When Michigan met Ohio State last November, it was one of the headiest days in that's rivalry's long history. Both were undefeated. Ohio State was #1, Michigan #2. With all other serious contenders for the national championship sporting a loss, the possibility of a rematch between the teams, no matter who won, was batted about breathlessly. Yea, verily, these were the best two teams in the country as anointed by ESPN, who knows all and sees all.
If you have followed college football at all or heard an SEC coach or fan speak over the past seven months you know what happened next. Michigan did what they always do: lose the Rose Bowl. The final score, 32-18, was buttressed by a late, meaningless Steve Breaston touchdown and didn't reflect the second half whipping delivered to the Michigan offensive line and secondary after a tense first half ended in a 3-3 tie. Then Ohio State emerged from the tunnel at the national championship game and returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. But it was all downhill from there. Moments after Ted Ginn engaged ludicrous speed, he was in the endzone getting his ankle sprained by his own teammate. Then Florida scored, Ohio State punted, and Florida scored and Ohio State punted and that was basically the game. Three hours later the final was 41-14. Kirk Herbstreit would cliam the two games "set the Big Ten back ten years."
Yeah, so that didn't go so well. Weeks later, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany felt compelled to respond to a stupid column in the Chicago Sun-Times that made Classic Sportswriter Mistake #1 -- that thing that just happened is never going to stop happening -- with an "open letter" that had some salient points (in the last decade the Big Ten and SEC are dead even in their bowl matchups) and some dubious complaining that seemed very much like the insecure whining of a conference that had lost its way. Going into 2007, the Big Ten looks to re-establish itself in the eyes of its critics, who would overthrow a hundred years of tradition because of the outcome of a couple games. Fie on you. But other stuff happened, too. After the jump, 2006 superlatives.
| Most Ridiculous Moment |
 Oh, which Michigan State fiasco to pick? The available options boggle the mind. The candidates:
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| Most Disappointing |
 Iowa (team), Drew Tate (player). Images of a senior Drew Tate and a healthy Kirk Ferentz danced in the dreams of Big Ten prognosticators, including myself. I ranked the Hawkeyes #2 overall, projecting them to reach the BCS title game against... um... Auburn. This did no so much happen. Iowa sucked virtually all year until a surprisingly adept performance in the Alamo Bowl. Iowa lost, but they gave Texas everything they wanted. They even had a trademark Hawkeye moment when Andy Brodell pivoted to the outside and took a short pass to the house as everyone in America thought to themselves "goddamn that white kid is fast." So that was fine and good. The problem: the sucking. Prior to the bowl Iowa went 2-6 in conference. Out of conference they scraped by an awful Iowa State team that finally got Dan McCarney fired and had to go to overtime to beat Syracuse. Landing the Alamo bid was a miracle based more on the morass of .500 Big Ten teams than any reflection of their quality. And probably the main reason for this fall was Tate. His transformation from a moxie-ridden Texas gunslinger into a mediocre, short quarterback incapable of seeing safeties was the conference's most dramatic fall from grace. |
| Most Improved |
 Michigan (team). It's not often you can claim Michigan "most improved," but coming off the heels of a 7-5 2005 -- Michigan's worst year since Jim Harbaugh's broken leg in 1984 sent Michigan into a 6-6 tailspin -- the Wolverines were in serious danger of wasting the upperclass years of Mike Hart and Chad Henne. New coordinators on both sides of the ball, the emergence of ICBM Mario Manningham (@ right), and the most vicious, slathering defensive line in the country sent Michigan streaking towards the national championship game until that pesky Troy Smith guy got in the way.Of course, Michigan is also one of the few teams in the country that could end up 11-2 and still feel zo... unsatysfyed [/teddykgb]. But that's life as a Michigan fan. As far as players: As a freshman, Penn State cornerback Justin King was a mildly irrelevant two-way guy who got some reverses on offense and was the nickelback who got burned by Mario Manningham in the third quarter. As a sophomore he quit fooling around on offense and was almost instantly one of the best corners in the country. That is an overnight improvement. |
| Fraudiest Fraud In All of Fraudland |
| Purdue. It's hard to be a fraud when you're 8-6, but good lord Purdue was one anyway. In the second of their two cracks at the Big Ten without Michigan and Ohio State on their schedule, the big prize at the end of the rainbow was a game against a Maryland team that was one of the worst bowl teams in the country according to both statistics and reason. Maryland spanked the Boilers 24-7, and that was fairly typical. Whenever Purdue met opposition that was not juicy soft they lost. Taken to overtime by Miami (Ohio), narrow winners over Ball State, losers to Notre Dame...even when Purdue met teams everyone should beat they failed to impress. |
| Best Player |
| Troy Smith. Still don't want to talk about it. |
