There are good bets and there are bad bets. Both have the potential to win; both have the potential to lose. As I sit here the day after a losing bet, I remain convinced that Ohio St. was not a bad bet. I am not going to talk about how Ohio St. should have won, because they shouldn’t have won, they weren’t the best team out there and they made too many mistakes to even deserve consideration that they might have won the game. Even with that, I remain steadfast that OSU was not a bad bet. Please understand that I fully recognize that LSU was a GOOD bet. But a certain solace can be found by the bettors of Ohio St. that is not afforded to a fan of Ohio St. First off, I only need Ohio St. to cover a 13.5 line, which they almost did. (Had the bet been placed earlier that would have been 15.5 points, but I digress). Secondly, despite all their bad play and mistakes, Ohio St. still had chances to cover and to win, but the whole they dug was too deep and the miscues to crucial.

All that being said, this is the second year in a row that the Buckeyes have been selected to play in the Championship game and the second year in a row that they showed us what they and the Big 10 are really made of; which is that they are weak and do not deserve to be considered among the elites in college football. How can the Big 10 turn this perception? For starters they can play a conference championship game. You may ask what that would do? That even if there were a Big 10 championship, Ohio St. could have won that and still made it to to last night’s game. True. However, when a marginal team has to play more games the likelihood that they will lose a game increases, i.e. the Buckeyes losing to Illinois. Granted LSU had two losses this year, but that speaks to the strength of their conference. So, the first thing the Big 10 needs to do is get that extra game on the schedule.

To help the Big 10 complete this task, I have a proposal. My proposal is for Notre Dame to join the Big 10 making it a 12-team conference, and forming two 6-team divisions. This would also solve the ND as an island scenario that exists now and that really screws teams should the Irish ever field a competitive team again. Each Big 10+2 team would play their division mates for 5-games, 3 of their other division schools and have 4 open slots. I have taken the liberty of forming a Big 10 East and a Big 10 West Division. Here is how it would look:

East Division: Michigan, Michigan St., Notre Dame, Purdue, Ohio St., and Penn St.
West Division: Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota, and Northwestern.

With this in place, and with the addition of a Plus-1 scenario, only the Pac 10 needs to get in line and we will be in a much better place.