bowl games, the league’s top eight TV-rated games in 2023 were either Michigan or Ohio State — No. 9 Nebraska’s loss to Colorado — while the shadow of the Big Ten’s “Big Two” loomed over the other 12.
The Big Ten’s billion-dollar TV contract and historic roots make it a strong conference. But leagues with so many top talent are often volatile.
The Southwest Conference fell apart in the 1990s. The Big 12 faltered twice and, after losing Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC, invaded the Pac-12. That league may now turn to private equity to remain competitive. The ACC is holding on – for now – to Florida State and Clemson, two football schools adrift in a league with too many priorities and new, strange partners like California, Stanford and SMU.
And of course, the Big Ten has been volatile in its own way, adding seven new teams in 13 years. And while the addition of Nebraska in 2011 brought the league to an even number of teams without much disruption, and the addition of Rutgers and Maryland in 2014 created a more viable schedule while adding TV markets, it did not improve the league’s football game overall.
Make no mistake: The four new teams should raise the league’s football profile at the top. The commute won’t be convenient, and neither will the time zone changes. The television schedules will be difficult to follow. And outside of Oregon, Friday night games in the West probably won’t do as well; in big cities, there’s a lot more to do on Friday nights than just watch, like the Maryland-UCLA game.
The Big Ten appears willing to take on the difficult logistics of adding a few more College Football Playoff contenders in a 12-team era.
Based on the old CFP rankings, it’s safe to assume the Big Ten would have had at least three teams in every year except 2014 and 2020. In total, at least 29 Big Ten teams over the past decade would likely have finished in the top 11 of the final CFP rankings—or, in 2018, when UCF finished better than 12th—with 25 of those hypothetical spots coming from the East Division. Wisconsin (three) and Iowa (one) represented the weaker West Division.
But at least one of the four new West Coast teams has finished in the top 12 in seven of the last 10 seasons. Oregon (2014) and Washington (2016 and 2023) even made it into the four-team CFP.
In 2023, UW and UO would both have qualified for a 12-team event. Michigan and OSU would have done so as well, leaving the Big Ten with four hypothetical teams.
The SEC could have had five: Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and Ole Miss.
This is the competition that will matter in the future. Most of the competition will take place on the field; teams with fewer than 10 wins have little argument for getting into the CFP.
Part of the battle, however, is off the field, and that’s where the Big Ten appears lukewarm to the challenge.
Maybe a decade without much parity — the East finished 10-0 to the West in the Big Ten title games — has accustomed league officials to the dominance of Ohio State and Michigan. Or maybe it’s because OSU and UM have occupied about half of the Rose Bowl spots since 1965 — for 13 years in a row, spanning the entire 1970s, only the Buckeyes or Wolverines represented the Big Ten in Pasadena.
Now, that doesn’t matter. The Big Ten should be optimistic with its mid-July commentary. Coaches can campaign for the league — and for each other. Whether he can guarantee it or not, Petitti can insist on the teams he’s acquired and dismiss any need for new additions. And when it comes down to it, the league may have to think about whether referees are friendly enough to quarterbacks who regularly struggle to play at the level of the SEC and Big 12’s signal callers.
The league is good in many ways and has two great bases in Michigan and Ohio State. But this game and these helmets are not enough to sustain an 18-team league with these complex logistics.
The Big Ten must be more than its Big Two. Of course, that’s not a real slogan. Just an idea.
