Dec. 3, 2009

Big Ten has many reasons to celebrate Challenge victory

By Gary Parrish | CBSSports.com Senior Writer
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Things didn't go exactly as I planned.

With Bo Ryan at the helm, Wisconsin will always be a threat. (AP)

Who care's how it happened?

All that matters is that it happened.

Man, it finally happened.

"I feel pretty good," said Wisconsin's Bo Ryan, and why not? He put on a marvelous coaching display and helped the Badgers to a 73-69 victory over the sixth-ranked Blue Devils late Wednesday. It reminded me of something I wrote last year, specifically this: "You know how Steve Spurrier always ranks Duke on his preseason football ballot? That's how I'm going to be with Wisconsin from now on."

Naturally, I forgot I ever wrote that this preseason.

So I didn't rank Wisconsin.

And now look.

The Badgers are 5-1 with wins over Arizona, Maryland and Duke (only loss is to Gonzaga). Unless they somehow lose Saturday to Grambling (not happening), they'll appear in every relevant national ranking next week, which brings me to the following promise: "I, Gary Parrish, swear on everything I own -- including my iPod, portable GPS and hundreds of thousands of Marriot points -- that I will never leave Wisconsin unranked in the preseason as long as Bo Ryan is coaching with his NCAA tournament streak intact. It'll never happen again. Never. Ever. There's no sense in annually being wrong about the same thing."

There.

That's done.

Now let's move on to the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

Let's discuss what it means and what it doesn't mean.

First -- and let's be clear about this -- it doesn't necessarily mean the Big Ten is better than the ACC, that the Big Ten has the best team in either league, or that the Big Ten will fair better in the NCAA tournament although I do think the Big Ten is the better league, that Purdue or Michigan State (or, heck, maybe even Wisconsin) might be the best team from either league, and that the Big Ten could be better in March.

Absolutely, all those things are possible. But that's not what winning the Big Ten/ACC Challenge means. All it really means is that the Big Ten won six of these 11 somewhat randomly paired games, the majority of which were played in Big Ten arenas. If you matched the teams one through 11 and played the games that way, the Big Ten might not win more than the ACC. If you played the same games in the opposite arenas, the Big Ten might not win more than the ACC. If you played the same games on neutral courts, the Big Ten might not win more than the ACC. That's the reality of the situation.

But still, don't let anybody tell you this isn't a huge moment for the Big Ten because, if nothing else, it should help reshape the league's national image, and that national image needed some reshaping.

When you do anything a bunch of times in a row in this world you become known for it.

Why do we believe the SEC champion will win the BCS national championship?

Because the SEC has been consistently dominant.

Why do we believe Pete Carroll will always lose at least one bad Pac-10 game?

Because he's consistently done it.

Why do we believe Rocky Balboa will always battle back and KO his opponent?

Because he consistently did it.

Why do we believe Scott Weiland will end up in rehab again?

Because he always ends up in rehab again.

Good or bad, fair or unfair, streaks cement what we think about things. So when the Big Ten lost the first 10 Big Ten/ACC Challenges, we all decided the Big Ten was an inferior league, a second-rate conference that would be better off challenging the Big West. And perhaps that's still true, perhaps the Big Ten remains inferior to the ACC -- we'll have a clearer picture in March. But right now, with this Big Ten/ACC Challenge victory, the Big Ten has something tangible to celebrate, and Thursday will be free of Big Ten jokes.

If for no other reason, that's why what happened Wednesday night matters.

The Big Ten can no longer be mocked for never winning The Challenge.

That's what this means.

That means a lot.