This Nebraska Writer Says the Big Ten Would Win National Championships if We'd Just Play Bowl Games in Horrible Weather

We're more than a week removed from Alabama winning its sixth national championship since 2009 and the SEC winning its 14th since 1996. It's no secret that the Southeastern Conference has dominated the sport since the turn of the century. And while you may think that's because those teams undeniably get the best players in the country — though some schools like Ohio State and Clemson are obviously right there as well — you would be incorrect, at least according to Dick Chatelain of the Omaha World-Herald.

To hear him tell it, it would be the Big Ten that was running away with college football if only we'd play the most important games of the college football season in terrible weather.

Omaha World-Herald — Out of necessity, power became their identity, just as it is today at programs like Wisconsin. So why do the Badgers have to yield their potential advantage every postseason?

It’s the equivalent of Rafa Nadal developing his masterful topspin shots on Spanish clay, then agreeing to play every Grand Slam on grass. It’s Seve Ballesteros, at the peak of his creative genius, bypassing the British Open every year to play another U.S. Open.

We usually talk about bowl locations as a mere geographic advantage. SEC teams get to play close to home, right? But that’s not the main thing. It’s how they build their teams and the weaknesses they can hide.

Think how many national championships Osborne might have won if half the Orange Bowls had been played in Kansas City or Chicago.

In all honesty, this argument comes somewhat close to making sense. I've argued for years about how ridiculous it is that Tennessee always plays Florida in September when it's 100 degrees no matter where the game is. They should have to come to Knoxville in the November cold every once in a while — please ignore the fact we played them in December this season and it didn't matter.

But that's a regular season game, which are obviously subject to the elements wherever they're played. As are NFL Playoff games, which is the other part of Dick's argument.

The forecast calls for 30 degrees and snow. Football weather.

Come Sunday, when the NFC Championship game kicks off at Lambeau Field, we might see Hall of Fame quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady firing spirals through snowflakes.

Three hours later and 600 miles south, the Chiefs and Bills are looking at wind and rain at Arrowhead Stadium.

Anyone got a problem with that?

Of course not. The NFL embraces the elements at playoff time.

There's a very obvious reason those games are played in weather like that while college postseason games are not: there is home field advantage in the NFL Playoffs. I don't even really understand how the argument goes beyond that. You know what else is played at a neutral site that is always either in a dome or a warm weather location? The Super Bowl.

We play big bowl games and the College Football Playoff either inside or in desirable outdoor locations because 1) they're a reward for teams having good seasons and 2) we want the football to be as clean as possible. Only someone arguing in favor of leveling the playing field for inferior talent would want to introduce an element like bad weather into the equation. Either Ohio State was capable of competing with Alabama or it wasn't. And spoiler alert: it wasn't.

I can't wait until the 2021 season culminates with College Football Playoff games in Dallas, Miami and Indianapolis — even that's not enough for our friend Dick because there won't be three inches of ice on the ground — in which at least one team from the SEC will probably trounce the Big Ten champion again. Maybe the Big Ten should focus on getting better players rather than playing games in nice locations.