A Slate of High-Profile Non-Conference Matchups Could Define the Big Ten Before the Leaves Change
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If there is one lesson to be learned thus far from college football’s playoff era, it is this: Brand matters.
While the number of playoff berths seems destined to expand eventually, it appears we will have several more years with the current model, in which the supply of postseason slots dramatically dwarfs the demand from would-be participants and their fans. It is a system where national perception of your program definitively dictates the reality of its playoff chances, a trend that absolutely extends to your conference at large. So if you aspire to chase an elusive committee selection, a great name is a necessity, but it sure helps to keep the right company. Don’t believe me? Ask our fellow Rebel Alliance partner the PAC-12 about how level the playing field seems from where they sit.
Perversely, one of the more frustrating losses for Penn State fans, a potential home upset of Ohio State in 2014 that hinged on two abjectly terrible blown calls, probably altered the Big Ten’s fate in the selection committee’s brand equity horse race – and therefore the Lions’ own future playoff chances – for the better. In August of 2014, the preseason conventional wisdom tabbed the stodgy Big Ten, clinging to its cable boxes and dusty memories of days gone by, as the most likely “odd man out” of the five-conference race for four newly-minted playoff spots. As it happened, Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes caught lightning in a bottle, and after a demolition of Wisconsin in the B1G Championship vaulted them over TCU and into the inaugural CFP, Ohio State toppled mighty Alabama on its way to a national title win over Oregon. That championship performance, which resuscitated the Big Ten’s flagging reputation and pushed the Big XII and PAC-12 down in the pecking order, never would have happened without the Nittany Lions taking one for the team.
