DaytonDailyNews.com

COLUMBUS — The Big Ten Conference has been called everything from old-fashioned to unfair for its standard practice of ending the football regular season on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. That changed last week when conference presidents voted to move to a 13-week schedule beginning 2009, edging the season back a week.

The move was made, in part, to help save face during bowl season. The Big Ten hasn't producing a winning bowl record as a conference since 2002 and claims just six better-than-.500 bowl performances in the past 17 seasons.

"I've always been the kind of guy who's kind of voted what we've done, which is ending the Saturday before Thanksgiving," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "That's always been my personal opinion."

The Buckeyes are front and center in the season-length discussion, which peaked last season when OSU went 50 days between its finale against Michigan and BCS championship game appearance against Florida. The Gators beat Ohio State 41-14, fueling the argument that the Big Ten needs to extend its regular season.

But Tressel, even though his team must again wait 50 days to play LSU in the national championship game Jan. 7, still believes the Big Ten does it correctly.

"Our kids are here all year long," Tressel said. "They work hard. When you have an open date during the season, it's not like you can run home for four days because you're in school. It just so happens if you have an open date Thanksgiving week, when classes break early in the week you can get home for an extended time, and our guys don't get home that much.

"I value that for my players and my coaches."

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