That's the kind of nonsense I'd expect from a Sooner or a Longhorn who's forgotten what real football looks like. The Big Ten has always been a meat-grinder, built on the kind of physical play we used to see in the old Big 8. You think it's weak? Go tell that to Barry Alvarez's Wisconsin teams that would've run right over this modern spread nonsense. The league has multiple national champions in the last twenty years, something the Big 12 can't claim since Vince Young was in Austin. I wattched Ohio State under Jim Tressel win titles with defense and a power run game, fundamentals that seem lost on today's scoreboard operators. This league produces NFL linemen and linebackers like no other, the kind of players who decide games in November, not in a 7-on-7 passing league. The depth is there, too. You used to fear going to play at Iowa or Michigan State, places where the weather and the hitting made it a four-quarter fight for survival. Just because they don't run up the score on directional schools every week doesn't mean they're weak. It means they play a brand of football that wins in the cold, and that's the brand that wins championships. The Big Ten's toughness is a constant, something we understood perfectly back when we had to line up against Nebraska every year.