NEW ORLEANS » Jim Tressel and Bobby Petrino dutifully posed in front of the Sugar Bowl trophy yesterday, 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 Year’s Day.

That would have wiped the grin right off Tressel’s 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 matters worse, three of those defeats came against the Southeastern Conference, 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 today’s Sugar Bowl against eighth-ranked Arkansas in yet another Big Ten-SEC matchup.

Tressel would prefer not to put the entire conference on his team’s back, especially since the Buckeyes (11-1) have never won a bowl game against an SEC team in nine previous tries.

"We always say if you ever want to become the best, you play against the best," said Tressel, who has an 0-3 bowl record against the SEC in his decade as the Buckeyes’ coach — including back-to-back losses in the national championship game.

There’s little doubt the Big Ten is feeling a bit of inferiority complex against the SEC, which 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 there’s 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, they’ve ranked 1-2 in attendance, so there’s clearly no lack of passion on either side. And, of course, the regional debate over who’s 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 can’t get their hands on a calculator, that’s an average margin of 31 points.

"I didn’t really see many of the games," Tressel said. "Obviously, I saw the results. Does it add something more to our challenge? I don’t think so. Arkansas is enough of a challenge on its own. What someone else did or didn’t do is probably going to have very little effect on how we do against Arkansas."

Still, he’s certainly aware of his personal record against the SEC.

"I’m not tired of hearing about it," Tressel insisted. "It’s a reminder to me of just how good the SEC is in football. We are playing another great one in Arkansas."

Petrino, the Razorbacks’ third-year coach, wants to keep the trend going. But, like Tressel, he’s not chalking up a win for Arkansas (10-2) just because of conference affiliation.

"I don’t think any of that matters for this game," he said. "What you see in this game is a great football team from Ohio State that’s 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."

Besides, the Buckeyes have been fretting about bigger concerns than beating the SEC. Star quarterback Terrelle Pryor and three other offensive starters will get to play in this game, but they’ve already been suspended for the first five games next season, the NCAA-imposed punishment for selling off memorabilia and receiving discounts on tattoos.

LSU’s Ridley to play in Cotton Bowl

BATON ROUGE, La. » LSU coach Les Miles says running back Stevan Ridley has been cleared to play against Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.

Ridley led the Tigers in rushing with 1,042 yards and 14 touchdowns during the regular season.

LSU (10-2) meets the Aggies (9-3) on Friday.

Ridley’s eligibility had been in doubt since Miles said on Dec. 22 that the running back could miss the game because of an unspecified "one-time" academic violation.

Iowa kicks RB off team

Running back Adam Robinson’s promising career at Iowa is over.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz announced yesterday that Robinson had been dismissed from the Hawkeyes one week after he was arrested for marijuana possession. The coach said he would have no further comment.

Robinson, 21, was charged with possession of marijuana on Dec. 27 in his hometown of Des Moines.

UConn picks interim coach

Connecticut has named Hank Hughes as its interim head coach while it seeks a replacement for Randy Edsall. Hughes has been UConn’s assistant head coach for defense the last six seasons.