...and the Big Ten goes down

National Overview

I don’t think I’ve ever written a more ominous headline than last week’s “The Big Ten’s last hurrah”. I never thought things could get worse than they did in Week 2 of 2012, when highly-ranked Wisconsin and Nebraska teams crashed and burned at Oregon State and UCLA, respectively. Oof. I – and so many others – turned out to be so, so wrong. Michigan State acquitted itself well at Oregon (more on that later), but from there things went downhill fast.

Purdue was blown out at home by Central Michigan. Northwestern fell at home to Northern Illinois. The Spartans went down in Eugene. Michigan was embarrassed 31-0 in its final game with rival Notre Dame. In the nightcap, Ohio State was knocked off (again, at home) by Virginia Tech. Even the wins were awful. Wisconsin needed a big second half to run away from Western Illinois. Nebraska would have gone to overtime with McNeese State if not for a miracle last-minute score from running back Ameer Abdullah. Illinois pulled away from Western Kentucky only after a 21-point fourth quarter. Iowa escaped Ball State thanks to two touchdowns in the last three minutes, while Maryland had to rally past South Florida.

I said following that dark weekend in 2012 that was clearly the worst Big Ten in history. It’s time for an update: THIS is the worst Big Ten in history. With no legitimate championship contenders and no BCS bowl bid to bail it out, the conference is almost certainly on the outside looking in at the first College Football Playoff. Sure, there are scenarios in which a one-loss team (probably Michigan State, with the goodwill the Spartans have built up) could backdoor its way into the playoff if enough chaos happens elsewhere. But right now, it seems it would take some epic, 2007-esque madness for that to occur. This is a new low for the Big Ten.

In other, more unfortunate news, the NCAA capitulated to Penn State’s pressure and ended the Nittany Lions’ bowl ban after just two seasons. The program will also have its scholarship restrictions removed after the current season, while the NCAA ruled – incredibly – that the state of Pennsylvania can decide how to use the $60 million fine PSU paid as a result of the Sandusky scandal. This is one of the more appalling, yet sadly unsurprising, moves the NCAA has made in the past decade.

When the initial four-year ban and scholarship reductions were announced, I – like many people half-expecting the death penalty – said, “Pretty harsh. Good enough, as long as they don’t get off early for good behavior.” That’s exactly what happened. Penn State, crony George Mitchell and the NCAA decided two years of acting nice (emphasis on “acting”) was enough to make up for two decades of criminal negligence, arrogance and putting football above everything. The entire purpose of the penalties was to end the culture of “football first” in Happy Valley. Here’s the reaction from students upon hearing the news this week. I’d love to hear a non-PSU-homer explain what lessons were learned, exactly.

Looking forward: we kick things off Thursday with a rematch of last season’s epic Houston – BYU tilt, then begin the weekend with a couple of intriguing contests in the vein of UCF – Missouri and ECU – Virginia Tech. The American schools aren’t getting enough credit for how close they could make things in those games. Later, things get more serious: a critical early SEC matchup with Georgia at South Carolina and a pair of regional rivalry games in West Virginia – Maryland and Iowa State – Iowa. The Big Ten gets a shot at regaining some small amount of respectability when Minnesota and Illinois travel to TCU and Washington. The top contenders are all on cruise control.

Top 25

I’d still pick Florida State head-to-head, but based on resume alone Oregon is the nation’s top team. A group of five or six other schools trail those two, then there’s a huge drop-off to the next level. Other thoughts: Ohio State should not be ranked, not because the Buckeyes aren’t good, but because no one has any idea what to expect from them at this point… likewise for UCLA. One flop against a bad team is forgivable, two is not… South Carolina should also be nowhere near the polls after a sluggish win over ECU… USC should get credit for beating Stanford, but the chorus of praise suggesting the Trojans are playoff contenders is wildly premature. We don’t know how good the Cardinal are yet… the winner of Nevada – Arizona should enter the polls this week.

Pac-12 Report

Let’s get the big one out of the way. What in the world is wrong with Washington State? A week after looking typically sieve-like in a shootout loss to Rutgers, the Cougars were knocked out in a slugfest against Nevada. If bowl prospects were dim after Week 1, they’re officially on life support now. WSU must six of its final ten games – meaning at least five conference games, plus this week’s Portland State visit – to qualify for the postseason. I had this team pegged for five wins before the year, but I included both the first two games as wins. Things are looking ugly on the Palouse.

Oregon made the biggest splash of the season thus far by any team, rebounding from an ugly quarter-long stretch of play to run past and through Michigan State. It was a victory for spread teams everywhere, but the Ducks will certainly benefit the most from the impressive showing. With the “physicality” monkey off the team’s back, UO can now focus on securing the Pac-12 title, which it will overwhelmingly be favored to claim after Stanford’s loss to USC. There remain questions in my mind about the defense (why is the coverage so atrocious at times?), but Oregon is the front-runner once again.

USC came out of Stanford Stadium with a win despite seeing its highly (as it proved, overly so) regarded offense grind to a halt after the first drive. The Trojans ran just more than half as many plays against the Cardinal as they did versus Fresno (who it turns out, is terrible), were outgained by more than 100 yards and allowed all nine of Stanford’s drives to enter their own 35-yard line. How on earth did SC pull this one out? By capitalizing on two costly Kevin Hogan fumbles (the second a truly awful one by the quarterback that ended the game) and Stanford’s own supreme conservativeness, which saw the Cardinal settle for three field goal attempts (two missed) and two punts despite that fantastic field position. Eeesh. No doubt Stanford will still play a role in the Pac-12 race. The Cardinal are far too annoying to simply go away after one loss. But this time they’ll be playing catch-up from the start.

Washington and UCLA remain the true enigmas, both 2-0 despite vastly underwhelming performances. Strangely, both squads were inept offensively in Week 1, then fell apart defensively in Week 2. Those efforts won’t cut it in conference play. Fortunately, there’s still one tune-up left for the Bruins and two for the Huskies. UCLA must be more consistent on the road at Texas (in Arlington) this week, even against the seemingly hapless Longhorns. UW meets Illinois before playing Georgia State. Neither opponent should pose much of a threat, but the Huskies haven’t looked sharp very often this season either. The league needs these teams to get it together.

Oregon State, Utah and Cal are all off this week after 2-0 starts. This is probably a great time for these teams to take such a breather after all three posted disappointing finishes in 2013. The Golden Bears, coming off a brutal 1-11 season, desperately needed to start 2014 with some momentum. Going 2-0 is huge and the bye allows Cal to better prepare for a rough conference slate. Utah is in much the same boat, needing a shot in the arm after a disappointing campaign a year ago. Picking up two wins before heading to the Big House helps a lot. OSU entered the season in better shape than the Utes and Bears but still had a lot of question marks regarding its ability to compete with top competition. Avoiding an early face-plant (like in 2011 and 2013) was critical and the Beavers did that.

Random Thoughts and Observations

The only particularly noteworthy event in Week 2 was USC Athletic Director Pat Haden’s bizarre decision to come down to the field from his pressbox at Stanford Stadium (apparently, at the urging of head coach Steve Sarkisian) to berate the officials following a string of calls that went against the Trojans. To my eyes all the penalties assessed looked legitimate, but that’s hardly the point.

The fact that an AD directly interjected himself into a game in progress is unprecedented and absolutely warranted the $25,000 fine the Pac-12 handed down this week. Haden is a member of the College Football Playoff selection committee and his behavior was beyond inappropriate. Some people have called for him to resign his post, while others say that’s an overreaction. I’d lean toward Haden being forced out. Trying to use his position to influence the outcome of a game is an outrageous abuse of power. Haden’s status as a former Rhodes Scholar is one of the points being argued favor of allowing him to stay. How is that relevant in any way? An impressive educational background does not an intelligent person make. Nor does it preclude biases and homerism. Haden blew it and should be gone.

Stanzi Watch

I decided it was time for the Stanzis to have their own rightfully earned section. It was another great week for good-bad QB play, as five new challengers entered their names for college football’s most dubious honor.

Angel Santiago, Army

Opponent: Buffalo

Performance: Two FUM, allowed Buffalo to get back into game in one-score win

Wes Lunt, Illinois

Opponent: Western Kentucky

Performance: One FUM, one INT, held on for one-score win

C.J. Brown, Maryland

Opponent: South Florida

Performance: Two INT, one FUM (recovered by teammate), won by four

Michael Brewer, Virginia Tech

Opponent: Ohio State

Performance: Two INT, one FUM, led clinching drive

Blake Decker, UNLV

Opponent: Northern Colorado

Performance: Three INT, held on for one-point win

Here are the previous winners and official standings:

Nick Arbuckle, Georgia State: 1

Davis Webb, Texas Tech: 1

Christian Hackenberg, Penn State: 1

Dane Evans, Tulsa: 1

Jameis Winston, Florida State: 1

That does it for Week 2. There’s just a couple more weeks of awful matchups before conference play really begins. Have faith, friends. Good football is coming.