NEW ORLEANS Still reeling from Florida running over Ohio State in last year's SEC-Big Ten battle for national supremacy, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany hammered not just the SEC's quality of play, but the character and intelligence of its players.
In a stunning "open letter to fans," the most powerful person in college athletics attacked SEC football players, particularly those with "speed" in a statement loaded with social stereotypes.
As the two rival leagues prepare to meet again for the Bowl Championship Series title Monday this time Ohio State and LSU Tigers coach Les Miles bristled that Delany's offseason comments were more relevant than ever.
"Mr. Delany is sitting on the outside not knowing of what he speaks," Miles said Saturday
The rivalry between the Big Ten and SEC is real, on the field, in the living rooms of recruits and perhaps even in upcoming negotiations over an expansion of the BCS. But it became painfully personal with Delany's broadside shot that SEC players may be fast but they lack the academic acumen and character to play in the Big Ten.
"I love speed and the SEC has great speed, especially on the defensive line, but there are appropriate balances when mixing academics and athletics," Delany wrote on the league's web site during the offseason.
"Each school, as well as each conference, simply must do what fits their mission regardless of what a recruiting service recommends
winning our way requires some discipline and restraint with the recruitment process.
"Not every athlete fits athletically, academically or socially at every university. Fortunately, we have been able to balance our athletic and academic mission so that we can compete successfully and keep faith with our academic standards."
For Miles, the assertion that his fast players are, by Big Ten standards, not academic or social fits (essentially dumb thugs) is as absurd as it is insulting. He's a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he played under icon Bo Schembechler and later spent 10 seasons as an assistant. Now he is in his third year at LSU, giving him perspective.
