If you must cheat, cheat to win
For a long time, the SEC has been looked as the villains of the college football universe with the Big Ten as the guys that do everything the right way.
The SEC pays all of its players and everybody cheats, while Big Ten icons like Joe Paterno could do no wrong.
Regarding the SEC, yeah of course they’re cheating. The only thing people care about in the South is Luke Bryan, diabetes and college football – not necessarily in that order.
But guess what? It works because the SEC wins the college football national title every year.
The difference between SEC and Big Ten scandals the last decade is the SEC scandals lead to winning more football games and cheating on their spouses, while Big Ten scandals have been criminal.
Now right off the bat, this is not what I expected to be one of the first stories when I thought about starting DeceptiveSpeed.com this spring.
Deceptive Speed began to hopefully entertain you, maybe even get out a cheap laugh out of you, but what does the first day of the website consist of?
The two biggest stories in America’s grittiest conference are about enabling domestic violence and a workout that led to a player’s death. Two coaches are on the verge of being suspended or losing their jobs a little more than a week before the college football season kicks off.
This is far too serious for what I set out to do.
But the Big Ten has lost its way as the good Samaritans and have taken the role as the bad boys of college football.
A wise old man once said, “What the hell’s goin’ on out there?” Here’s what’s been going on out there in Big Ten football since 2011. Since then, six coaches have either lost their jobs or might lose their jobs for things that did not have any impact their team winning or losing.
2011: Joe Paterno – Penn State
This one started it all. No need to get into this one, but you know what happened. Jerry Sandusky is a terrible person, ruined lives and should have been stopped much sooner.
2015: Tim Beckman – Illinois
Days before the start of the 2015 season, Tim Beckman was fired for mistreating players by allegedly discouraging them from receiving medical treatment if they were hurt, among other things.
2016: Kevin Wilson – Indiana
Now an offensive coordinator for Ohio State, he is probably not the acting head coach because of what happened at Indiana. He resigned as the head coach of the Hoosiers in 2016 after reports alleging him of mistreating players.
2017: Tracy Claeys - Minnesota
Tracy Claeys was fired after his first full season as Minnesota’s head coach. He publicly supported his team, which boycotted team activities and threatened to boycott the bowl game after 10 players were suspended for an alleged sexual assault.
2018: DJ Durkin – Maryland
DJ Durkin is on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an external review into the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair. McNair died in June after suffering a heatstroke in an offseason practice. A recent ESPN article told stories of a toxic culture at Maryland.
2018: Urban Meyer – Ohio State
This whole thing does not make any sense. The big question is why Urban Meyer stuck with Zach Smith given his history of domestic violence, which Meyer admitted he knew and lied about. Smith’s problems far exceed his ability to impact Ohio State winning football games. I could be Ohio State’s wide receivers coach this season, and the Buckeyes would still be national title contenders. Meyer has been put on administrative leave and may have lose his job for this, and it is a mystery why he let it get this far.
With every Big Ten scandal, we think OK, this is the one that should wake people up, but that hasn’t happened yet.
So come on, Big Ten. Clean it up and keep it out of the justice system. Focus on scandals that help win football games. Maybe you thought being the bad boys of college football would turn into national championships like it has in the SEC, but you’ve gone too far. To the coaches of the Big Ten, let’s start with a clean slate. Keep your next scandal reasonable and give the next recruit you see an ol’ fashion thousand dollar handshake.
Tell the Leader of Deceptive Speed what you think of this article or what you think of him as a person. Insults are always welcome. Send your angry words to him on Twitter @ImErikBuchinger or email erik@deceptivespeed.com