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Is there music on the Big Ten Network? I'm just asking because at least the Titanic had a band.

Something tells me the Big Ten is in big trouble. All I've heard and seen about the conference this year is bad news.

For starters, Ohio State fans should be thanking Michigan for its belly-flop in Ann Arbor on Saturday. Not for bragging rights but for the fact that now nobody cares the Buckeyes played the "female dog" role to Florida in not one, but two championship games this past year. I mean, Appalachian State for cryin' out loud!!!

Of course, none of us actually saw the debacle up north because it was on the BTN. The worst kept secret in TV is that Fox Sports decided to do an end-around ESPN/ABC's excellent coverage of college football and used the Big Ten as its sucker. Conference officials were greedy enough to take the bait and hoped we would be dumb enough to go along for the ride. So much for the best laid plans....

The ironic thing is Big Ten officials had a chance to make their network something like the "can't miss TV" they keep hyping it to be but they missed their chance when a 12th game was added to the annual schedule.

The Pac-10, for example, did the right thing by adding a conference game to each team's schedule to create a true round-robin format for each team. Granted, there is the loss of potential revenue because this creates an additional road game every other year but what a statement about conference competition and the quality of the Pac-10 product.

What did the Big Ten do? Coaches and administrators thought that forcing a really bad home football game down the throat of its fans was the right thing to do. Now teams like Ohio State play intrastate patsies from Youngstown, Akron and Kent in the same year...and charge more than $60 a ticket with a straight face. The fact is that games between Big Ten teams are, for the most part, engaging and competitive but conference officials made a poor call by not putting more of this kind of product on the field.

No wonder most people blame the Big Ten for its network mess and why Michigan got exactly what it deserved on Saturday. How does it feel UM fans? You paid big money to sit in that cramped bowl for four hours and watched your team become part of the losing side of sports history. For my part, I watched a yawn-fest on Saturday that showed very little from my team other than they all seemed to remember where the stadium was, which was nice.

I don't know about you but I would have more (or any?) interest in the Big Ten Network if Ohio State's schedule included 10 conference games, 1 intrastate opponent and one headliner game, even if it meant one less home game a year.

Stay tuned for Buckeye football analysis. I'm just waiting for my team to play a real game. (Did anyone else see the Huskies devour the Orangemen on the road on Saturday, by the way?)

Tags: big ten conference, big ten network