RUSSO ON FOOTBALL: Down Big Ten takes few more hits

Could be time for Jim Delany to write another letter.

The Big Ten commissioner felt compelled to defend his football teams with an open letter in February after they went 2-5 in bowl games and drew poor marks from recruiting gurus.

Well, the new season has provided more fodder for Big Ten critics, and they're not just talking about Michigan.

On Saturday, Minnesota lost to Florida Atlantic, a Sun Belt Conference team that had never beaten a team from a BCS conference. In fact, the Owls had been outscored 506-89 in 11 previous games against the big six leagues.

Later in the day, Iowa lost to previously winless Iowa State. Sure it's a rivalry game, but Iowa State had lost its first two games to Kent State and Northern Iowa, which plays in the second-tier of Division I.

The topper came Saturday night, when Duke snapped the longest losing streak in the nation by winning at Northwestern. The Blue Devils hadn't won in 22 games and hadn't beaten a major college team since 2004.

While none of those losses will register nationally the way Michigan's embarrassing defeats to Appalachian State and Oregon did the first two weeks of the season, they are hits to Big Ten football's beleaguered image.

And image is everything.

Less than a year ago Big Ten football was as proud as can be, with Ohio State and Michigan Nos. 1 and 2 in the country. Then both teams went bust in their bowl games, and just like that the Big Ten was back to being too slow to keep up with the speedy Southeastern Conference teams and sleek Pac-10 squads. As if suddenly all the players in the Big Ten were running in lead shoes.

When signing day came around about a month later, the Big Ten didn't make the grade with the supposed experts and the critics started piling on. That's when Delany decided to go on the offensive.

An open letter from the commish was posted on the Big Ten Web site, detailing recent success against the SEC in bowl games - 2-1 last season and 8-6 over the last five years. He also took what came across as a dig at SEC academics with this line:

"I wish we had six teams among the top 10 recruiting classes every year, but winning our way requires some discipline and restraint with the recruitment process," Delany wrote. "Not every athlete fits athletically, academically or socially at every university. Fortunately, we have been able to balance our athletic and academic mission so that we can compete successfully and keep faith with our academic standards."

Delany's plan to blunt the critics backfired and he came across as a sore loser who was making excuses for a lagging league. He also didn't help himself or the conference during the summer when he got into a war of words with Comcast over the cable companies' refusal to carry the fledgling Big Ten network on its basic tier.