If all seven Big Ten men's soccer coaches got together in a room, they could probably stack their disagreements to the ceiling. But if there is one idea they could all find room to stand on, it's that the Big Ten schedule is like mystery meat -- tough to get through and wildly unpredictable.
"The conference is coming of age," Penn State men's soccer coach Barry Gorman said. "No Big Ten team is a pushover for anyone today. We couldn't say that [a couple] years ago."
This is the conference that is home to the past two national championships, both won by Indiana. The Hoosiers went 19-4-1 last year (5-1 Big Ten), and took a No. 2 seed in the national tourney to a win over UC Santa Barbara in the decisive game.
Yet, as the top seed in last year's Big Ten tournament, Indiana was upset by Michigan State in its first game. Continuing that trend of unpredictability, the Hoosiers tied the Spartans in rainy conditions in their first Big Ten game of 2005.
"That's obviously not the way we wanted to start," Indiana men's soccer coach Mike Freitag said. "[We] probably played as well or better as we have against Michigan State in a while."
That, folks, is the coach of a national championship team that returns 15 lettermen, eight of whom are starters, and haven't yet lost this year. The game's result gives credence to the notion that the conference is an any-given-day collection of teams.
"It's an indication of the parity that's going throughout the conference," Gorman said. "I think given the early season results that's were seeing across the board that anything could be possible this year."
Those early returns Gorman spoke of are harder to sort out than election results in Florida.
Ohio State figured to be in excellent shape starting the season, ranked No. 16 and coming off a third-round appearance in the NCAA tournament. The Buckeyes beat No. 23 UCLA and lost only to No. 1 New Mexico in the early weeks of the season.
The Buckeyes were a team to keep your eyes on, until they stumbled last weekend, losing to Bowling Green and tying Kentucky.
"We've just come off a bad weekend for us," Ohio State men's soccer coach John Bluem said. "I think we're a team that's still trying to find consistency, and we've got to stop this kind of business where we have a good day and a bad day."
At this point, rankings are just short of meaningless and predictions are foolish. Who knows what the Big Ten standings will look like by the time Penn State wraps up its conference schedule vs. Michigan in late October?
"You've got a situation whereby all the programs are established, all the teams are coming from institutions that are stable," Gorman said.
As a result, the Big Ten is fairly stable as a conference, sending six of its seven teams to last year's NCAA tournament. The only team not to make it was Wisconsin, which was also the only Big Ten team not to have a winning record (9-10, 2-4 Big Ten).
This year the Badgers are 4-4, despite having no seniors on their roster. Headed into conference play, it's Wisconsin's hopes for the season that might illustrate the unpredictability and toughness found in the Big Ten. It has the most to gain, coming from the very shallow basement of the conference.
"[We want to] for sure finish in the top half of the Big Ten," Wisconsin men's soccer coach Jeff Rohrman said.
Snapshots of the rest of the Big Ten:
Michigan: The Wolverines are 6-2 on the season after defeating Northwestern on Sunday. They started five freshmen or sophomores in that game, and are relatively young. The Ann Arbor youth movement will get tested as the season gets long in the tooth, but their record has improved every year under coach Steve Burns. Last year Michigan was 11-8-4, so continuing that trend will put the team in lofty company.
Michigan State: Winning the Big Ten tournament in surprise fashion in 2004, the Spartans proved itself plenty. But they are 2-1-4 at the moment, perhaps partly due to losing their top two scorers. However, the Spartans were 2-4 in the Big Ten last year before entering the tournament as the No. 5 seed, no one can write them off yet.
Northwestern: The Wildcats were one of three teams to post a winning record in the Big Ten last season, going 3-2-1 and making an appearance in the title game of the conference tournament. They let up only 27 goals in 23 games last season, and return three seniors on the back line, figuring them to be a defensively strong team. However, through just seven games this season, the Wildcats have allowed 11 goals on 70 shots.
