I thoroughly enjoyed reading the first half of Eric Strow’s college football column (“Fixing the ‘big’ conferences,” Nov. 17) regarding his proposed realignment of the Big 12 North. His commentary on Big Ten football, however, brought my attention to a flagrant football fallacy that everyone from Lee Corso to Cavman seems to support. Strow wrote, “I don’t know who actually watches Big Ten football because it’s generally very boring,” but if that didn’t catch your attention, then count yourself among the U.Va. majority. Growing up in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, with two Penn State alumni for parents, I followed Big Ten football religiously throughout high school and continue to watch as many conference games as I can. Imagine my dismay when I learned that the quickest way to fit in at a Virginia football game outside of a Ralph Lauren splurge was to hate on the corn-shucking, cheese curd-eating, slow-as-molasses brand of bland, boring, Big Ten football. Sure, ‘Hoos, it’s easy to slam a conference whose last two trips to the ‘ship — thanks, Ohio State — ended in comprehensive beat-downs by Florida and LSU, but look in the mirror: outside the success of Florida State a decade ago, the ACC hasn’t so much as sniffed a national championship in the BCS era. America’s oldest Division I athletic conference is far from slow, weak, or overrated; the storied Big Ten holds a combined all-time record of 854–665 against the ACC, Big 12, Pac 10, and SEC, and “that style of play” has produced such electrifying NFL players as Super Bowl MVPs Santonio Holmes and Tom Brady. Go ahead and call Big Ten fans ‘football simpletons,’ but there must be something to that “boring” football of theirs — Penn State, Michigan, and Ohio State routinely sell-out the three largest stadiums in the country. Finally, I disagree with Strow’s call to add a 12th team to the conference. Other than Notre Dame, no Midwestern team brings a big enough profile revenue-wise to merit conference expansion. Conference championships have hardly paid dividends for parity and excitement elsewhere, as powerhouse teams like Florida and Oklahoma have largely reduced the game to a formality. For my money, there isn’t a bowl game out there that rivals the Rose Bowl in terms of tradition and spectacle, even if JoePa and the Nittany Lions aren’t playing. I’ll take “boring” bowl football in Pasadena over the inevitable BCS mess every time, but I’ll be sure to invite my Midwest buddies to come watch a spread offense in Charlottesville if they’re looking for a change of pace — after all, seats shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Matt Welsh
CLAS II