Every week, SN’s Bill Bender will look at the national landscape in college football in “Around the Bender.” This week, we’ll explore one of the nation’s best running backs, a MAC doormat that might go bowling and offer a fashion suggestion for Tennessee on Saturday.
Is the Big Ten the best conference in college football?
That’s one of the most popular questions to ask these days, even if it’s almost impossible to come up with a definitive answer. The fact that’s even a question is a nod to how the far the Big Ten, which put four Top 10 teams in the AP Poll this week for the first time since Oct. 17, 1960, has come. No. 2 Ohio State, No. 4 Michigan, No. 8 Wisconsin and No. 10 Nebraska have put the conference in that position to even ask such things.
“I think it’s real,” Nebraska coach Mike Riley said on the Big Ten teleconference Tuesday. “This is just my second year, but I’ve been very impressed with the football and the competitiveness here.
“It’s really not surprising to me that we have four teams ranked like this."
MORE: Week 7 bowl projections
So the natural instinct is to prop the Big Ten up against the SEC and start that argument. The SEC has the defending national champion in No. 1 Alabama and seven ranked teams in the AP Top 25. Is the Big Ten on that level top to bottom?
Here are a few things to suggest it’s getting there — or might even be there already.
Best 1-2 punch: Ohio State’s Urban Meyer vs. Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh is now the best head coaching matchup in the FBS. Alabama’s Nick Saban vs. LSU’s Les Miles held that distinction for the last decade, and Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher vs. Clemson’s Dabo Swinney can make a case, but deep down you know Meyer vs. Harbaugh is the right answer.
The Big Ten has both flagship programs up and running, as in running people over.
Of the remaining Power 5 unbeaten teams, Michigan has the highest point differential at +238. Ohio State (+212) is tied with Washington, but the Huskies have played six games.
Two contenders always follow: Nebraska and Wisconsin are playing the role of Michigan State and Iowa in 2016. They are top-10 teams and they are playing like it. Wisconsin plays its fourth Top 10 when it meets Ohio State on Saturday.
Can a Big Ten West team stand up to either Michigan or Ohio State consistently? That’s the second-most important question. As long as the combination of Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan State and Penn State produces two legit playoff contenders each year — something Michigan State and Iowa fulfilled all the way to the Big Ten championship game — then that helps.
Right now the Big Ten can say they have the most legitimate playoff contenders. That was the secret for the SEC during the BCS era, when it rose to the top with nine national championships in 16 seasons. The SEC had elite depth. Five different schools won national championships.
Bring the bottom up: Nobody else in the conference can be taken seriously right now. The SEC West has five ranked teams. That’s another difference, though you could argue that nobody in the SEC other than Alabama and Texas A&M and maybe Tennessee is a legitimate playoff contender. The SEC is a deeper conference right now, but it might not stay that way.
Which brings us to the final point:
How long will Alabama dominate? Ever notice that every coach in the SEC West not-named Nick Saban was on the hot seat in 2016?
Les Miles is gone. Dan Mullen is on the hot seat now. Bret Bielema, Gus Malzahn, Hugh Freeze and even Kevin Sumlin have taken turns. The SEC East hasn’t won a SEC title since Florida in 2008 when Urban Meyer was coach. You could make the argument that the SEC is actually “Alabama, and everybody else.” Tennessee and Texas A&M can take turns trying to prove that notion wrong the next two weeks.
For perspective, maybe go back and look at that poll on Oct. 17, 1960. Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State and Purdue were Top 10 teams. Wisconsin and Michigan state were ranked No. 11 and No. 13, respectively. The Big Ten had six national title contenders at the time, and Minnesota would win the AP title despite losing the Rose Bowl. Ole Miss didn’t win it despite finishing 10-0-1.
MORE: CFP race coming into focus
Maybe that’s where this argument got started. It was probably well before that. The Big Ten and SEC finished with four ranked teams apiece that season. Chances are we’ll have something like that again. It really comes down to who wins it all.
And right now, unless Clemson or Washington gets in the way, all roads appear to either Michigan or Ohio State playing Alabama for the whole thing.
Isn’t that the best way to find out?
Strike a pose
BYU’s Jamaal Williams ranks second in the nation with 866 rushing yards through six games, but it’s the last three games that should demand your attention. Williams has 84 carries for 618 yards — 7.4 yards per carry — and nine TDs in a loss to West Virginia and wins against Toledo and Michigan State.
He had 163 yards and a pair of TDs against the Spartans. He’s played five Power 5 schools so far, and they get Mississippi State this week before Boise State. Williams probably won’t get the Heisman finalist benefit of the doubt over a player like Florida State’s Dalvin Cook, who ranks third in the nation with 785 yards and seven TDs or perhaps even over FBS leader Donnel Pumphrey, who has 891 yards and nine TDs. Why wouldn’t Williams deserve consideration if he continues at that pace?
Yet those are the three best bets for a Heisman finalist at running back now with Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey out of the race.
Coach on the spot
David Shaw. The Cardinal lost back-to-back games for just the second time in Shaw’s tenure, and they are facing an equally desperate Notre Dame team in primetime in South Bend, Ind. This game was supposed to have playoff implications. Instead, it’s just another primetime game.
What’s the problem? Stanford had just 90 rushing yards in the losses to Washington and Washington State. McCaffrey had 20 carries for 84 yards in those two losses. Get McCaffrey going against the Irish, and go from there.
MORE: Week 7 Heisman watch
Shaw isn’t on the hot seat, so we’ll stop right there. But a loss here would lead to a year similar to 2014, when the Cardinals went 8-5.
Group of 5 focus
Eastern Michigan coach Chris Creighton keeps it in perspective.
“We’re 4-2, but we could be 4-8,” Creighton said on the MAC teleconference.
Yet the Eagles — a team that was pressured to drop from the FBS this offseason — are two wins away from their first postseason appearance since the California Bowl in 1987. Eastern Michigan lost 35-20 last week to Toledo, but the progress within the program is admirable.
The Eagles entered the season with a 15-69 record since Ron English was hired in 2009, the worst record among FBS schools in that stretch. They’ll be tested the next two weeks in road trips to Ohio and Western Michigan, teams expected to play in the MAC championship game.
“When you say projections, we’ve had our own projections and goals,” Creighton said. "Not to say we’re not pleased with how we’re playing, but surprised is a little bit of a stretch for us.”
Pick one
We mentioned those revolving door hot seats in the SEC West, and there’s one simple reason why Auburn’s Gus Malzahn looks a little better. Sean White is playing with efficiency. White ranks seventh in the nation in completion percentage (69.7), a touch behind North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky, who is a fringe Heisman contender.
In the Tigers’ last three wins against LSU, UL-Monroe and Mississippi State, White has completed 47 of 61 passes (77 percent) with three TDs and one interception.
Auburn has a bye week before the back half of its schedule. They’ll have to beat Alabama, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt to get bowl eligibility, but the stretch at home against Arkansas and on the road against Ole Miss, Georgia and Alabama is still brutal.
Think about it...
Alabama is 9-0 against Tennessee under Nick Saban, the second-longest streak in the rivalry. The Crimson Tide will try to win 10 in a row against the Volunteers on Saturday for the first time since winning 11 straight from 1971-81 under Bear Bryant. The Crimson Tide won or shared the SEC title every year in that stretch except for 1980.
MORE: Alabama-Tennessee keys to victory
The last nine years have been very similar, and the last four in meetings in Knoxville have not been close. Alabama has won those meetings by an average of 22.5 points per game. That’s what Tennessee is up against this week. It’s worth noting, however, that in 1982 — Bryant’s last season — the Volunteers broke out all-orange uniforms and knocked off No. 2 Alabama 35-28 at Neyland Stadium.
Not that we would tell Tennessee what to wear Saturday, but …
