CHICAGO — The vogue head-to-head debate remains ACC vs. SEC when it comes to strength of conference in college football. But the Big Ten belongs in that conversation, too.
That thought might be easy to swat away and say, "A-C-C or S-E-C your way out of that conversation ... "
The ACC is the only conference with two national championship coaches in Clemson's Dabo Swinney and Florida State's Jimbo Fisher. The conference added to that depth with Miami's Mark Richt and Virginia Tech's Justin Fuente, among others. The SEC continues to draw in absurd revenue behind Nick Saban's machine at Alabama. The conference has a Tide-and-everybody-else look, but Auburn, Georgia and LSU could crack into that in 2017.
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The detractors will point to one go-to argument. Didn't the Big Ten just go 3-7 in the bowls last season? But that's only part of the debate.
"Both academically and athletically I think the Big Ten is in a great place." Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said at Big Ten Media Days on Monday. "We have great coach leaders and great players who are also very good students. So we look forward to 2017 with anticipation."
He's right on the academic front. Delany cited how the Big Ten ranked first in Academic Progress Rate among football conferences, adding that it had six schools place in the top 11 in that category. What about on the field? All 14 Big Ten coaches will spend the next two days touting the strength of the conference, just like the SEC and ACC coaches did at their respective media days the last few weeks.
"I don't think there's a gap at all,"Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said. "And that's no disrespect to other conferences. To give my opinion to other conferences or when I hear that, I have no idea. But I've coached in the SEC East when that was one of the strongest in the country, and I think the Big Ten East right now is every bit as strong as I can remember the SEC East."
The Big Ten, like the SEC and ACC, put a team in the College Football Playoff each of the last three seasons. If that rotation holds, the Big Ten is due to put out the next national champion. They have to do it, though. That's why 2017 is a pivotal year for the Big Ten on the field if it wants to stay in that conversation.
What can the Big Ten hang their hat on right now? The conference has more "playoff depth" than any other Power 5 conference. Four teams are legitimate playoff contenders right now in Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin. Those same schools stayed in the College Football Playoff conversation until the end in 2016, and combined for a .792 winning percentage.
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The Badgers are the prohibitive favorites in the Big Ten West, and one of the Big Three from the East likely will make it to Indianapolis. The SEC could argue it has more contenders, but would you take anybody but Alabama right now? If any combination of Nebraska, Iowa or Michigan State makes a play this year, then this isn't even a debate.
Think about how far the Big Ten has come to get back in the conversation. The Big Ten Network debuted on Aug. 30, 2007 and opened with the infamous Appalachian State upset at Michigan two days later. The conference became a punching bag after an endless series of nonconference and bowl horror shows for the next several years, and there was no end in sight for the punch-lines.
Meyer's arrival at Ohio State in 2012 helped change that, however, and that resulted in the conference's last national championship in 2014. Other coaches such as Penn State's James Franklin, Michigan's Jim Harbaugh and Wisconsin's Paul Chryst followed. Depth in coaching counts, too.
Now, in order to stay in that conversation, all the Big Ten needs to do is reverse the course of back-to-back blowouts in the College Football Playoff semifinals. Michigan State and Ohio State have lost to Alabama and Clemson, respectively, by a combined score of 69-0 the last two seasons.
The Big Ten doesn't necessarily need to a win a national championship this year, but they can't have another blowout, shutout or closeout in the playoff. That would allow the Big 12 or Pac-12 to catch up from the other side of the Power 5.
The rest of the pieces needed for success are in place. There are lucrative TV deals with BTN, FOX and ESPN. The depth in coaching is there, and the talent continues to catch up. The Big Ten had the most players in Sporting News Top 40 for 2017, including Heisman Trophy favorite Saquon Barkley. The tradition is still strong, but "playoff depth" is a term used by conferences that didn't win it all.
Those national championships are the trump card, and Ohio State and Michigan are the only schools that have won national championships in the last 50 years while playing in the Big Ten Conference. The Spartans, Badgers and Nittany Lions have been in that conversation in recent seasons, but more hardware is the quickest way to the front of that conversation.
That's what the SEC and ACC have. Those two conferences have claimed 10 of the last 11 national championships and have gone head-to-head for the last two.
That's what the Big Ten needs to see its way back to the top of the conversation.
"I think we have good depth, good coaches, great players, and each year is hard to predict, each year writes its own story," Delany said. "So I'm always reluctant to be overconfident, but I think what we have in place in terms of coach leaders and players, venues, television, all conspire together to give us a great offering to college sports."
