I thoroughly enjoyed reading the first half of Eric Strow's college football column ("Fixing the 'big' conferences," Nov. 17) regarding his proposed realignment of the Big 12 North. His commentary on Big Ten football, however, brought my attention to a flagrant football fallacy that everyone from Lee Corso to Cavman seems to support. Strow wrote, "I don't know who actually watches Big Ten football because it's generally very boring," but if that didn't catch your attention, then count yourself among the U.Va. majority. Growing up in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, with two Penn State alumni for parents, I followed Big Ten football religiously throughout high school and continue to watch as many conference games as I can. Imagine my dismay when I learned that the quickest way to fit in at a Virginia football game outside of a Ralph Lauren splurge was to hate on the corn-shucking, cheese curd-eating, slow-as-molasses brand of bland, boring, Big Ten football. Sure, 'Hoos, it's easy to slam a conference whose last two trips to the 'ship - thanks, Ohio State - ended in comprehensive beat-downs by Florida and LSU, but look in the mirror: outside the success of Florida State a decade ago, the ACC hasn't so much as sniffed a national championship in the BCS era. America's oldest Division I athletic conference is far from slow, weak, or overrated; the storied Big Ten holds a combined all-time record of 854
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