I've been pounding on the Big 10 for the entire season for their lack of quality wins resulting in the perceived low standing amongst the BCS conferences. After my post on What We Know About Ohio St., I received a few cranky Buckeye fans who either A) Told me I was an idiot or B) Said look at the Big 10's out of conference record in comparison to other BCS conferences. So I decided to dig into what my perceived notion and analyze exactly whom the Big 10 has played and whom they have beaten. And in conclusion it completely solidified my thoughts that the Big 10 has done nothing to prove its value this season.Overall Record: The overall out of conference record of the Big 10 on the surface is a very impressive 30 wins and 7 losses. If that is all you look at then you just might think that they are a good conference, but you need to take a slightly deeper dive.
Overall Scheduling: Out of the 37 games only 9 of the opponents have a better than .500 record. Of which 2 came against Directional Michigan Schools, 2 from fellow BCS conference opponents and the remaining 5 from 1-AA powerhouses.
Two Losses to Loners: One large black eye in the face of the Big 10 are the two losses to BCS schools whom have a single win this season. Thus the only team bad enough to lose to Iowa St. this season were the Hawkeyes and the only team bad enough to lose to Duke (this decade) were the Wildcats.
Identify One Big 1: It's absolutely impossible to identify one impressive win by the Big 10 conference this season. Out of the 9 games against teams with winning records, the only two against BCS schools resulted in losses by Michigan and Illinois. The two against MAC schools were 4-3 squads and the remaining were again against 1-AA opponents.
Here's the complete Big 10 Out Of Conference Breakdown:
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