Big Ten slowly becomes Small Time

United States', Association of American Universities and National Collegiate Athletic Association's oldest Division I-A college athletic conference and its member institutions have finally dropped and fallen, the Big Ten of Eleven are now just a dead dirty dozen as the Northwesterns, Iowas and Illinois begin to slowly kill the Ohio States, Minnesotas and Michigans and thus kill the last great conference.

Originally, the conference was run exclusively by University of Wisconsin-Madison Badgers, University of Minnesota-Minneapolis and Saint Paul Golden Gophers and University of Michigan Wolverines, in so far as winning football championships was concerned from 1896 to 1915, with only a trace of Chicago, Iowa, Northwestern and Illinois then Ohio State decides to show its ugly gray and red face.

After the Ohio State University Buckeyes of Columbus showed Ann Arbor a thing or two in 1916, there was no turning back, as University of Illinois-Urbana and Champaign Fighting Illini won it outright in 1919, University of Iowa Hawkeyes from Iowa City got it outright in 1921, Purdue University Boilermakers from West Lafayette Indiana stole it outright in 1929, Northwestern University Wildcats from Evanston Illinois captured it outright in 1936, Indiana University Hoosiers from Bloomington Indiana took it outright in 1945, Michigan State University Spartans from East Lansing gained it outright in 1965 and finally Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions from State College or Penn State found it outright in 1994.

This, of course, affected the outcome of the Rose Bowl, Tournament East-West football game or the Granddaddy of them All, as the oldest and most prestigious bowl game with its annual Tournament of Roses event and parade. Starting a tradition of New Years Day bowl games, it hosted the Big 10 and Pacific 10 conference champions, but now thanks to the BCS National Championship, unless they are involved in that Game then they are out.

Can't forget the classic on September the 16th this year in South Bend, where the Wolverines rumbled all over the #2 nationally ranked Fighting Irish, as Notre Dame went down 47-21. Then we all watched in the Game in Columbus on November the 18th, one day after the death of former Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, where for the first time in the history of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry they met as nationally ranked #1 and #2 clubs in the country, expecting a huge defensive battle, both offenses almost go to 1000 yards as the Wolverines conceded the conference title to the Buckeyes 42-39. Finally bringing us here to, I will guess with thought, the future losses of Michigan on the 1st in the Rose Bowl against the U So Cal Trojans and Ohio State on the 8th in the Nat Champ against the U Flo Gators will happen because they both have lost their cultural way back home to the Mid West as Bo and Woody shake their heads at Carr and Tressel and need to find it fast.

Heck, they might get desperate for their old history back, the original University of Chicago Maroons just might be reunited with the Big Ten, since it left the conference in 1946, rebuild its Stagg Field they demolished in 1957 and bring on back their first squad, that dropped football in 1939, to play a game or two with since deceased football players like Grant "Goatboy" Giles. Other Monsters of the Midway, all of which helped win seven Big Ten Conference titles from 1899 to 1924, including a national championship in 1905 with Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger, who later also became the first player to be drafted by the National Football League, helped to lead the way in keeping the club undefeated in football against Notre Dame. This remains even today as an absolute proof of how hard this team was, even though its namesake plays in the lowly NCAA University Athletic Association Division III football, as a life-long member of the "Nerdy Nine".