On the Big Ten Geeks

Rant/

These guys need to either put an asterisk on their moniker or change it altogether.  Because to put Big Ten in the name connotes a fair and balanced approached to all things Big Ten, but their treatment for Northwestern is far from that approach.  When they do happen to mention Northwestern on occasion it is typically dismissive in tone and with negative bias.  Maybe it's the Illini coming out of them, but we have to wonder what they have against NU since the series was rather one-sided until the past few years.

Take this season for example.  Hardly any mention of NU except to say better luck next year and oh BTW Drew Crawford got hurt so Carmody may never get over the hump BLAH BLAH BLAH.  Color us SHOCKED that they didn't even mention the NU victory at Illinois last week.  Newsworthy game?  Check. Illinois bias shining through?  Check.

Finally NU did get mention in the aftermath of the victory of the Gophers.  But in typical BTG fashion it was more an indictment of Minnesota than any praise for NU.  In fact they went so far as to say 8-10 won't get the job done this year so cool the NCAAs bubble talk you silly purple koolade drinkers.  This is a ridiculous statement that conveniently glosses over a big road win at Baylor and a neutral court tournament title not to mention two wins over ranked opponents.  Last year NU learned that 8-10 wasn't good enough despite no bad losses because it lacked the big wins.  This year is different for NU which has already tallied some big wins to balance off a bad loss or two.  Anti-NU bias?  Check.  Lack of NCAA Selection Criteria Expertise?  Check.

Look it.  We realize that NU is far from the top of the list when it comes to Big Ten intrigue.  The NCAAs drought.  The B1G standings.  The small fan base.  Etc.   But NU is due more and positive attention from a purported Big Ten-oriented blog.  The past four years were decent (by NU standards), and the storyline of Carmody doing good work to rescue a season at risk due to injuries and suspensions is an easy writeup.  The more we see of BTG's coverage of NU the more apparent becomes their bias.  We know all about bias on this blog, but then again we don't purport to be an even-handed B1G blog.

/Rant