Everybody knocks Big Ten football...

...and I'll admit it's hard to defend, especially after going 1-6 in the bowls this year. But I took a closer look at all the results, and concluded that the problem is with all the schools in the northern and midwestern parts of the country. By my count, the northern/midwestern schools went 8-15. This includes three intrasectional games: Connecticut-Buffalo, Missouri-Northwestern, and Kansas-Minnesota. If you exclude these, the northern/midwestern schools won only five games.

Let's recap the winners: as already mentioned, Connecticut, Missouri, and Kansas. Two of these teams are in the Big 12, but I'll consider them midwestern. Also victorious were Rutgers, Maryland (Northern? They were part of the union in the Civil War), Notre Dame (we all know what's happened to that program in recent years), Iowa (the lone Big Ten winner), and Nebraska (another Big 12 team).

Now for the losers, beginning with the Big Ten: Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Minnesota, and Michigan State. The other northern/midwestern teams to go down in defeat were Ball State, Cincinnati, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, Western Michigan, Pittsburgh, Navy, Boston College, and Buffalo. The Michigan Wolverines, one of the most successful programs in history, didn't even make it to a bowl this year.

Now what conclusions are to be drawn from this? I'm not sure, but I'll take a stab at it. The population growth in this country over the last few decades has steadily been shifting south and west. How many good athletes must come out of Florida, Texas, and California alone? And how difficult must it be to persuade them to play in Ohio or Michigan? Is this reversible? Ask yourself, if your primary goal was to play in the NFL, would you be willing to leave a warm climate to go up to Indiana to play football and be expected to graduate? That's got to be a tough sell for any coach.

So I say don't single out the Big Ten for ridicule. They're just the most visible sign of a huge shift underway in college football.