Ouch. That one word describes the bowl season for the Big Ten this year.

It started well enough. The Hawkeyes of Iowa upset 15th ranked Missouri. Illinois dropped the Baylor Bears like they were, well, Baylor. The Big Ten started off 2-0 and things were looking good for the conference that prides itself about having “Murderer’s Row” to play through.

Despite the loss Northwestern suffered at the hands of Texas Tech, the Big Ten was riding high. The conference was expecting a loss there anyway. Football is little more than a novelty at Northwestern, and they were without their starting quarterback anyway. All was well in Big Ten land.

Then the SEC happened.

It started with the Capital One Bowl and Alabama’s thrashing of the Michigan State Spartans. The score ended up 49-7, but it really wasn’t even that close. The Crimson Tide could have scored 70 on Sparty if they wanted, and the late MSU score was a mercy touchdown allowed by second and third teamers on the Tide defense.

It didn’t get any better for the Big Ten when Michigan faced off against the fifth place team in the SEC West, the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The game looked promising early with the Wolverines enjoying a 14-10 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

It was a rout from there. Mississippi State rattled off 42 unanswered points to blow out Michigan 52-14.

But, Florida was down, so Penn State was expected to bail out the flailing Big Ten conference against the evil empire known as the SEC. Once again, the SEC cream rose to the top to beat the Big Ten. The Gators outscored the Nittany Lions 23-7 in the second half to put Penn State away.

Let’s put the SEC vs. the Big Ten in perspective during the bowl season. The SEC outscored the Big Ten on New Year’s Day 138-45.

Let me repeat, 138-45.

It is much akin to the Washington Generals trying to beat the Harlem Globetrotters. First, it becomes very apparent who the better team is. One team is clearly head and shoulders above the other athletically. The same team that is more athletic is also more skilled and better coached.

And when the SEC jumps out to a huge lead on these Big Ten teams, they joke around and laugh much like the Globetrotters. They even do the whole throw the bucket of water-that-really-just-has-confetti trick on someone, except the big bucket is usually orange and filled with Gatorade. The target isn’t an unsuspecting fan or player, but a head football coach from the SEC.

If the Big Ten is the second best conference in the nation, and we really have no reason to believe they aren’t, this year just proves that the gap between the SEC and the next best thing still needs to be measured in measurements akin to light years or for you Star Wars fans of the Millenium Falcon, perhaps parsecs.

It isn’t even close. And finally, the Big Ten is starting to realize it. It has become clear that the Big Ten as a whole is going through the stages of grief as it pertains to their place in the conference pecking order. Don’t believe me? Just go check out some of their message boards.

You may need a reminder, but the stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. Not every Big Ten fan is moving along at the same pace, but one of these stages represents every single Big Ten fan out there. Do your duty as a friend and help them along in the process. Nobody should have to face these demons alone.

Denial

You will see denial in a couple of forms. This quote from a Big Ten message board comes to mind: “The bowls mean nothing. Strength of conference is determined by the regular season, not the bowls that take place a month later.”

Obviously, this line of thought requires that the strength of the conference is based on how well the conference competes against itself. It is an interesting, but horrible way to judge conference strength.

Anger

The typical Big Ten fan will then burst into anger, usually at an SEC fan that points out the domination of the Southeastern Conference over the Big Ten.

“So before sec fans start pounding their chest, get a clue and….” The rest of the quote was not fit for publication, but you can imagine where it was going.

Sometimes, the anger is spewed at teams inside their own conference for being a disappointment or even their own favorite program. “I can’t BELIEVE Michigan and Michigan State embarrassed us like that! We’ll have to hear it from ESPN and these SEC hacks for the next seven months.”

Bargaining

Eventually, the Big Ten fan will move on to bargaining, trying to figure out ways to change the system. Because at this point in the grieving process, they still believe that their fates can change.

“iowa beat missouri…that’s right top 15 team missouri…so I should then argue that Iowa not michigan st should have played alabama…and then drop michigan state down to mississippi st…and so on… and that the matchups would have better favored the bigten…”

Clearly, this poster believed that if only Iowa (7-5 entering the bowl season) had been moved up the list to replace 10-1 Michigan State, the Big Ten would have fared much better against the SEC. Because, you know, 7-5 Iowa was clearly a better team than the conference co-champs who finished the season 10-1.

Some blame the weather and believe if only the major bowls were played in a cold weather climate, the role reversal between the two conferences would soon follow.

“I don’t think it is out of line to say northern schools play a different style based on the weather they play in from October on. That and SEC schools virtually always have the ‘home field’ advantage in regards to fans based on the proximity of where the bowl games are played as well as travel/time zone change for the teams.”

Depression

Soon, depression sets in. It becomes apparent that the problem is systemic in nature and not conducive to any changes that can be made by the Big Ten or their member schools. Either their member institutions can’t make the changes necessary or simply won’t.

“Look at the recruiting base for the SEC…Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana…they are loaded with division one talent. We’ll never match that. The SEC will always be faster and will always have the upper hand.”

“Truth of the matter is that education is more important to the Big Ten than the SEC. We will never pay our coaches as much so the SEC has better coaching. We will never have NFL-quality facilities so the SEC will have better facilities. We’re going to continue to get dominated until this changes, and I don’t see it happening any time soon.”

Acceptance

Finally, the Big Ten fan comes to accept the fact that the SEC is just a much better conference than the Big Ten. They don’t give up hope, but realize their place on the college football totem pole. Coming to grips with the truth, they focus their efforts away from the SEC and to things they can control.

“The Big Ten still has elite programs, guys. We won’t always play the SEC for the national championship. We need to stop worrying about the conference as a whole and focus on our own football teams.”

For Big Ten fans that have reached acceptance in their grief progression, one has to wonder if the entire process will start over if the Razorbacks beat the Buckeyes in the Sugar Bowl. The Buckeyes are currently a three point favorite according to many of the Vegas oddsmakers. Is this setting up the Big Ten for another BCS disappointment against the SEC? Ohio State is 0-9 against the SEC in bowl games.

Vegas may have the Buckeyes as a slight favorite, but then again, Vegas is still struggling to get past step one.