The Big Ten’s nonconference schedule doesn’t exactly turn heads.

Yeah, there’s Ohio State-USC and Michigan State-Cal and Illinois-Missouri, but there’s also Penn State-Coastal Carolina, Iowa-Maine and Wisconsin-Cal Poly.

The list of yawners goes on and on while a league in desperate need of national respect coming off a 3-5 bowl season and two straight BCS Championship game debacles continues to dodge marquee matchups.

It’s not entirely unique to the Big Ten — most BCS conference teams play inferior competition in the pre-conference season — but the Big Ten is one of the worst offenders.

That’s why it’s so refreshing to see a game like tonight’s matchup between Illinois and Missouri, the No. 20- and No. 6-ranked teams in the nation.

Yes, a lot of it’s timing — two years ago, these teams were terrible, and no one would have cared. Now, with both teams coming off banner years in 2007, the showdown at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis is easily the most compelling game of the opening weekend of the college football season.

The Big Ten has flopped in games like this the past few years, so the Illini could prove a lot with a victory.

Even with a loss, any kind of loss to Missouri is better than a win over Cal Poly, isn’t it?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Hawkeyes Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.