ESPN's David Pollack slams B1G: 'The B1G is really bad -- really bad'

The B1G regular season is freshly over, and ESPN’s David Pollack couldn’t wait to rip the league. The college football analyst believes the conference was a bad conference this year, both for actions off the field and performance on it.

On a recent edition of the CFB Podcast with Herbie, Pollack & Neghandi, Pollack ripped the league for constantly changing the rules throughout the course of the season. Most recently, the B1G altered its six-game minimum requirement to appear in the B1G Championship Game because of Ohio State’s situation, having only played five games.

After the Buckeyes were included in the College Football Playoff, the league reduced the number of days players who tested positive for COVID-19 would need to sit out from 21 days to 17. Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said “a good amount” of Buckeye players out for the title game over the weekend would be able to return under the new policy.

But it wasn’t just the off-the-field stuff Pollack bashed. He also said the B1G was a really bad league based on how teams like Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin played.

“Again, if the (selection) committee did that and put (Texas) A&M in there over Ohio State, I would’ve been OK — it would not have been the end of the world for me because I understand that the Big Ten put them in this position,” Pollack said. “And by the way, I’ve got to do it because it just is what it is — how many times is the Big Ten going to change the rules, for God’s sake? I guarantee you, by the way, you can put it in stone — every Ohio State player will be on the field, every single one, despite protocol, despite anything. ‘Here’s our schedule for college football — canceled, we’re out, we’re not revisiting. We’re back, we’re only going to do X. You have to make, play a certain number of games.’ I mean, you talk about mismanaging and screwing up your stuff, bro — they did a phenomenal job of it this year.

“And the Big Ten, just the conference — listen, we have to do this year by year. It’s a year-by-year conversation. The Big Ten is really bad — really bad. Like, Michigan (2-4), Penn State (4-5), Wisconsin (3-3) — those aren’t good at all. They’re bad football teams. So naturally, Northwestern’s better. Indiana’s better — a great coach and great story, awesome program. But it’s a bad league. And now you’re saying you’re going to put in a team that only played six games from that league in there, no out-of-conference? I get the gripe, man. I understand it.”

Pollack conveniently forgot that Ohio State finished 6-0, Indiana ended the year with a 6-1 record, and Northwestern and Iowa were both 6-2 to close out the season. And in a year where there were essentially no nonconference games, it’s impossible to compare the B1G — or any league for that matter — to another conference.

But Pollack seems convinced the B1G was a bad football league this year. Perhaps if the conference’s five bowl teams come out on top, he’ll change his mind.