BIG TEN LEADING WAY
With NFL off a week, college football has spotlight all to itself
For the longest time, the Big Ten spelled ‘‘September’’ B-O-R-I-N-G. The conference moved through the early weeks of the football season at a snail’s pace, the schedule packed with opponents from lesser leagues and lower rungs of the sport. Head-to-head Big Ten matchups were unthinkable. Rivalry games? Key division matchups? The Big Ten kept all that locked away for later in the season.
But just look at Woody’s and Bo’s old stomping grounds now. We already got Illinois’ 30-22 upset victory against Big Ten West mate Nebraska in the first game of the college season, after which new Illini coach Bret Bielema alluded to the possibility of winning the division race. Was he serious? Is the man insane? No, he’s 1-0 and — at least for a fleeting, definitelynot-boring moment — the talk of the conference.
This week, we get Ohio State-Minnesota, Michigan State-Northwestern, Penn State-Wisconsin and Indiana-Iowa openers. Who’s getting off to a more compelling start than the once-dusty old Big Ten? Nobody. This is the way it should be.
And with the NFL on a one-week game break between the preseason and Week 1, college football has full ownership of the sports stage for what will be the last time until the playoff rolls around. It isn’t just the Big Ten that’s delivering the goods. A doubleheader Saturday of Alabama-Miami and Clemson-Georgia on neutral fields in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, will have a playoff feel to it. Those games certainly will have heavy-duty playoff implications.
No, it’s never too soon to talk about the playoff. In case you were wondering.
Here’s what’s happening: