B1G Strength - Are we really the weakest of the "Big Four?"

[Excel]

Saw this somewhere else and thought I'd share.

Are we really behind the Pac 12 and Big 12?

I get that the SEC is the best but where do the rest of us shake out? I can't believe that the Pac 12 is better? They've been a one team show for so long and even now they've still only got one real elite power though Oregon is an up and comer. We've got at least four national programs. That's better than the Big Twelve and probably on par with the SEC.

Oh well....thoughts?

 

[exswoo]

I guess it depends on how you try to determine the best conferences - even looking at the data you just presented, the Pac 12 and the Big Ten rankings seem about even, so I'd give that a push.

Here's another way to look at the conference rankings:

BCS All Time Records

Conference (Record) Mountain West (3-1) Southeastern (16-7) WAC (2-1) Pac-12 (11-7) Big Ten (12-13) Big East (7-7) Big 12 (9-10) Atlantic Coast (2-12) Independents

(0-3)

Here you see that Big Ten has the most BCS bids of any conference at 25 and is #2-#3 ish depending on how much you want to give to weighting the appearances vs wins vs win %.

It is fair to say that the Big Ten has struggled to win the big bowl games to put it over the hump, and Michigan falling off the face of the earth for a few years probably didn't help matters.

 

[Stumpy1]

Saw this somewhere else and thought I'd share.

Are we really behind the Pac 12 and Big 12?

I get that the SEC is the best but where do the rest of us shake out? I can't believe that the Pac 12 is better? They've been a one team show for so long and even now they've still only got one real elite power though Oregon is an up and comer. We've got at least four national programs. That's better than the Big Twelve and probably on par with the SEC.

Oh well....thoughts?

The problem with this data is that the timeline is from 1998-2011. We were apart of the Big12 and contributed to their numbers and not the B1G. Take out our rankings for the 4-5 yrs we were on top and that changes some things up.

 

[default_28]

Phil Steele ranks the B1G as the fourth best conference this year, if you like his opinion. He has a whole page devoted to how awesome he is at deciding this, giving a rundown of the last ten years. He also has several paragraphs devoted to how he came up with the order for this year. In short it involves 9 sets of power rankings.

 

[Creed]

B1G has been down for the last 4-5 years. OSU will be strong for years to come. Get Mich, Penn State and Neb back to annual Top 10ish teams, throw in Wisc every so often then things will change.

I strongly believe the B1G needs to step up its OOC games. With some exceptions (Alabama-PSU, USC-OSU), B1G OOC schedules have been awful - a lot of MAC teams and 3 annual games vs ND (yawn). Name a good OOC team Wisc beat during their run the last couple years. With more OOC wins (including bowls) more respect will be given and higher rankings will ensue.

 

[WoodyHayes1951]

The Big Ten needs to live up to their potential

If the Big Ten lives up to potential then they should be well ahead of the Pac-12 and in front of the Big XII.

It starts at coaching and recruiting. I think we are vastly superior in coaching and recruiting than we were 4 years ago.

 

[Count 'Bility]

The perception of the Big 10 as being "down" just bothers me, even when we were'nt a part of it. I like to call it balanced. This conference spens so much time beating up on each other that it's typical to have 2 loss teams battling for a conference championship and not have anyone with a legitimate NC shot. That then leads to a nationwide perception that the Big 10 is down. Throw in the fact that the conference goes nearly 0'fer every news years against SEC teams (cuz the Pac12 and BigWhatever would clean house :wacko: ) and now everyone things this conference is so bad. I just dont get it. Probably never will. Outside of the SEC, which top to bottom we can all agree is quite superior right now, the other three conferences are just as equal to each other, and not really that far behind the SEC to begin with.

 

[Coqui]

This SEC is top Big10 is down is all BS. This all started in 2006 when Florida (and the SEC) won their first championship. Because they defeated Ohio State soundly, the B1G was obviously a worse conference.

Nevermind the B1G went 4-1 against the SEC head to head that year.

 

[Notre Dame Joe]

The perception of the Big 10 as being "down" just bothers me, even when we were'nt a part of it. I like to call it balanced. This conference spens so much time beating up on each other that it's typical to have 2 loss teams battling for a conference championship and not have anyone with a legitimate NC shot. That then leads to a nationwide perception that the Big 10

has it really only been one year? How long until the state of Nebraska hangs banners tallying Rose Bowl appearances?

 

[Creed]

Throw in the fact that the conference goes nearly 0'fer every news years against SEC teams (cuz the Pac12 and BigWhatever would clean house :wacko: ) and now everyone things this conference is so bad. I just dont get it.

Yes, the B1G has performed poorly against the SEC the last two bowl seasons (2-5) but in the BCS era it has been fairly even - SEC probably only has a 3-4 game lead out of about 40 bowl games (just guessing here). Keep in mind the B1G has the toughest bowl alignments, 3 (4 in 2010) vs top SEC teams in SEC territory whereas PAC has none and B12 has one (Cotton Bowl).

B1G for the last 3-4 years has sent 2 teams to BCS games while only one really deserved to go but B1G fans fill the seats and hotels. By sending two teams to BCS, all the other bowl alignments are skewed. That is, B1G teams are ranked well below their opponent. Last year it should have been Mich vs SCar, Neb vs UGA and Mich State vs Oklahoma but instead the B1G had to "play up" especially with Iowa (UR and 7th team in B1G) going against Oklahoma (3rd in B12).

There was also 2 years where USC was the likely the best team in nation but had a loss vs bad team and then destroyed the #2 team in B1G (IL & Mich) in the Rose Bowl, when OSU was in the NCG. Again B1G looked bad on a national stage.

 

[Coqui]

Throw in the fact that the conference goes nearly 0'fer every news years against SEC teams (cuz the Pac12 and BigWhatever would clean house :wacko: ) and now everyone things this conference is so bad. I just dont get it.

Yes, the B1G has performed poorly against the SEC the last two bowl seasons (2-5) but in the BCS era it has been fairly even - SEC probably only has a 3-4 game lead out of about 40 bowl games (just guessing here). Keep in mind the B1G has the toughest bowl alignments, 3 (4 in 2010) vs top SEC teams in SEC territory whereas PAC has none and B12 has one (Cotton Bowl).

B1G for the last 3-4 years has sent 2 teams to BCS games while only one really deserved to go but B1G fans fill the seats and hotels. By sending two teams to BCS, all the other bowl alignments are skewed. That is, B1G teams are ranked well below their opponent. Last year it should have been Mich vs SCar, Neb vs UGA and Mich State vs Oklahoma but instead the B1G had to "play up" especially with Iowa (UR and 7th team in B1G) going against Oklahoma (3rd in B12).

There was also 2 years where USC was the likely the best team in nation but had a loss vs bad team and then destroyed the #2 team in B1G (IL & Mich) in the Rose Bowl, when OSU was in the NCG. Again B1G looked bad on a national stage.

Those 2 years were the years they played Ohio State. Someone did some research after the last game they played. Apparently opponents as a whole lost around 90% of the time after playing Ohio State. This was regardless of the quality of the team at the time. The majority of the times they did win after playing Ohio State, there was a bye week (or break prior to bowl game)

 

[bshirt]

Well, if we can get over the next hump I'd LOVE to see NU get some BCS bowl wins for us and the conference. I'm really liking our new conference.