by For six months, the Big Ten Conference was the biggest winner in college football. On June 30, the league shook up the sport with the acquisition of USC and UCLA, hacking the Los Angeles market away from the Pac-12 by 2024. In August, the Big Ten announced a new record media rights deal. its members in cash. And on Selection Sunday for the College Football Playoffs in early December, two conference members made the four-team field for the first time.
Then came New Year’s Eve, when the Big Ten’s big year ended with a big bust. The league dropped the ball before the ball fell in Times Square. Off-court summer gains will resonate in the future, but the present brings another dose of humility.
Michigan was upset by TCU in a playoff semifinal. Ohio State couldn’t hold a two-touchdown lead against Georgia in the fourth quarter of the other. The Big Ten went 0-2 in the games that matter most, cutting their all-time playoff record to 3-7 and extending their championship drought to eight years.
The playoff games were exciting and there were points of pride for the Wolverines and the Buckeyes. Michigan continued to battle against TCU, trailing 18 points in the first half and 19 in the second, but rallying repeatedly for a chance to win. Ohio State played its best game in years to put the defending champion Bulldogs on the ropes, showing courage that had been questioned in the past.
But at the literal end of the day and the year, when Noah Ruggles’ 50-yard field goal latched onto Atlanta’s far left at the stroke of midnight, the Big Ten’s flagship programs were swept away. of the playoffs. The league’s disappointing CFP resume lost more shine. An opportunity to end 2022 with a powerful flex had passed.
JJ McCarthy threw for 343 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in the loss to TCU.
Rick Scuteri/AP
The misery of the Midwest was deeper on Saturday for Michigan than for the state of Ohio. The undefeated Wolverines were favored by more than one touchdown against the Horned Frogs, who were the most unlikely entrant in CFP history. Michigan was heading to the playoffs, crushing the Buckeyes in the regular season finale at the Horseshoe and dominating Purdue in the Big Ten title game.
Yet in the end, coach Jim Harbaugh’s program has played 120 minutes of playoff football in consecutive seasons without leading a single second. Last year, Michigan immediately fell behind Georgia and got kicked out of the Orange Bowl. On Saturday, the Wolverines squandered a quick start opportunity, trailed 14-0 in the first quarter and 21-3 in the second, and were in desperate comeback mode the rest of the way.
For Ohio State, the pain comes from the fact that it had a huge victory at hand and couldn’t pull it off. The Buckeyes had him, and let him go. It’s different from the constant battle fought by Michigan.
As I wrote on Sunday, the Peach Bowl game was played within the tightest margins of time and distance, and the most important moments all broke Georgia’s path. Ohio State didn’t return the ball, got scored for just 24 penalty yards, and converted plenty of big plays. But there were also a few key errors and breakdowns – an illegal movement penalty that killed a player, a defensive back who was blown and left to stumble on an explosive pass, a poor play call in the final minute. They all added up.
Ultimately, both teams weren’t good enough defensively. It’s a recurring theme that could indicate he’s unprepared for high-octane offenses after weekly doses of disappointing opposition on this side of the ball.
For the second season in a row, Michigan compiled garish defensive stats and was then exploited in the playoff. TCU’s 6.97 yards per play was the most the Wolverines allowed all year. Georgia’s 7.89 per play last year in the Orange Bowl was also a season high against Michigan. Alabama increased Harbaugh’s defense to a season-high 8.73 yards per play in the ’19 Citrus Bowl. Florida beat Michigan for 6.67 at the 2018 Peach Bowl, the second highest this season after Ohio State’s 8.46.
For the Buckeyes, Georgia’s 8.88 yards per play was their highest allowed this season, even more than the 8.83 Michigan let them down in the Horseshoe. (Another damning defensive stat from those two games: Ohio State was outscored 18-3 in the fourth quarter by the Bulldogs and 21-3 in the fourth by the Wolverines.) Last year, Utah scored a season-high of 45 points against Ohio State. Alabama tore through Ryan Day’s defense for 52 points and 7.48 yards per play in 2020. Clemson posted season-highs of 29 points and 6.73 yards per play in 2019.
Ohio State lost on a trip to the national title game after missing a 50-yard field goal in the final seconds of the Peach Bowl.
John Bazemore/AP
Among Big Ten teams, Ohio State and Michigan are so far ahead of their peers offensively that their defenses may not be prepared enough for the playoffs. This season, the Buckeyes are No. 1 nationally in yards per game (7.28), while the Wolverines are 18th (6.62). After that, the rest of the league checks in at 40th (Penn State), 49th (Minnesota), 63rd (Wisconsin), 65th (Maryland), 80th (Purdue), 82nd (Michigan State), 86th (Nebraska), 93rd (Illinois), 123rd (Northwest), 126th (Indiana), 127th (Rutgers), and 129th (Iowa).
The Southeastern Conference, meanwhile, has seven teams in the national top 35 in yards per game. The Big 12 has five. Whether it’s scheme or talent, the leagues of the two Playoff finalists are further ahead than the Big Ten offensively past its top two teams.
The other problem for Ohio State and Michigan could be the all-consuming nature of their rivalry game. In the past two seasons, winning this game was a direct path to the Big Ten title and the Playoffs (this season, therefore, was losing). The buildup began weeks, if not months, in advance, with both teams proceeding almost mundanely through the rest of the schedule. The competition has done few favors in terms of seasoning and toughening up for the playoffs.
Michigan won both, knocked down an opponent overtaken by Big Ten West, then lost in the playoff in a disappointing performance. In fact, the Wolverines have lost their last six bowl games under Harbaugh. Preparing everything to beat Ohio State is great if you want to win the conference, but if Harbaugh wants to win the national championship, he still has some adjustments to make.
This past offseason, Day seemed to be bringing his program into Beat Michigan mode with the hiring of a new defensive coordinator and a focus on getting tougher in the trenches. Although these changes were necessary to compete for the Big Ten title and a national title, it did not pay off this season. The Buckeyes acquitted themselves nobly against Georgia, but there’s still a level to go beyond simply trying to counter-program your biggest rival.
So, after six months of making the news and breaching a playoff barrier, the Big Ten were pushed aside. It will once again be a spectator, not a participant, of the national championship game. Adding members and earning money is great, but the league’s field product needs a little work.
