The Big Ten's Worst Case Scenario

In 2007 it’s easy to picture the Big Ten having a controversy much greater than trying to get its network into Comcast homes. In this top-heavy conference it isn’t hard to imagine the scenario TP&TP predicts.

-Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State coast through relatively easy non-conference schedules.
-All three teams beat Wisconsin (home against Michigan, at the other two teams) and the rest of their Big Ten schedules
-Michigan beats Penn State in Ann Arbor on September 22
-Todd Boeckman does what Troy Smith did in Happy Valley two years before only ten times worse
-Jim Tressel does to Lloyd Carr what Jim Tressel always does to Lloyd Carr

This would create a three-way tie for the Big Ten Championship with teams with equal overall records (10-1) and a 1-1 record against the other two teams. The Big Ten would break this tie by its ridiculous tiebreaker 6e which states:

“If the three teams are tied, and all three teams have the same winning percentage of all games played in the traditional 11/12 game schedule, the most recent team representing the Conference shall be eliminated, and the two remaining teams shall revert to the two team tie procedure.”

This would mean:

-Ohio State would be eliminated because it represented the Big Ten in the BCS National Championship last year (Michigan went to the Rose Bowl as an at-large team)
-Michigan would go to the Rose Bowl over Penn State because of their win on September 22

Once again Michigan would go to the Rose Bowl after losing to Ohio State because it didn’t represent the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl the year before. Make sense? To me neither but its how it would play out and the controversy would embarass the conference.

You would have to believe this would restart the search for a 12th member to add to the conference with a championship game to be scheduled after.