High expectations in Buckeye land. We probably would have been in the Championship game last year had it not been for sanctions. We were certainly a better team than ND.
Myers has publically lit a fire under the ass of the rest of the Big 10. If they want to compete with the SEC they need to invest in their programs like the SEC does. The Big 10 is starting to close the gap with the SEC on spending. Based on spending my guess is that Alabama, Ohio State and Auburn will be the three most dominant programs for the forseable future. Mich and Wisc have upped their spending to SEC levels, PSU is the most profitable team in NCAA football but their spending has declined and will probably remain at current levels until sanctions expire. Iowa and Northwestern (of all teams) have stepped up their spending and should surprise no one when they are consistently in the top 20. Three Big 10 programs that really need to step up to the plate are Illinois, Mich St and Nebraska. Particularly Nebraska. If they want to compete with OSU, Mich and Wisc they'll need to spend more money than Iowa does (Iowa is #15, Neb #16). Somehow I just can't picture Nebraska settling for the second tier of the Big 10 where they are currently mired.
Currently both the Big 10 and SEC dominate college football in terms of spending. Both leagues have 7 teams in the top 20 in spending with those seven teams averaging 26.6 mil per SEC team and 23 mil per Big 10 team. That's a gap of 3.6 mill per team advantage for the SEC, though the Big 10 has closed the gap some. A few years back the gap was closer to a 5 mill advantage for the SEC.
Considering how those two conferences have 14 of the top 20 teams in spending I don't think it will surprise anyone that those two leagues will dominate college football for the foreseeable future.
