College football is about pageantry, including the traditions we hold on to well after graduation day from our alma maters. College football is about passion, which partially stems from the sold out five- and six-figure capacity stadiums that are on display each Autumn Saturday. College football is certainly about popularity, for all the reasons I described to this point.
More than anything, though, college football is about pride. Pride that comes from identifying with some aspect of a program, whether it be a player, an experience, or even a uniform color. Pride that comes from four years of walking the campus, tailgating, and attending the biggest weekly social event on campus. Pride that comes from debate on which team, division, or conference has bragging rights.
In the days of the old bowl system, conference reputation was basically nebulous. Each major bowl game had its own conference affiliation. If you don't win the league title, you didn't get to showcase your program on the most well-known stages (Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, Orange, Cotton). You could argue that the SEC, Pac-10, Big Eight, Southwest, or Big Ten offered the best talent and competition, but I don't think you could resolve it concretely.
The BCS era consolidated the championship process to two teams, which (in my mind) helped to legitimize the debate over conference superiority. It also introduced new talking points to the debate of which teams should play for a national title. Strength of schedule (including non-conference SOS), records against ranked teams, and margin of victory became ordinary variables in the equation of championship calculus.
Now the new playoff system is shining more light on the power of reputation, especially when it concerns the "Big Boy" conferences. The current way of things may not last long if the system expands, but, as is, there are four spots for five power conferences. That means some league won't be happy in this game of musical chairs. During the bulk of October and November, the conferences will beat up on each other. In light of that, it's up to the non-conference matchups, those salivating appetizers, to set up a reputation hierarchy. Essentially, these leagues have one month to establish, demonstrate, or reconfigure the truth in any preseason mindsets about which one is the toughest (or overrated).
A prime example of what we can expect in future seasons is the past two weekends. I live in Big Ten country, where the winters get bitter and the football royalty is basically set in stone. If you hold a residence northwest of the Ohio River and northeast of the Missouri River, you know Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Penn State, and Wisconsin. These are the six programs that, at one time or another in the BCS era, have led the way in national title contention.
The first list of playoff contenders did contain some Big Ten schools. The Buckeyes, Spartans, and Badgers all came into the season with aspirations of a conference title and one of the coveted four spots. But, just two weeks into the new season, those dreams have been significantly damaged.
Wisconsin took on the daunting task of playing LSU right out of the gate. Losing to the Bayou Bengals in Houston isn't bad. Losing to them close would probably be seen as a wash. However, losing to them when you're up 14 in the fourth quarter will sting all the more, knowing Bucky (and the conference) had a golden opportunity for a boost in reputation.
Michigan State traveled to Eugene last Saturday in the hyped game of the week. The Spartans may have faced some uptempo offenses over the past few seasons, but they weren't Oregon. The Ducks ran off to a quick lead. Sparty actually counterpunched to surge in front. But Phil Knight U pulled away in the end to deny another reputation boost to the kids from the Great Lakes.
Those losses were acceptable. Then came the downturn. If you flipped channels between conference foes on Saturday night, you could have switched to Michigan's last go-round with Notre Dame. You probably wouldn't have stayed long, seeing as how the Wolverines were getting their dinners handed to them by the Irish. A 31-0 shellacking gave the Maize and Blue a very bitter taste as they finished out the series with their longtime rival. It gave the Big Ten another black and blue eye to cover with a steak.
Once you got saw the "Beatdown in South Bend," you probably clicked over to watch Ohio State take on Virginia Tech. The Buckeyes had a 15-0 home record in their first two seasons under Urban Meyer. Despite missing QB Braxton Miller, OSU was facing a Hokie squad that had a lot of youth and some trouble pulling away from William & Mary in week one. The Buckeyes trailed by two touchdowns, but caught back up early in the fourth. They couldn't capitalize on the momentum, though, falling 35-21 to the Hokies. And the black eyes weren't over for the conference.
Purdue lost badly to Central Michigan. Northwestern fell against Northern Illinois to drop to 0-2. Iowa had to score two TD's in the last four minutes to beat Ball State. Nebraska needed a superhuman effort by Ameer Abdullah to avoid going to overtime with FCS opponent McNesse State.
In other words, the Big Ten had a bad weekend. And because of it, they find themselves at the back of the line in terms of reputation. Can the conference recover to place a rep in the bracket? Sure. But, in the current world of college football, winning begets reputation. Reputation begets respectability. Respectability begets more shots at a postseason berth. For the selection committee, right now, reputation is lacking all across the upper midwest.
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