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Sharp: Big Ten leading charge of changing college football landscape

This isn’t your white-haired daddy’s Big Ten football.

It’s now refreshingly brazen, leading the counterculture charge.

The Big Ten notoriously ran scared of the powerhouse SEC. But then Urban Meyer ran through Alabama in its own backyard on Ohio State’s road to major college football’s first playoff champion two years ago. The Big Ten was strictly a one-team conference since the advent of the Bowl Championship Series almost 20 years ago. But then Mark Dantonio culminated a remarkable five-year run with Michigan State’s national semifinal appearance last season. The Big Ten feared rocking the boat and challenging accepted recruiting convention — specifically as it pertained to its noisy Southern neighbors.