The Ripple Effect
by BSD on Sep 2, 2007 9:52 PM EDT
in Football
12 comments
By all accounts it was a perfect day. The offense was rolling. The defense was smothering. JoePa ran out of the tunnel. Other than the side of my face and the back of my neck starting to sting with the burn from the never-ending warm sunshine, it was a perfect day in Happy Valley. As we sat there listening to the scores from other games we got a good chuckle when early in the first quarter they announced Appalachian State led Michigan 21-14 in the second quarter. As the score updates kept coming in and with each update the cheers of the crowd got louder, but I couldn't help thinking Michigan losing to Appalachian would be bad for the Big Ten.
Late in the forth quarter when Joe decided to put the waterboy in the game to go score a touchdown, we decided we saw enough and started heading for the door. As we reached the bottom of the steps and turned down the tunnel I heard a guy in the stands say Michigan took a 32-31 lead. It appeared David was not destined to slay Goliath this day and the Wolverines were going to escape.
As we made our way to the tailgate we heard the victory bell ring so we knew the game was over. Then as we crossed Porter Road we heard the stadium erupt in cheers. "Wow, the Blue Band must be putting on a heck of a show in there," I thought. But quickly I realized they must be showing the Michigan game on the big screen. On the way back to the tailgate we heard intermittent cheers coming from the good sized crowd still hanging around inside the stadium. Then we got back to the tailgate party just in time to hear some guy stand in the back of his truck and yell, "Appalachian State blocked a field goal to win 34-32." There were cheers all around, but the reality quickly sunk in. This looks bad.
Indeed, riding home listening to the radio the talk had already begun. Michigan was overrated. The Big Ten was overrated. It's going to be a down year for the conference. This makes Wisconsin the new frontrunner.
It was a mix of emotions. You like to see your rival struggle. You take pleasure in seeing them lose. But not like this. Not now. We all realize at some point in the season every team but one is going to see their national title hopes dashed. We hoped Michigan would lose, but we wanted to be the ones to beat them. Now the rest of the conference is in a downright lousy position. Beat Michigan and you're just beating another overrated team. Lose to Michigan and you're the team that lost to the team that lost to Appalachian State.
There are a lot of people making generalizations about how this reflects on the Big Ten. It shouldn't, but the fact is it does. This makes the Big Ten look bad, and it couldn't happen at a worse time with the Big Two coming off of embarrassing bowl losses. I'm personally disappointed in this. I've talked a lot of smack toward the Big East in the past few weeks. It doesn't change my perception of the college football reality, but it definitely gives fuel to the opposition. So today there is anger directed at the Wolverines. Anger for letting the conference down. Anger for taking away our opportunity to be the one to knock them off their perch.
Michigan may still run the table, win the Big Ten, and go to the Rose Bowl. Obviously there are serious questions about that now. We all laugh at Joe Paterno for ranking offense behind defense and special teams in importance. We all laugh when Joe says he stays up all night worrying how they are going to beat the cupcake of the week. Who's laughing now?
The simple fact for the Nittany Lions is we can't get wrapped up in the conference wars now. That's fun fodder for the offseason, but now there is business to take care of, and they only thing we have control over is the opponent standing on the other side of the field this week. Joe has always said, "All you can do is win your games and hope for the best." So far we've done that. So when you go to work on Tuesday and the Pitt fan in the next cubicle starts giving you shit about Michigan losing to Appalachian State, don't get bent out of shape. Penn State took care of their business in the Outback Bowl and we took care of business in our game. That's the line and we're sticking to it.
0 recs |
12 comments
Email
Print
Comments
Well Put
Even before football was played, I was concerned about the Big 10's rep, and that was before yesterday. Things can only be worse now.
I'm not worried about the Pitt fans. They'll be a pain in the ass, but I'm more worried about what comes out of Bristol. For a dinky New England town, they wield a lot of power.
They feature the Big East, and hate the Big 10 for taking their games of GAMEPLAN. When it comes down to USC against an undefeated WVU/Louisville and an undefeated PSU/OSU/Wisc., who do YOU in your heart of hearts think is going to win out? And we havnt even talked about a one loss SEC team (LSU).
I know theres a lot of footbal to be played, but if I was betting on a Big 10 team making it to New Orleans right now, I'm not sure I'd do it.
by fugimaster24 on Sep 2, 2007 11:20 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Lets Face It........
by ech2os on Sep 3, 2007 1:05 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
It's bad for the Big10
by PSUinTN on Sep 3, 2007 9:37 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Maybe They're Right
by lonebadger on Sep 3, 2007 9:39 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Umm Yeah.
by CBlack79 on Sep 3, 2007 9:50 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Thank You
Michigan was a middle of the pack Big Ten team to begin with. Should a middle of the pack B10 team lose to a AA team, albeit an elite AA team? Probably not. That's why it is an upset. But by no means is this a HUGE upset in my mind, and by no means is this indicative of problems conference wide.
by ckmneon on Sep 3, 2007 12:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I still think
by speedomike02 on Sep 3, 2007 10:04 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
OSU
BTW, did anyone see those "Rudy was Offsides" sirts at the bookstore? My God, that was genius. I've been looking for a good Notre Dame joke shirt for a couple of weeks, and all the other ones aren't NEARLY as funny as that one was. Of course the only had it in small.
Owell
Go State!
by fugimaster24 on Sep 3, 2007 11:12 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Problem and solution
Solution: Schedule more than one "good" OOC opponent.
Pitt >>>>>>>>>>> Buffalo, Temple, FIU.
by M1EK on Sep 3, 2007 12:24 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Speaking as a Pitt fan...
Very simply, one win over a perceived superior program does not equate to immediate respectability, nor does one loss mean a conference as a whole is drastically overrated. Even an unprecendented and indefensible loss like this.
Respectability takes time - and I'm talking like a decade or so - to earn. The Big East is learning that right now. One win or even a relatively small sample of wins over "name" programs does not bring an entire conference up to the level of other established conferences.
This is why it bothers me when Big East supporters point only to one thing...say, the WVU win over Georgia or the 5-0 record in bowl games last year as some sort of a sign that the conference has arrived. These things individually mean things are moving in the right direction, but these events alone do not indicate the arrival of the conference.
Next Saturday night, I will be glued to the TV and hoping against hope that South Florida goes into Auburn and upsets the Tigers. If it happens, it'll perhaps be the biggest OOC win in the history of the new Big East. Will it mean that the conference has arrived? No. Will it be another step in the right direction? Absolutely. The Big East teams need to keep stringing these things together over the next several seasons and make some big noise in bowl matchups to get the kind of respectability they want.
In the same respect, Michigan's loss to App. State doesn't mean the conference has been overrated for years. One win cannot be too big, nor can one loss completely dissolve the reputation of an entire conference.
Even still, this "overrated for years" argument is something I've heard on talk radio here in Pittsburgh fairly extensively the last two days. Even Beano Cook was on KDKA last night growling about this being the case, saying the Big Ten became overrated when the SEC came into existence in its current form in the early 1990s. (Note: Isn't that almost like saying the ACC became overrated in basketball when the new Big East was created a couple of years ago? Not sure I agree with The Pope here.)
It goes both ways...it has to. Big Ten detractors will take this and run with it, but that needs to be tempered. It's a step back for the Big Ten, but I don't think it's in any way a sweeping indictment of the conference.
by Stoosh on Sep 3, 2007 12:49 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Stoosh Rules
You didn't say anything that I would disagree with, however, I will say that there aren't many people in the media like you. The App St. loss is the "death of the Big 10" to them, just as the Sugar Bowl was the "rise of the Big East".
We can trace this all back to money, sweet money. The Big East makes more of it for ESPN than the Big 10 does, hence, the propaganda pieces coming out of Bristol on the dot com.
KDKA is run by Bob Pompeani, one of the biggest homers (for Pitt, and Pittsburgh sports in general) I've ever seen, so its natural for him and his buddies at the PG and Trib to attack PSU and the Big 10 to make Pitt look better. Why do they hate PSU?
- PSU won't play Pitt. Therefore, it is perfectly ok to go after JoePa and his Big 10 buddies tomake Pitt, and their friends look better, and draw the casual fan to Pitt, and not PSU.
- The columnists are to lazy to go to Penn State and actually cover the team, making them irrelevent.
Now to the other Pitt fan with the attack on our schedule: Get over yourself.
by fugimaster24 on Sep 3, 2007 10:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2009 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
