I must be in the minority, but I never thought the conference was all that bad. Was it great, no, but not that bad. The national percenption of the big 10 hinged basically on week 2 of the season. After Meechicken got killed by 'Bama, which I really expected, in week 1. The next week NU loses to UCLA, Wisky loses to the Beavers, and someone else loses to Utah St. I think. All those teams ended up being decent FB teams. Its just that it all happened at once.
PSU lost to Ohio and UVA, Iowa lose to ISU and CMU, Illinois lost to LA Tech and Arizona State, Wisconsin beat Utah St. on a miss FG and nearly lost to N. Iowa, Indiana lost Tre Roberson = losing season.... Trust me, things were very bad last year.