Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
Consider this Urban Meyer's "Welcome to the Big Ten" moment.
Wisconsin Badgers coach Bret Bielema hinted that Meyer was using "illegal" recruiting practices during his National Signing Day press conference on Wednesday. The specific practice in question would be Meyer’s recruitment of players who already had given verbal commitments to other Big Ten schools, which is said to be considered a no-no under a "gentleman's agreement" between Big Ten schools.
That's just not how things were done when Urban was in the SEC, where he won two National Titles. When pressed on the accusation, he called the criticism "nonsense" and didn't see the harm in calling and asking a recruit about his pledge.
And so, the Big Ten now finds itself with a bit of a paradox. Keep the status quo or evolve to compete. A Big Ten school hasn't won the National Title since 2002 and has only one other title from the past twenty years. That's technically the same amount of titles the Big East has (Miami).
Breaking this agreement doesn't change anything in-and-of itself, but the harm that Bielema seems to think it will cause is hardly worth his concern. At the end of the day, you're all competing, aren't you?
Bielema added, "I can tell you this. We at the Big Ten don’t want to be like the SEC—in any way, shape or form."
Meyer's current school went 0-2 against SEC opponents when playing in the BCS National Championship, a game that the SEC has won six years in a row. So...I can think of at least one way Bielema might want the Big Ten to be like the SEC.
Gentleman's agreements, schentleman's agreements.
8 comments
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Sean Keeley:
Let The SEC Have Its Championships, The Big Ten Will Always Be First In Gentlemanly Club Life
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Feb 3
Sean Keeley:
Let The SEC Have Its Championships, The Big Ten Will Always Be First In Gentlemanly Club Life
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Comments
The Big Ten is a classy conference that cares more about developing young men and women than winning
Everyone knew with this jerk coming in it would start to poison our league with thugs and cheaters just like the sec has. Not surprising that it’s coming out of ohio state, the most classless fan base in all of sports.
"If guns cause crime then all of mine are defective."
by detroit_fan on Feb 2, 2012 10:08 PM EST reply actions
Yeah
Not like those stand-up, die-hard rule followeing gentlemen Jim Tressel and Rich Rodriguez. Clearly, the Big Ten only employs classy men, and would never in a million years have to go through a child sex abuse scand… oh, wait.
by mrmadrew on Feb 2, 2012 10:32 PM EST up reply actions 5 recs
Someone's a little scared...
Of what’s going down in Columbus. Anyways, how do you reconcile your comment that the Big Ten is the classiest conference when you also argue that OSU is the most classless fan base in all of sports?
Besides, have you in your TSUN homerism forgotten about Kyle Kalis? So much for the gentleman’s agreement—Brady Choke was licking his chops to flip the kid the minute things looked stormy for the Buckeyes. He was well-hoping to do the same with Brionte Dunn and Armani Reeves after the PSU scandal. There’s no difference between your coach and ours in recruiting—we’re just man enough to admit there’s a new sheriff and a new way of doing business in town.
"There is a force that makes us all brothers, no one goes his way alone." --Woody Hayes
by MediBuck on Feb 3, 2012 4:32 AM EST up reply actions 3 recs
it should be noted
That 3 big ten schools are in the top ten when of comes to most years on probation. Urban is a step up from Tressell in terms of integrity. Michigan, I believe, is still on probation, and Penn State’s not helping your argument about integrity. You’ve lost the moral high ground.
by Mark Mandingo on Feb 3, 2012 10:17 AM EST via mobile up reply actions 1 recs
How deliciously ironic that a member of four MMA blogs w/a gun as an avatar calls someone a thug
It looks like a certain moron from detroit needs to break out the dictionary and look up the meaning of the word “thug.” Someone who uses a gun as his avatar might consider his own personal image when when looking down upon others. Guns are more associated with MMA and rednecks like you than with typical NCAA student-athletes.
by ApothecaryMark on Feb 3, 2012 1:11 PM EST up reply actions
Penn State, Ohio State. Michigan's Fab Five /drops mic
"Lattimore, as the kids can say, can ball, and sometimes does it to the extent one might say [he] is out of control in his balling." - Spencer Hall
by GwinnettGamecock on Feb 3, 2012 1:49 PM EST up reply actions
...
Poison the league? Did the criminal records of Michigan State and Penn State not do that? Did Mo Clarrett add to the distinguished legacy of the Big Televen? Was Jim Tressel really ever interested in molding men?
Oh yeah, then there’s that Penn State scandal.
Sorry, don’t remember the SEC ever doing ANYTHING to compare to the moral transgressions of the Big Televen.
by TheN8tureBoy on Feb 3, 2012 3:10 PM EST up reply actions
Waaaaahh!!!
Bret will be crying all the way back to irrelevancy. So he’s a gentleman for hanging 83 on Indiana? Or 70 on Northwestern? Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
by CLTBuckeye on Feb 3, 2012 10:08 AM EST reply actions
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