Big Ten Fans: It's Time To Storm the Bastille

Look, I've made fun of Big Ten fans. 

But deep down, I kind of like y'all. 

After all, I'm married to a Big Ten alum and we have two SEC/Big Ten half-breeds. Rest assured my boys will be SEC fans, but still...I feel your pain.

I know that deep down all of y'all wish the weather was warmer and your girls were better looking. I know that secretly y'all watch SEC games in sunny weather while you're hunkered down on sleet-filled days in sub-freezing temperatures eating a cheesy bratwurst inside your below-ground basement with Minnesota championship banners from the 1930's hanging on the walls.

I know that by November of every season you secretly wish that you lived in the South.

And I know that you hate us for this.  

For making you hate where you live based on what happens on a football field. 

But I can respect that hate because your hate is founded on something sublime, a love of college football which we both share. 

When it gets down to it, the only conferences that really, truly love college football from top to bottom are the Big Ten and the SEC.

Everyone else is just pretending.  

Which is why it's got to be so incredibly frustrating to be a Big Ten fan and have a leadership group that's so diametrically opposed to what the fans actually want.  

The status quo? A plus-one?

Really?

All across the Midwest and beyond Big Ten fans are furious with the nonsensical pablum spewing forth from the Big Ten today.

Fortunately, social media empowers fans like never before.

You can shame your conference into taking the correct path.  

That's why it's past time for y'all to act, inundate your school presidents, light a fire to the status quo and plus-one fuse, storm the Big Ten's Bastille. (The Big Ten's Bastille is a 1950's bungalow in Grosse Point, Michigan. Given that it's still located in Wayne County, the bungalow's value has fallen from $1.2 million in 1982 to $48,000 today. So it's ripe for the takeover).

Big Ten fans are college football's true hope right now. You can make this playoff happen by making your voices heard. 

Deluge your administrators who are making no sense.  

Let them know that they don't represent you. 

You want a playoff. 

Period. 

And you want the best teams in that playoff.

Why the four best teams? 

Because the Big Ten has a great shot of getting two teams into the playoff. That's why it has always been nonsensical for the Big Ten to oppose the top four teams. You'll get two pretty often, at least every three or four years. Based on the existing BCS standings in the historical context, you would have had two teams in 2005 and 2006. You know who doesn't have a chance to get two teams in very often? Your allies, the ACC, the Big East, and the Pac 12. That's why those conferences oppose the top four teams, because they will rarely, if ever, have two teams in the playoff. Those conferences are acting in their own cowering best interests. 

But the Big Ten isn't. 

With a revitalized Michigan and a surging Ohio State -- coupled with Bret Bielema's rise at Wisconsin -- the Big Ten is poised to put two teams in any future four team playoff.  

In arguing against the top four your leadership is actually acting against your own best interests.

What's more, they're acting against your own best interests and not representing the fans. 

That's a double whammy of ineptitude. 

It's utterly ridiculous.  

So stop this absurdity, end the charade of quotes that continues to unspool from Big Ten presidents. 

Today your conference said it's top two options for the college football postseason was the status quo and the plus-one. 

Please. 

I know this infuriated you guys as much as it did everyone else who is a fan of college football.

We can't rely upon Pac 12 fans to push for a true playoff -- hell, most of them won't even realize the football season has started until October. The ACC is waiting for basketball season practice to start and the Big East, sigh, the Big East is just hopeful that it exists tomorrow.  

The SEC and the Big 12 are on board, full steam ahead. 

Big Ten fans are on board with the idea, Big Ten self interests are allied with the top four in a playoff, so why are Big Ten administrators so tone deaf and dumb?

Shine the light on their stupidity Big Ten fans.

End the madness and let's play some playoff football.

Finally.

You're too smart for your leaders. It's time the Big Ten found that out.  

Written by
Clay Travis is the founder of the fastest growing national multimedia platform, OutKick, that produces and distributes engaging content across sports and pop culture to millions of fans across the country. OutKick was created by Travis in 2011 and sold to the Fox Corporation in 2021. One of the most electrifying and outspoken personalities in the industry, Travis hosts OutKick The Show where he provides his unfiltered opinion on the most compelling headlines throughout sports, culture, and politics. He also makes regular appearances on FOX News Media as a contributor providing analysis on a variety of subjects ranging from sports news to the cultural landscape. Throughout the college football season, Travis is on Big Noon Kickoff for Fox Sports breaking down the game and the latest storylines. Additionally, Travis serves as a co-host of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, a three-hour conservative radio talk program syndicated across Premiere Networks radio stations nationwide. Previously, he launched OutKick The Coverage on Fox Sports Radio that included interviews and listener interactions and was on Fox Sports Bet for four years. Additionally, Travis started an iHeartRadio Original Podcast called Wins & Losses that featured in-depth conversations with the biggest names in sports. Travis is a graduate of George Washington University as well as Vanderbilt Law School. Based in Nashville, he is the author of Dixieland Delight, On Rocky Top, and Republicans Buy Sneakers Too.