The Front Row

Until you look at SEC first round picks vs Big Ten, then you see the gap.

And the national titles won by 5 different schools since 98. That's like a Wisconsin or Iowa winning a NC to go along with a Michigan and OSU title.

Yes very large gap. They even has three schools ranked 1, 2 and 3 this past season

The123 thing last year was bs. The sec was down last year except for bama and lsu so ranking arkansas 3rd imo was waaay off.

Nobody else except LSU or Bama could beat them last year. I thought it was right

Do you guys read?

Bama and LSU owned the first few rounds and to even put South Carolina or UGA in that discussion is a joke because their teams are not that good. Just 3 years ago, one year before Cam Newton, NW should have beaten Auburn then BOOM, one SUPER high elite player changes that team. The BIG was AWFUL this year and still had about the same number of players drafted. Oh, and BTW, Illinois had 2 in the first round, does that mean they were a good team? So to prove your point, stats can be misleading and you can make with them what you want. To think their conference, besides Bama and LSU this year, was superior is just mind blowing.

We as a league have always held our own with the SEC other than the top 1-2 teams. So as a league, the gap is not huge but the top 1-2 teams it is.

For more proof, who would you have feared last year with our full roster? (TP, Boom and the rest of the gang?)

For me? Only LSU and Bama would have scared me and I'm pretty sure we would have beat down the rest of the league.

Keep in mind, we had an awful year and still had 4 guys drafted and should have had 5. We would also have had 6 if TP was still at OSU like he should have been.

OSU will close the gap, many of the kids we have we have won head to head battles with the SEC elites, Pac 10 elites and teams like FSU, speed athletes, atheltic defensive game makers.
UofM, many of their players get the typical 4 star UofM bump after a commit, outside of a few OL in their class, most of their class right now does not have commits from kids that they won recruiting battles with the national elites. 4/5 kids they have commits from, they won battles over Central Michigan, Indiana, Northwestern and Toledo for goodness sakes. There is no real athletic freaks on their commit list that say wow with film or offers list.
The star ratings in large parts are a joke, look at the offer list and who you beat for a kid, the coaches from those elite schools offering means more than these sites and their popularity contests.
This is the same type class Carr put together most years, and OSU owned him, and teams like USC (twice killed UofM in Rose Bowls recently) and Oregon owned them late in his tenure OOC and bowls with ease, way too many athletes and speed.
Saban said it best about recruiting two years ago if he was a recruitnik. He said he would base it off of offers, because if you won or lost a kid to the 10/11 type true elites that offered that kid, those are the teams you face in BCS bowls or compete for national titles with.

I always love the take away the top 2 teams in America (BAMA and LSU) argument and our conference is just as good as the SEC. Take away Ohio State from the BIG from 2000-2010 and you have one of the worst conferences in college football. By the way don't tell Nebraska that South Carolina sucks because they pounded them laat year and it was ugly.