31-0, 38-0 annihilations the past two years show how overrated the Big Ten is

… Penn State can redeem conference's reputation somewhat 

USA Today put it succinctly after Ohio State's 31-0 annihilation by Clemson in the opening round of the College Football Playoffs (CFP) last night: "For the Big Ten, this bowl season is turning into a big dud."

However, what so many fail to recognize is that the Big Ten representative last year, Michigan State, lost to Alabama 38-0 in the opening round of the CFP last year.

So, the Big Ten has been outscored 69-0 in the CFP over the past two years, which begs the question: Why is the Big Ten so overrated?

This year so far, the league is 2-5 in bowl games. They have three more tomorrow, but it still begs the question: How do Big Ten teams get into the CFP if they are going to lose by 69-0?

AP Big Ten bias

Part of this has to do with the AP rankings, which are always unfairly skewed toward the Big Ten. The Midwestern conference covers more than a thousand miles from Minnesota and Chicago to Penn State [hardly count Rutgers]. The nefarious Big Ten sports writers, many of whom never wore a jockstrap, will invariably put their local teams at the top of their lists.

Hence, despite Ohio State's embarrassment, bet on it to be in the top five in the AP preseason poll that comes out prior to the 2017 season.

Then, if they play such a weak schedule within the conference itself, like most Big Ten top teams do, they have few chances of losing.

Hence, with an 11-1 record like Ohio State had, they still managed to be part of the CFP schedule despite not being the conference champion, which is supposed to be the major criteria for acceptance.

Penn State fans complained about not being in the four-team CFP mix since they were conference champs, and they had a beef. However, they lost two games, one to a team that will probably not make the final Top 25 rankings, and another an annihilation by Michigan. They reached the title game only because of a tiebreaker -- the only quality win they had all year, over Ohio State, which now does not look like a quality win after Clemson's drubbing last night.

Redemption

Penn State can redeem the reputation of the conference with a win over Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl tomorrow. They are 7-point underdogs, or 6.5, but USC has three losses and played in the weak Pac-12. The Pac-12 champ, Washington, did not put up much of a fight against Alabama in the semifinal game yesterday, losing 24-7.

USC defeated Washington for the Huskies' only loss, but the Trojans were annihilated by Alabama in the opening game of their season, 52-6. That was many games ago and the Trojans are on a roll at the end of the season, as Penn State is, but still. How good can they be? We will see.

The other two Big Ten bowl games tomorrow are Iowa vs. Florida and Wisconsin vs. Western Michigan. Do not count out Western Michigan, but it is not a member of a Big 5 conference. So, Wisconsin may benefit from a lower-rated opponent, too.