Because of his "legacy" and they have been pretty good outside of the Bowl and OSU games. Yea why haven't they gotten rid of him?
Carr owes his legacy to John Cooper. Speaking of coaches who kept their jobs too long.
Like i said, there are confrences that are on the upswing right now, while the Big 10 is on the down swing. UM is slowly going to start losing out of state recruits to states in warmer weather, if you know what i mean. There football program is very very close to going the same way the basketball program has went. There are teams that are supposed to ALWAYS be good, and when those teams start falling, its not good. And that, at least in my opinion is whats happening to the Big 10.
Conferences have their ups and downs. From year in to year out, you don't know who's going to have the best conference. Over the long haul, I always say that the Big Ten and the SEC are the best conferences. Probably 80% - 85% of the years the Big Ten is one of the top 2 conferences, and when they're not they're no lower than the third best conference. The same thing can be said for the SEC.
So is the B10 slipping? Well, they were clearly not the top conference last year, and granted it's still early, but don't look like they are this year either. I don't like that two years in a row they haven't been the best conference, but two years is a small sample size for something like this. I'm not ready to hit the panic button yet.
I will say this, it's pretty hard to form an argument that Ohio State in particular is on a down swing. They've had the second most successful program the last five, including being the second best team in the land as recent as last year. And the Tressel train keeps rolling. We lost a ton of players from last year, virtually every star on the team, yet they appear to have reloaded. Say what you will about their schedule, that defense is nasty and deep, and it is going to win them a bunch of ball games. OSU has a great shot at a BCS bowl again this year, which would be their 4th one in 6 years.
I do agree that the Big East is on an upswing. They've been a BCS conference from the beginning, but Miami used to always be #1, VT #2. The rest of the schools were perennial door mats. When the top 2 teams left, and the Big East was left with lower schools to replace them (Cinci, and who else? drawing a blank here), the Big East was by far the worst BCS conference. I mean, it was just pathetic in comparison to the others. What happened is you had a conference with no football powers, and there was a power void. Any team in there had a shot to make the BCS. Coaches sold that to recruits: "Hey, come to WVU. With your talent we'll be sure to win the Big East and make a BCS game. I see you're also being courted by Michigan State. When was the last time they went to the BCS?" A few years of that, and quickly the Big East is improving. They're not really stealing recruits from the Penn States and Ohio States, Miamis out there, they're stealing them from the Michigan States, Clemsons, etc. For a school like Louisville to be on level with Michigan State or Clemson, that's a pretty big improvement in a short period. Good for them.