Maybe it's not always good to be king.
In a poll over at ESPN, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer was voted the "most disliked coach" in the Big Ten. A pretty amazing feat since he's never coached a game in the conference.
With over 27,000 people taking part, Meyer finished first with 37% of the vote. Second was Wisconsin's Bret Bielema (33%), third was Michigan State's Mark Dantonio (21%), and Michigan's Brady Hoke finished with a not-so detestable 9% of the vote.
Meyer's first-place finish is probably a mixture of past success (haters gon' hate on two national titles), spread offense (too exciting?), recruiting tactics (too savvy?) and maybe straight-up jealousy ("we want what we can't have!"). After all you don't see Indiana, Purdue or Minnesota represented here. Longevity obviously isn't playing a factor -- Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz is the longest tenured Big Ten coach, and he didn't even make the poll.
Success breeds envy. Or maybe it's all just residual hate leftover from Jim Tressel. Either way, this plants the seeds for one helluva debut season for Meyer in Columbus. If only tOSU wasn't banned from the Big Ten title and a bowl game.
Ah well.
Who do you hate (not dislike, hate) most? Weigh in below using the SBN Chicago poll.
(Oh, and for those playing at home, the correct answer here is Mark Dantonio.)
Bobby Loesch is a weekly contributor to SBN Chicago. He can be reached at bobbyloesch [at] gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @bobbystompy.