The Big 10 returns to post-season dominance
Looking back before last season, the Big 10 failed miserably come post-season play. However, this season the Big 10 is looking very strong despite struggles from yester-year. On Tuesday, Iowa took down #12 Missouri 27-24 in the Insight Bowl and on Wednesday Illinois, surprising to some, dominated Baylor 38-14 in the Texas Bowl. The conference is starting to show that it is finally out of its slump and returning back to elite status.
To the true fan, this turn-around should come to no surprise as the Big 10 had quality bowl wins last year in Ohio State over Oregon, Penn State over LSU, Wisconsin over Miami, and Iowa over Georgia Tech. Though the conference was 4-3 in 2009, the statement wins certainly outweighed the close losses considering in prior years the Big 10 was flat-out lousy (2003: 3-5; 2004: 3-3; 2006: 2-5; 2007: 3-5; and 2008: 1-6).
Critics still want to hate on the Big 10 with some predicting the conference will only claim 2 bowl victories this post-season. Well the stage is set. The conference is 2-0 with 6 more bowl games to go and from the looks of it, the Big 10 will not disappoint. So to all you doubters, you can stop drinking the SEC Kool-Aid and welcome back the Big 10 as the conference is returning to prominence right before your very eyes.
