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O’Gara: Why Matt Rhule was right and wrong about his ‘4 Big Ten Playoff teams’ plea
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On the surface, I don’t have a problem with a Big Ten coach advocating for 4 Playoff teams in a given year.
You can say far more egregious things than that. Saying that everyone besides the Big Ten should be a 1-bid league would be too much, as would declaring that the 2024 version of the Big Ten is the most dominant conference in college football history.
Thankfully, no Big Ten coach said those egregious things (at least not yet). For now, the strongest stance on Big Ten Playoff representation came from second-year Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, who made the case for why the conference deserves 4 teams in the field annually.
“I think 4 teams from this league should get in every year because this is the best league. This is the NFL of college football in my mind,” Rhule said. “It stretches from coast to coast, different time zones, different weather. That’s not to diminish any other league. The SEC is amazing. These other leagues are great. But the challenge in the Big Ten is going to be really difficult. Travel, weather and great teams.”
There’s a lot in that quote. A whole lot.
Let’s start with (and quickly move past) the Big Ten is “the best league” claim: In the Playoff era, the SEC held a 6-2 advantage in national titles, a 27-16 New Year’s 6 bowl victory advantage and a 10-0 NFL Draft selections advantage, which debunks the whole “Big Ten is the NFL of college football” claim that Rhule made. But again, let’s move past that.
The issue isn’t what the message is; it’s where that message is coming from. Or rather, who that message is coming from.
Rhule isn’t the person who should be delivering that message. Not the guy who is trying to get to a bowl game for the first time at Nebraska. Not the guy whose program is trying to get to a bowl game for the first time since 2016. Not the guy who is coaching a team that hasn’t beaten an AP Top 25 team since 2016.
Of course, very little of that was Rhule’s fault. It’s certainly not his fault that the Huskers haven’t beaten an AP top-5 team since 2001.
But when every program looks superior to you, that doesn’t exactly make you the voice of reason on all things Playoff. We’d laugh Vanderbilt out of the room if they had a coach trying to preach about Playoff representation. Yes, Vanderbilt’s 20th-century history is 1/100th of Nebraska’s, but they had as many AP Top 25 finishes as one another during the Playoff era — 0.
Speaking of Vanderbilt, in Rhule’s 8 seasons as a college head coach (4 at Temple, 3 at Baylor, 1 at Nebraska), he had 3 games against SEC competition … 2 of which were against post-James Franklin Vanderbilt. The other came in the lone New Year’s 6 bowl appearance of Rhule’s career before spending 3 seasons in the NFL, which ended up being a 26-14 Sugar Bowl loss to Georgia at the end of the 2019 season. Including that game, which was his last time coaching in the postseason, Rhule is 0-10 all-time against AP top-10 teams.
I’m not trying to diminish Rhule’s chops for coaching. By turning around Temple and Baylor, there’s no denying that he’s a master rebuilder, which is why he’s making north of $9 million to turn around a Nebraska program that’s a shell of its former self.
But on the subject of Big Ten Playoff representation, I’d rather hear from a coach like Ryan Day, who has at least been on that Playoff stage and seen what elite competition looks like on extra rest. Give me that opinion from James Franklin, who doesn’t have a 4-team Playoff appearance but is 10 seasons into his time at Penn State, where he learned the Big Ten well while also facing SEC, Pac-12 and AAC teams in his 5 New Year’s 6 bowl appearances. Even Kirk Ferentz, who has been doing this in the Big Ten for a quarter century, would be a more welcome voice on the subject as the elder statesman of the league.
Ah, but now is the part where you remind me that because Rhule was a walk-on at Penn State in the mid-90s, he’s qualified to speak on the strength of the conference in the Playoff conversation 30 years later. After all, it’s not like anything has changed since the mid-1990s. We all know that the sport is exactly the same in every way since Rhule left Penn State in 1997. We’re still playing bowl games without total clarity on whether it’ll determine a national champion, right?
Yeah, I don’t have to tell Nebraska how much things have changed since the 1990s.
Rhule won’t get any pushback among Nebraska fans or Big Ten fans because the conference needs a bit more puff-its-chest bravado in this new era of the sport. Getting as many seats at the Playoff table as possible is the goal for every conference. Nobody is going to say “I just hope we’re not a 1-bid league.” That’s not what Rhule should’ve said.
A more appropriate response from the Nebraska coach could’ve gone something like this:
“I know I just got here last year, but based on my experience coaching at this level, I’ll put our league up there with anyone. I think with the new West Coast additions to the Big Ten, navigating through this conference will be more challenging than it’s ever been.”
Saying that still would have acknowledged that Rhule thinks highly of the conference while also recognizing that the travel piece of the new Big Ten is unique compared to the SEC.
But instead, Rhule dipped his toes into uncharted waters. At least they’re uncharted for him and Nebraska.
And based on Rhule’s assessment of the Big Ten, don’t hold your breath on his team staying in those Playoff conversations when they matter.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.