Big Ten a real bust in bowls, but draft will be different

College bowl game results suggest the Big Ten has inferior talent. NFL teams say differently.

A Chicago Tribune study revealed the talent in the Big Ten, in NFL terms, is superior to the talent in the Pac-10 and Big 12. The only conferences with advantages over the Big Ten are the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference.

In the last five drafts, 166 Big Ten players were chosen, third highest among conferences. The SEC led the way with 192 players, followed by the ACC with 176. The Pac-10 had 157 while the Big 12 had 143.

If you break it down to first-rounders, the Big Ten also fared pretty well. The conference has had 28 such players in the last five drafts, including one chosen first overall_Jake Long of Michigan by Miami last year. Only the ACC (39) and the SEC (37) have had more first-rounders. The Big 12 and Pac-10 each had 17.

The Big Ten's "specialty" is offensive linemen like Long, Dave Diehl of the Giants from Illinois, Steve Hutchinson of the Vikings from Michigan and Joe Thomas of the Browns from Wisconsin. The conference also has had quite a few cornerbacks and linebackers taken.

On opening-day lineups, the Big Ten also fared better than the Big 12 and the Pac-10. The Big Ten had 105 starters on opening day this season, compared with 70 for the Big 12 and 67 for the Pac-10.

Teams from the SEC had 135 starters and teams from the ACC had 113.

In the last Super Bowl, the Big Ten had better representation than any other conference with 11 starters split between the Giants and Patriots, including Patriots quarterback Tom Brady from Michigan and Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress from Michigan State. The ACC had seven starters, the SEC six, the Big 12 three and the Pac-10 one.

That makes it difficult to explain a 1-6 Big Ten record in bowl games this year (losses to three teams from the Big 12, and one each from the SEC, Pac-10 and ACC), and a 9-20 mark over the last five years.

Colts President Bill Polian, who knows the Big Ten as well as anyone and had five starters from the Big Ten on his opening-day roster, says some of the Big Ten's bowl record could be attributed to unfavorable matchups. In other cases, he pointed out teams from other conferences might have been more excited about playing in a particular bowl than Big Ten teams were.

Polian believes the talent in the conference is comparable to the talent anywhere in the country - with the exception of a handful of dominant schools such as Southern California, Alabama, LSU and Florida.

It's also a factor that talent has been dispersed throughout the Big Ten, whereas in the Pac-10 the talent is more concentrated at USC, and in the Big 12 it's more concentrated at Texas and Oklahoma.