By Paul Newberry
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS ó Jim Tressel and Bobby Petrino dutifully posed in front of the Sugar Bowl trophy Monday, forcing smiles and mumbling a few pleasantries to each other while the cameras clicked away.
Surely there was no mention of what happened on New Yearís Day.
That would have wiped the grin right off Tresselís face.
The Big Ten is still stinging from an embarrassing performance on the first day of 2011, when its teams put up an oh-fer in five bowl games. Making matter worse, three of those defeats came against the SEC, the other half of that perennial debate over where they play the best college football: the North or the South?
No. 6 Ohio State can soothe some of the sting by winning tonightís Sugar Bowl against eighth-ranked Arkansas in yet another Big Ten-SEC matchup.
A matchup that will have a Rowan County connection. Former West Rowan star Chris Smith is a member of the Arkansas defense.

But back to the Big Ten.
Tressel would prefer not to put the entire conference on his teamís back, especially since the Buckeyes (11-1) have never won a bowl game against an SEC team in nine previous tries.
ěWe always say if you ever want to become the best, you play against the best,î said Tressel, who has an 0-3 bowl record against the SEC in his decade as the Buckeyesí coach ó including back-to-back losses in the national championship game.
Thereís little doubt the Big Ten is feeling a bit of inferiority complex against the SEC, which already has claimed an unprecedented four straight national titles and has shot at making it five in a row when Auburn faces Oregon in the BCS championship game next week.
Ohio State will be the final Big Ten team to play this season, relegated this time to one of the BCS backup games. But thereís always a bit of a subplot when these two conferences get together.
They are the two richest football-playing leagues, rolling in dough from lucrative television deals. For at least the past two decades, theyíve ranked 1-2 in attendance, so thereís clearly no lack of passion on either side. And, of course, the regional debate over whoís the best has raged for much longer than that, a latter-day civil war played out every Saturday from Ann Arbor to Tuscaloosa.
This past Saturday, it was all SEC.
Alabama blew out Big Ten co-champion Michigan State 49-7. Mississippi State routed Michigan 52-14. Penn State was the only team to put up much of a fight, but the Nittany Lions fell to Florida 37-24. For those who canít get their hands on a calculator, thatís an average margin of 31 points.
Petrino, the Razorbacksí third-year coach, wants to keep the trend going. But, like Tressel, heís not chalking up a win for Arkansas (10-2) just because of conference affiliation.
ěI donít think any of that matters for this game,î he said. ěWhat you see in this game is a great football team from Ohio State thatís a tremendous challenge for us. What happened in other games, who we play throughout the year, you kind of put that behind you and just focus on going out and trying to win this game.î
Ohio State has tried to keep looking forward. Yet itís kind of hard when everybody keeps bringing up the past ó especially that 0-9 postseason record against the SEC.