If you follow a team in the Big Ten or are simply a die-hard college football fan, then you’ve probably heard nothing but bad things about the conference. “It’s weak. It’s slow. The teams are overrated.” Over the past few seasons, the Big Ten has gotten that reputation, and with good reason. It seems that whenever any school from the Big Ten was put on a national stage vs. non-conference opponents, they would lay an egg. No team has gotten worse reputation than Ohio State. We’ve seen them roll through their regular season schedule the last two seasons only to get steamrolled by the SEC in the National Championship, both times. In the eyes of the casual football fan, they’re probably thinking, “if is the best you can do, then something is wrong here.”

Then there is the University of Michigan, who became the first ranked team in the AP Top 25 Poll to lose to a 1-AA team (Appalachian State). How about Illinois being selected to the Rose Bowl (something that most college football fans didn’t agree with) and getting drilled by USC? If that’s not enough to convince you, then look at the Big Ten’s overall record throughout the past two bowl seasons. Sure, they packed more teams in than most conferences, but they’ve all failed to produce. Last season, they put eight teams into bowl games, only to go 3-5. The year before that, they sent seven teams to bowl games and come out with a record of 2-5. That’s a combined record of 5-10 in bowl games over the last two years. So how do they fix it?

It all starts with the “powerhouses” in the Big Ten winning their non-conference games. Illinois will travel to Missouri to take on Chase Daniels and the Missouri Tigers of the Big XII, Iowa gets a big game vs. the Pittsburgh Panthers, in Pittsburgh none-the-less, and Michigan will play their annual game vs. Notre Dame. Michigan State travels to California to take on the Cal Golden Bears, Ohio State has the highly anticipated showdown with the USC Trojans, which will take place at the Coliseum, and Purdue will get a shot at Oregon.

The stage is set for the Big Ten to restore its image; the games are in place and everyone is waiting to see how they will perform. If they’re tired of being looked down upon as the overrated, slow, weak, lesser talented conference, then it all starts now. The biggest and easiest way to silence all critics is to go out and do what they said you couldn’t do and prove them wrong. The conference has both a serious Heisman candidate and a National Championship contender, so they publicity will be there. But with their track record, if they begin to slip-up, it won’t take much for the supporters to jump ship.