We make policy in time of calm, so we don’t need to make decisions in the midst of crisis and chaos.
Since it’s now clear the Big Ten is willing to change policy to get the outcome it wants, I have a few more suggestions that could help even more effectively and efficiently achieve the objective.
First, the league should determine player eligibility not on grades, attendance, or payments to play, but instead on what players would make the teams stronger and help ensure conference teams keep the best athletes on the field.
Second, the league could change the policy that demands the team with the highest point total be declared the winner. This plan has actually gained a lot of traction nationally. But this way, the league could decide what would be best for all the schools, then declare a winner based on that.
Perhaps the winner of each division, and by extension participants in the Championship game, could be determined not by the best record, but by some other form — maybe a bid by the schools in the division or better yet, the television networks could all place a financial value on each potential participant and the most lucrative matchup could be arranged.
Certainly, now that the league has adjusted rules to get the team it wants from the east, the league certainly should be able to do something about the west. Sure, Northwestern has the best record in the west, but a Buckeye matchup with Wisconsin or even Iowa would surely draw more eyeballs and pocketbooks to the table.
An idea with even more promise would be to eliminate the rule that participants in the championship game be from the actual Big Ten conference. Imagine the financial windfall of allowing Alabama or Clemson or any number of other powerhouses with larger fanbases than Northwestern or Iowa.
In all seriousness, I don’t think there is anyone who could or would even try to argue that Ohio State is not the best team in the Big Ten. I am honestly not sure the entire rest of the conference could put together an all-star team that could beat the Buckeyes. The Buckeyes, without question, deserve a spot in the NCAA playoffs. But the NCAA did not mandate how many games participants must have played or won. In fact, that organization at the beginning of the season removed the requirement that teams win six games to be bowl eligible.
But here is the problem, as I see it, for the Big Ten. The conference would not have made this decision for Northwestern if the Wildcats were undefeated with five wins, but Wisconsin were 5-1 in six games.
Put yourself in Indiana’s position. By the guidelines set out, the Hoosiers earned a spot in the championship. Imagine the outrage if the Buckeyes got voted out of a game they had qualified for because another team would be a better fit.
Or put yourself in Northwestern’s shoes. They were in line to play an opponent much less talented than Ohio State. They probably had a legitimate shot at a Big Ten Championship. Imagine the outrage if OSU were set to play in the Big Ten championship against a team that had qualified but the league, in an effort to create a better game, has suddenly removed that squad and inserted one vastly more skilled and dangerous.
The Big Ten made the change for financial reasons. It was not about the integrity of the process. While the outcome is correct, the process has been abused. Likely, the Big Ten should have never made the rule. I don’t know why the leaders made the decision, but they did and presumably they had a reason.
They are changing the rules, and it may have been a bad rule, but you don’t fix one mistake by making another.
By virtue of their play, OSU has earned a shot at the playoffs. But through no fault of their own, they have not earned the right to play for a Big Ten championship.
-Mac Cordell is a reporter for the Journal-Tribune.