COLUMBUS — It is football’s modern Civil War.
North vs. South. Big Ten East vs. SEC West.
For much of the past decade, Dixie turned its nose up at the Yanks. The SEC won seven straight national titles from 2006-12 and appeared on the brink last fall of swallowing the nation whole. In late October, the SEC West had four of the nation’s top five teams — Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Alabama, and Auburn.
Suddenly, though, the Big Ten is fighting back.
More than that, it might be winning.
Ohio State’s victory over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl on the way to a national championship last season was part of a larger Big Ten mutiny — or, as one down-and-out fan lamented to Paul Finebaum of ESPN Radio, the worst day in the south since Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House.
If 2014 was the season of the SEC West, get ready for the year of the Big Ten East.
Along with Ohio State — the first team north of Alabama to win a title since the Buckeyes won in 2002 — Michigan’s blockbuster hire of Jim Harbaugh, Michigan State’s consecutive top-five national finishes, and Penn State’s revival has the league’s disproportionately loaded eastern half gunning squarely for the SEC.
And they want to make sure everyone knows it.
As if to poke Goliath, league teams are increasingly holding satellite camps — a loophole somewhat unique to the Big Ten — in the deep-fried, talent-rich heart of rival territory. Last summer, Penn State crashed camps at Georgia State in Atlanta and Stetson in DeLand, Fla. This year, Harbaugh and his staff will go on a nine-camp tour with stops in Alabama, Florida, and Texas.
The SEC has taken notice.
Alabama coach Nick Saban reportedly called the far-flung camps “ridiculous.” Outgoing SEC commissioner Mike Slive joked this week to reporters: “We are going to have a camp up at Penn State.”
Penn State coach James Franklin said the Big Ten has enjoyed a ”180-degree turn” in its national perception over the past year. That’s especially true for its better half, which could soon claim four powers if Michigan and Penn State rise as expected. Harbaugh has won at every stop — including the past four years with the San Francisco 49ers — while Franklin is on course to sign a second straight top-15 recruiting class to a program not long ago administered its last rites.
Publicly, at least, even the Big Ten East’s littler brothers — Indiana, Maryland, and Rutgers — embrace the concentration of power.
“As a competitor, you want to play against the best,” Indiana defensive coordinator Brian Knorr said. “We’ve recruited some of the south, and you always hear about the SEC West. Well, our challenge right now is to come play against the best. The Big Ten East is considered by many to be the top conference in the country.”
The believers include Meyer, who said, “our side of the conference is kind of ridiculous right now.”
"There was a perception out there, and I'm a believer that there's only one way to eliminate perception, and that's get better," Meyer said on the Big Ten spring teleconference last week. “And I think Michigan State's done a lot to help the Big Ten Conference. They won the Rose Bowl the year before, and then they won a big bowl game [over Baylor] this year. And then I think Ohio State's done our share. ...
”It's a one-year cycle, and we've got to do this for a while. The SEC had a seven-year cycle going. So there's a lot of pressure on the Big Ten to keep it rolling.“
There are signs it will. Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan are among the top 20 in the early 2016 recruiting rankings, and have shown little hesitation to roil the pot.
Meyer might be the latest Big Ten coach to exploit the loophole that is riling up the SEC. While the NCAA bans programs from hosting a camp more than 50 miles away from their campus, coaches can work other camps as guests — sometimes at high schools. The motive is purely recruiting, which is why the SEC and ACC forbid the practice.
Meyer believes the loophole should be closed, saying, ”I think that should be outlawed. We shouldn’t be allowed to do that. I think you just recruit on campus, and do a good job.”
But he is hardly one to cede any edge to a rival.
“If it helps us, we’ll do it,” Meyer said. “I think we might try one this year.”
Contact David Briggs at: dbriggs@theblade.com, 419-724-6084 or on Twitter @DBriggsBlade.
First Published April 24, 2015, 4:33 a.m.
