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The Maneater Finally Weighs In On The Big Ten

You thought you could hide, didn't you JJ?  You thought that just because you wrote for a college paper called The Maneater that you could get away with this.  I can't totally blame you, it was probably a fair assumption.  I mean, to put it bluntly, (d'oh!) WTF is the University of Missouri - Columbia?  Know this, though: even though your paper is unrecognizable to the layman, the power of Google News Feeder knows no bounds.

It's time for the FJM treatment.

Star-divide

With all apologies to Illinois and Indiana, Big Ten football is awful. The games are boring, the talent isn't as good as in other conferences and they have many teams that are pretty easy to dislike - namely, Ohio State and Michigan.

Why are you apologizing to Indiana, one of the more consistent losers in the conference?  This article should explicitly call out the Hoosiers, not make them feel better about themselves.  Also, having hatable teams usually makes people more interested, not less.  See: New York Yankees, Notre Dame.

And, yet, Big Ten football gets shoved down our throats every weekend, thanks to the worldwide leader in sports. Last weekend, viewers were treated to Ohio vs. Ohio State and Miami (Ohio) vs. Michigan. Fact is, neither of these games were good matchups, but the Big Ten found a way to make them exciting with bad offense that allowed lesser opponents to stay in both of the games into the fourth quarter.

If the games were so exciting, what is the problem?  Not only do you sound like you watched both games, but you were actually treated to relatively close scores. Besides that, your other options at noon last Saturday were all equally terrible matchups.

Yes, there are some fun teams to watch in the Big Ten - once again, Illinois and Indiana - but, for the most part and in terms of piquing my interest, Big Ten football is just not up to par with the rest of college football.

Now I want to pretend that you simply think, as a matter of taste, that Illinois and Indiana football are more fun to watch.  I want to pretend that you don't actually think they are the two best teams in the league.  I want this badly.  However, this is the second time you have excluded these two schools from broad comments about how awfully below par the rest of the conference is.

I'd like to see nothing more than Ohio State getting completely dominated by USC this weekend. And it's not just because USC is my favorite of the "powerhouse" programs in college football....Losing to USC hopefully would prove that, team for team, the Big Ten cannot compete with other power conferences (Well, except the ACC, which is equally as weak.).

This looks like fun, let me try: I'd like to see Penn State completely ruin Syracuse this weekend, and it's not just because Penn State is my favorite of the "under par" programs in college football...beating Syracuse hopefully would prove (yes, prove!) that every single team in the Big East is weak, and cannot compete with power high school divisions like the Pennsylvania AAAA (Well, except for 7-on-7 football on Ohio, which is equally as weak).

The Big Ten is a lot like this year's Yankees.

An entire conference, eleven college football teams, a lot like a professional baseball team.  Please explain.

They're good, but not that good, and yet they still get a lot more attention than they deserve.

Then stop paying attention to the Big Ten with these random stories!  You = media.

[Ohio State has] cheated America out of what could have been a great BCS National Championship Game last year (either Georgia or USC taking on LSU).

Ohio State, who was vote #1 by the coaches, the media represented in the AP and Harris polls, as well as the computers, "cheated America" out of a game between SEC champ LSU and their conference counterpart Georgia?  America cheated themselves by voting OSU #1 in the polls.

Enough already.

Let's review:

-The Big Ten is awful.
-The Big Ten is good, but not great.
-The Big Ten is the Yankees.
-The Big Ten gets shoved down our throats, but the games are exciting.
-The Big Ten is boring, except for games involving Illinois and Indiana.

This is the 2,342,456th time this story has been written, and with losable games being played by Ohio State, Wisconsin and Purdue, we are probably in for thousands more.  God save us.

0 recs  |  Comment 25 comments |

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Who is this guy?

And besides this dumbass article why do you hate him so?

by psuphiman80 on Sep 10, 2008 11:06 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

lol

How could you not hate him so?
None of his statements made sense.

And yeah, I have no clue who he is.

by GreatScawt on Sep 10, 2008 11:20 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I don't hate

this was actually kind of fun. I read his other stuff and it’s not bad at all, this one just seemed right because it had all the elements of a good Big Ten bashing post:
-generalities
-forgetting that Ohio State is 1/11th of the conference
-pointing out that the ACC is also bad
-the word "boring"

..and so on. I want to make it perfectly clear that JJ seems like a good guy, this isn’t personal. It’s just that I thought I’d do this now instead of next week when every writer in the country spits this story out and I end up not caring any more.

by Kevin HD on Sep 10, 2008 11:22 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

In all honesty...

My column was due by Saturday evening, and it was Saturday afternoon and I didn’t have anything done. I was about to leave for the Mizzou/SEMO game in about an hour and had to get something in, so I went ahead and wrote this article.

I’ll admit it wasn’t the best one I’ve ever written, but I think it does sum up how a lot of people feel about the Big Ten: first, that it’s represented by Ohio State, and second, that’s it’s generally bland as all hell.

Also, the Prince “quote” was directed at a college audience who all would get the reference.

I also find this awesome that you guys are talking about this article, even if you all hate it.

And for the record, I thought Michael Robinson would have been an excellent NFL quarterback had the Bears taken him and put him in there over Chad Hutchinson.
-JJ

Will...I...be...able...to...play...softball...tomorrow?
Oh, no, Mr. Scioscia. At this time tomorrow, you'll barely be able to breathe.

by UribeAuction on Sep 11, 2008 12:27 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Because the Big 12 is soooo much more exciting. Checking to see whether Mangino leaves a slug trail behind him as he comes onto the field is about the only thing in the Big 12 that is moderately entertaining. Chase Daniels is a douche!

by Spats on Sep 11, 2008 1:22 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

That's not fair to slugs

Will...I...be...able...to...play...softball...tomorrow?
Oh, no, Mr. Scioscia. At this time tomorrow, you'll barely be able to breathe.

by UribeAuction on Sep 11, 2008 2:13 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Great analysis

“Chase Daniels is a douche?” “Mangino is fat”?

At least the article in question didn’t say “The Big Ten sucks because JoePa is 115 years old” Give me a break!

For proof the Big XII is more “exciting” (evidently that’s your way of evaluating the quality of a football conference), how about seven of the top twenty offenses in the country in ‘07? (Big Eleven, zero) Six of the top twenty scoring offenses (Big Eleven, zero), The average Big XII conference game had 62 points scored (Big Eleven, 52). Oh you say the defense was just bad? Let’s look at pts scored in non-conference games v BCS conference opponents: Big XII: 28 pts per game, (20 games), Big Eleven: 25 pts per game. Yeah, that’s right, the Big Ten is more entertaining.

"I have CDO. It's like OCD, but the letters are in alphabetical order. Like they should be."

by BigMOman on Sep 15, 2008 2:38 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

fyi

The University of Missouri-Columbia is Mizzou

by psumjm on Sep 10, 2008 11:50 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

busted

i guess the green through me off.

by Kevin HD on Sep 11, 2008 7:17 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

oh, and the fact that he is essentially a USC fan. That’s kind of strange.

by Kevin HD on Sep 11, 2008 8:30 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

This is why bad football teams should never be allowed to be good.

Mizzou has one season wrapped around a near lifetime of futility, and all of a sudden they’re the best team in the history of time.

Once he apologized for Indiana, it was clear that this person knows as much about football as I do space travel. I know it’s out there, but couldn’t really explain how to do it with any amount of detail or accuracy.

by Tailgate Shogun on Sep 11, 2008 5:19 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

two good seasons, going on three

Look, we have had a horrible football history (Nebraska kicked ball, Colorado 5th down), but don’t make it worse than it really is!

"I have CDO. It's like OCD, but the letters are in alphabetical order. Like they should be."

by BigMOman on Sep 15, 2008 1:55 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Nice

Gotta love the firejoemorgan approach.

USC cheated itself out of the title game when they lost to Stanford.

by speedomike on Sep 11, 2008 7:39 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Even better...

Look at the things he has spent his time writing in the last SIX MONTHS… four articles

  1. Diamondbacks could be team to beat in the NL (Sept. 2, 2008)
  2. Hester’s shelf life is running low (Aug. 26, 2008)
  3. Rays are in first (July 9, 2008)
  4. Baseball sweeps Indiana State (March 11, 2008)

I mean, honestly, why waste your time covering horrible, pathetic, incredulous Big Ten Football… except for Illinois and Indiana (heart you guys!!! xoxoxo) when you can cover things like Devin Hester’s shelf life. I can just see that creepy guy from the local news ducking in with an entire camera crew into the local grocery store and checking the expiration date with you in tow, living and breathing on every word of… er… true journalism.

Ah, thanks Kevin… instead of reading the Daily Collegian, I get to read other school’s idiots.

by AdamShell on Sep 11, 2008 8:38 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

He should have apologized to Northwestern also

Talk about good games, I mean look at their series with Duke, truly exciting games. I agree with Tailgate Shogun, people just don’t do well when their team does ok for one season out of 20. They show up with articles like this, and after last year you would think Rutgers was the best thing since sliced bread (yes Joepa is older than sliced bread-lol).

I don't know, Mello Yello is pretty awful. What's the worst that could happen?

by psu on Sep 11, 2008 8:42 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Finally, somebody with some sense

I mean, I was just saying to myself, “Man, it’s nice winning games and all, but I really wish we could play the game like Indiana. And the Big 12 is a power conference from top to bottom- I mean, I do NOT want to play Baylor on a neutral site. Go Trojans!”

Or something like that.

John Madden told me 90% of the game was half-mental...

by TheK-GunNeedsReloaded on Sep 11, 2008 9:29 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

This kid referenced a ficticious quote from Prince

Prince perfectly sums up how I feel about Big Ten football: “This bores me. Is anyone up for a game of basketball?”

This isn’t even a real quote so that tells you all you need to know about the writer. It’s from a skit on the Dave Chapelle Show.

On the record as a longtime supporter of Daryll Clark

by ReadingNitFan on Sep 11, 2008 9:56 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Shirts…. versus blouses.

by Tailgate Shogun on Sep 11, 2008 10:08 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

It appears that this guy spent too much time

in # 5024 prior to writing this article.

by NJ lion on Sep 11, 2008 2:41 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Who names a newspaper after a Hall & Oates song?

Watch out boy, she’ll chew you up.

…and to think that Mizzou’s journalism school is one of the most respected in the country. Ugh.

by Cairo on Sep 11, 2008 6:17 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

People actually live in Missouri? Who knew?

by Tailgate Shogun on Sep 11, 2008 9:40 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

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