Really. You at least have to give the Big Ten credit for hanging in there. I mean, it actually does seem as if it’s going to keep at this thing until it gets it right.
This thing would be the league’s annual basketball go-round with the Atlantic Coast Conference, which is presented each November as a festivity facetiously labeled the “Big Ten/ACC Challenge.” Facetiously, I say, because it really hasn’t been much of a challenge at all.
For the ACC, that is, which has reigned in all eight of them, winning 48 of the 75 games played. One team, Duke, is 8-0 in it. And there are only two ACC teams, Miami and (surprisingly) North Carolina, with losing records.
The Big Ten? Only Michigan State, at 4-3, has a winning record in the Not-Such-A-Challenge and only Michigan, at 3-3, has a .500 record. The league’s recent best, Ohio State and Wisconsin, are respectively 2-4 and 3-5 in this Winter Wipeout and underwhelming too are the marks of Illinois (3-5), Iowa (2-4), Indiana (2-4) and Purdue (2-4).
Still, just after the Thanksgiving weekend, which is when this year’s Often-A-Turkey Tournament will be played, there are some games to anticipate. North Carolina will visit Ohio State, where it will attempt to reprise the little gem it played in Chapel Hill last November.
(That of course, will depend on the NBA draft decisions still to be made by Tar Heels freshman Brandan Wright and Buckeyes freshmen Greg Oden and Mike Conley Jr.)
Wisconsin will visit Duke, where those two teams will meet for the first time, and Georgia Tech will visit Indiana, where both will have the chance to prove they deserve their high preseason rankings. Maryland will be a good test for Illinois, which visits the Terps, and Purdue will learn the reality of its own expectations when it visits Clemson, never an easy place to play.
And even if history does repeat itself and it all devolves into Another Annual Annihilation, we do have this to comfort us. The day after this little festivity ends, the Big 12 and Pac-10 will inaugurate their own mini-tournament, and the Big East/SEC Invitational will begin on Dec. 5. So, at least there will be something else to anticipate.
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