WIESBADEN — What’s wrong with Big Ten football?

That question has been bandied about the past couple of years as the Big Ten, once America’s most feared football conference, seemed to have been on the decline.

"I don’t really think there’s much of anything wrong with our football," soft-spoken Glenn (Bo) Schembechler, head coach at Michigan, said here during the 1971 USAFE football clinic.

Georgia’s Vince Dooley, Oakland Raider star Jim Otto and Big Ten official Ross Dean are in Europe to present the 1971 clinic. This week’s session is going on at Wiesbaden Air Base and continues through Friday. Next week (July 12-15), Lakenheath, England, will be the site of a similar clinic for U,K. Conference personnel.

"We have had a couple of woefully weak teams in the conference the past couple of years and those schools have taken a few beatings at the hands of some other schools, but our top teams have continued to more than hold their own. We’ve had several clubs in the top 10 in the final standings most of the time and I can’t see where we’ve become that bad overall."

Schembechler’s Michigan teams certainly haven’t been in the "weak sister" category. He is starting his third campaign at Ann Arbor and he owns a glossy 17-4 record — he was 8-2 in regular-season play in 1969 and 9-1 last year. In 1969, Schembechler’s Wolverines shocked Ohio State and won a berth in the Rose Bowl after dropping a Big Ten tilt to Michigan State and a non-conference contest to rugged Missouri, one of the nation’s top clubs. The Wolverines also lost to USC in the Rose Bowl. Last year, Ohio State spoiled their bid for a perfect season.

"Things have changed in the past 20 years or so," Schembechler said. "The Big Ten used to be the dominating conference. The Big Eight was very weak and the Southeastern Conference was coming into its own as a conference. It always had one or two good clubs, but not the overall strength it has enjoyed the past few years.

"Several other factors enter into the Big Ten football picture," the congenial Schembechler said. "First thing is that we don’t permit red-shirting letting a player sit out a year, allowing him to complete his eligibility in five years instead of four — and we are more limited in the number of grants-in-aid we can offer than some of the conferences. So, we can’t play a numbers game and give a lot of scholarships in the hopes we will find one or two outstanding players. We have to be more selective.

"And although we can send only one team to a post-season bowl game (Ed. Note: The Big Ten has a working agreement with the Pacific-8 to supply a team for the Rose Bowl), we still have several clubs vying for the national championship and we still rank among the leaders in drawing fans — five of the Big Ten teams are usually in the top 10 in attendance — so I can’t really agree that Big Ten football is on the decline.

"And I truly believe that those days of one or two woefully weak Big Ten schools are over. The whole conference is getting back to the former days when everyone was strong. This year, for instance, six teams could be fighting it out for the conference title and a couple of them should be in the middle of the national honors chase, too," he added.

Schembechler figures his Wolverines will be one of the clubs fighting for the diadem and the national ranking. He’s got a couple of potential All-Americans in the Taylor boys. Barring an injury, Bill should break the all-time Michigan career rushing record. He needs less than 700 yards and he’s averaged almost 900 a year the last two seasons. Mike (no relation) rates as one of the best linebackers in Michigan history, Schembechler says.

So, what’s wrong with Big Ten Football? Bo Schembechler says nothing and he and his Wolverines plan to prove that point again this fall.