Ohio State Football: Why can’t other Big Ten teams pull their weight?

Ohio State football is one of the top teams in the nation but why can’t the rest of the teams in the Big Ten start pulling their own weight?

While Ohio State is the No. 4 team in the country, the next-highest Big Ten team coming into this week was the Wisconsin Badgers who were ranked No. 6. However, they lost to Illinois 24-23 on Saturday, who came into the game with a 2-4 record.

So, I am starting to wonder when these other Big Ten teams will start pulling their own weight to make this conference respectable?

In addition to Wisconsin blowing it against the Fighting Illini, Michigan was ranked No. 7 in the Preseason AP Top-25 Rankings, but as most of you know they barely beat Army in week two and then were flat-out embarrassed by Wisconsin 35-14 in their third game of the season.

The Wolverines clearly did not deserve that top-seven ranking like Wisconsin did not deserve their top-six ranking.

Ohio State carrying this conference is nothing new to this season though.

There have been three Big Ten teams to reach the College Football Playoff since it started in 2015. Two of those three teams were the Buckeyes – one that of course went on to win the first ever CFP National Championship in 2015.

The other team was Michigan State in 2016 and they went on to lose to Alabama in the semifinals 38-0, so does that even count as actually showing up to the playoff?

If you want to go back even further than just recent history, since 1968 five Big Ten football teams have won national championships – four were won by the Buckeyes.

Listen, Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan State and even Michigan are all respectable college football programs that are typically circled on every program’s schedule. They all also give the Buckeyes a good game every once in a while and sometimes even beat them.

However, when looking at the entire landscape of college football and its history, the Buckeyes are the only team to consistently represent the Big Ten in a big way while all these other programs just keep falling short.