Unfair Conference Biases

More often now than ever, dim witted journalists make bold statements about general tendencies within certain conferences without any factual backing. The latest installment of this comes from a Chicago Sun Times journalist, long time Chicago prep writer Taylor Bell.

His claim is the Big Ten is becoming a weaker conference year by year because it cannot recruit talented players from the south. "There was a time when the Big Ten was the most feared and most respected college football conference in the country. So what happened? It got slower."

He goes on to say that this is because all the speed and talent in America lurks in the South and unless you can recruit this talent you will not be successful. "The Big Ten fell behind because it stayed north of the Mason-Dixon Line and failed to bring in the athletes who were coming out of the Deep South, especially Florida. And they were reluctant to challenge the traditional powers in Texas and California, the mother lodes of high school football talent."

Speed. Everywhere you go you can't get away from people talking about speed and how Southern teams have it and the others don't. But where are the stats? If you do a statistical breakdown of registered 40 times between all major programs, you will see that the difference in speed between Southern teams and the rest of the country is minimal. Assuming speed is so important and that the good Southern programs get the talented and speedy players, how in the world was Ohio State able to dismantle Texas in Austin this season? All but 1 player on the OSU starting lineup was from north of the Mason Dixon Line (17 from Ohio) and 20 of the Texas starters were from the state of Texas. How was the Big Ten 3-1 vs. the SEC this season and 8-6 vs. the SEC in bowl games over the last five years? This would imply that somehow, some way speed lost. It's simple.........speed is not a dominate factor. If speed wsa as important as many make it out to be every college football team would be recruiting track stars.

I do believe, however, that all things being equal a faster player is better than the slower player. Speed means nothing though if you don't have the game plan, discipline, and leadership that a coaching staff can utilize. This is the reason why Florida was able to win the National Championship after only 2 years under Urban Meyer's watch. Speed didn't beat Ohio State. Urban Meyer did.

The Sun-Times article even goes as far as quoting recruiting guru Tom Lemming claiming that the Big Ten needs to drop their academic standards to allow for the entrance of these prized recruits like the SEC has. This sparked a reply from Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney addressed to the Big Ten and college football fans to not buy into the hype for these practices. He said, "It seems premature for us to lower our admission standards or give up on the tremendous talent pool in the Midwest." He goes on to defend the recruiting methods of the Big Ten, "Each school, as well as each conference, simply must do what fits their mission regardless of what a recruiting service recommends. I wish we had six teams among the top 10 recruiting classes every year, but winning our way requires some discipline and restraint with the recruitment process. Not every athlete fits athletically, academically or socially at every university. Fortunately, we have been able to balance our athletic and academic mission so that we can compete successfully and keep faith with our academic standards."

When it comes down to it analyst love to draw conclusions as to the reasons for success within each program. Many of these claims have no statistical backing and the authors seldom have no knowledge as to what exactly they are talking about. I highly doubt Taylor Bell or Tom Lemming has any idea exactly what the academic standards for every university are to make the claims they make. I see no possible scenario where a school like Notre Dame is going to turn away the top player in the country from coming to school if he passes the bare minimum NCAA academic standards. Bottom line is don't buy into the stereotypes. Let the games play out on the field and let the results speak the truth, not the speculation and hype.