Big Ten faces a big challenge with ACC again

It’s the kind of made-for-TV sports event I like.

To those who say television negatively effects sports events and should just get out of the way when they play the games, I give you the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

The event begins its 10th season this week and it’s all an idea of a television network, ESPN. The one that likes to call itself “the nation’s leader” in sports went to the two college conferences just a decade ago and pitched a mini-tournament between the leagues. It’s a simple three-day period where teams from the two leagues meet and it gives the network programming for slow nights in early December when most of the sporting world is focused on the NFL playoff races and the upcoming college football bowl season.

There’s no trophy, no awards, nothing is ever really settled.

The beauty of all this is that it gives college basketball a little “juice.” Usually at this point of the season, the major conference schools are playing schools former Marquette coach Al McGuire called “Cupcake State.” You know who they are -- Northeast Central State Poly Prep who comes to town for a quick payday and a big loss. The schools from the big conferences usually don’t play many games on the road early in the season.

As of now, the Atlantic Coast Conference is 61-9 and the Big Ten is 53-9. There are seven unbeaten ACC teams and three unbeaten Big Ten teams. No team in either league has more than two losses.

That’s why college hoop junkies look forward to this week. And the leagues matched up the teams pretty well. This year there is one game on Monday, five on Tuesday and five more on Wednesday.

On Monday, Wisconsin (5-1 and ranked No. 25) is at Virginia Tech (4-2). On Tuesday, Ohio State (3-0) is at No. 22 Miami (4-1), Iowa (6-1) is at Boston College (4-2), Clemson (7-0) at Illinois (6-0), No. 7 Duke (7-0) at No. 10 Purdue (5-1) and Virginia (3-2) at Minnesota (6-0).

On Wednesday Indiana (4-2) is at No. 19 Wake Forest (6-0), Penn State (6-1) is at Georgia Tech (4-0), Florida State (7-0) at Northwestern (3-1) and marquee matchups No. 1 North Carolina (7-0) vs.No. 5 Michigan State (4-1) at Ford Field and Michigan (5-1) at Maryland (4-2).

MSU vs. Carolina is being billed as a possible Final Four preview, to be played on the same floor where the national championship will be decided next March, but in many ways the Michigan-Maryland contest is the most intriguing.

Both the Terps and Wolverines are very young and both have pulled off major upsets this season. The Wolverines defeated UCLA at Madison Square Garden and the Terps knocked off Michigan State at the Old Spice Classic.

Michigan’s only loss was to Duke, a team which the Wolverines will meet again on Saturday afternoon at Ann Arbor. After Maryland knocked off the Spartans, the Terps lost to Gonzaga by 22 points and by 27 to Georgetown on Sunday. The loss to the Hoyas was Maryland’s worst since a 34-point blowout by North Carolina in 2004.

Michigan has had one major scare. Last Saturday the Wolverines defeated Savannah State, 66-64, in overtime. In that game Michigan trailed by 20 points at halftime but it took a 19-foot jumper by DeShawn Sims at the buzzer to get the win.

The ACC is once again a big favorite to capture the series. In the last nine events, the Atlantic Coast Conference has never lost a series to the Big Ten. In the early days, the series was close and the ACC won twice by a 5-4 margin. The last two years, the ACC won 8-3.

Duke is a perfect 9-0 in challenge play and newcomer Boston College is 2-0. Only one Big Ten team has a winning record in the challenge; Michigan State is 5-3.

Does that one-sidedness margin reflect badly on the Big Ten? You bet it does. The ACC top to bottom is simply a better league than the Big Ten and that’s been true for a long time.

It’s still a valuable series. As a Big Ten fan, you still look forward to the games. It’s an oasis in a sea of meaningless Cupcake States, and tournaments in Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Alaska.

Sit back and enjoy it basketball fans.  And it’s only a month until the conference season starts.