The Big Ten West

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Is the best division in college football.
Not the best as in best teams...best as in deepest with solid teams. Enough good teams year to year to have legitimate top 10 teams in most years.

Only other competition for depth is ACC coastal but ACC is depth of mediocrity not depth of above average play.

We should thank the big ten that they changed their original thinking to preserve Big Ten West rivalries (even Purdue’s crossover is protected every year...which is why we play Maryland every year for a 5 year cycle). Since the beginning of the big ten west Minnesota has played a division championship game against wisconsin multiple times. That couldn’t have happened in the legends/leaders set up.


outside appearance would say the big ten has imbalanced divisions. But reality is, in a divisional set up...whichever division has Ohio state is going to be clearly the better division at the top.
 

I agree. Love being in a division that is competitive top to bottom with a chance to be in the mix every year. Also allows for some better bowls from time to time.
 

I'm not sure that we have any better depth than the East division. Casting aside the crazy year of 2020, the East has three perennially good teams in Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State. In the second tier are teams that are 50/50 in any given year to be good, which I would put Michigan State. Then there are three bad teams in Indiana, Rutgers, and Maryland (yes Indiana and Maryland are good in 2020).

In the West, Wisconsin is the only top tier team. Iowa and maybe Purdue would be the only second tier teams. Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Illinois typically are not good but occasionally pull out good seasons.

The East is still stronger in my opinion....although Rutgers and Maryland are worse than any West team. Missouri should have been brought into the Big Ten.
 

1994Convert said:
I'm not sure that we have any better depth than the East division. Casting aside the crazy year of 2020, the East has three perennially good teams in Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State. In the second tier are teams that are 50/50 in any given year to be good, which I would put Michigan State. Then there are three bad teams in Indiana, Rutgers, and Maryland (yes Indiana and Maryland are good in 2020).

In the West, Wisconsin is the only top tier team. Iowa and maybe Purdue would be the only second tier teams. Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Illinois typically are not good but occasionally pull out good seasons.

The East is still stronger in my opinion....although Rutgers and Maryland are worse than any West team. Missouri should have been brought into the Big Ten.
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Yeah I would agree more here...I don't think we have the best division in the Big Ten yet alone the country.

In most years...

Ohio St > Wisconsin
Penn St/Michigan > Iowa
Penn St/ Michigan > Next West team

In the middle its always a toss up when looking at Michigan St against Nebraska/Minnesota/Northwestern etc.

I would agree our bottom is better than the east's bottom but I can't say that makes us a better division.
 

I think OSU is the only true outlier in the East. IA, WI, NW have kept step with MI, PSU, MSU over the past decade+. OSU is just heads & shoulders above anyone else in the B1G. So yeah, I can see the argument that the West is better overall, definitely more parity.
 


1994Convert said:
I'm not sure that we have any better depth than the East division. Casting aside the crazy year of 2020, the East has three perennially good teams in Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State. In the second tier are teams that are 50/50 in any given year to be good, which I would put Michigan State. Then there are three bad teams in Indiana, Rutgers, and Maryland (yes Indiana and Maryland are good in 2020).

In the West, Wisconsin is the only top tier team. Iowa and maybe Purdue would be the only second tier teams. Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Illinois typically are not good but occasionally pull out good seasons.

The East is still stronger in my opinion....although Rutgers and Maryland are worse than any West team. Missouri should have been brought into the Big Ten.
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This is a good argument, but i would say don't insult iowa with saying that purdue may be a second tier team. Purdue is awful and has always been awful. Since 1980 iowa has had 7 losing seasons. Purdue since 1980 has had 27 losing seasons! I know this is not a iowa versus purdue argument, but i might even throw in purdue as being the worst team traditionally in the west. Maybe not as of late so much because illinois stinks, but purdue has always been awful.
 

Not including 2020
Tier 1 = Ohio State- 48-4 since EAST/West Alignment. (8 Wins per year)

Tier 2= Wisconsin- 41-11 (6 wins per year)

Tier 3 Over.500 5 wins per year=
Michigan- 35-17
Penn State- 34-18
Iowa- 33-19
MSU- 31-21
NU- 30-22

Tier 4 is 4 wins per year=
Minnesota- 24-28
Nebraska- 23-29

Tier 5 is 3 or fewer wins per year
Indiana- 16-36
Purdue- 15-37
Maryland- 14-38
Illinois- 13-39
Rutgers- 7-45

Based on 2020 no one moves or switches tiers
 

The team most likely to move a tier in the next 5 years is Michigan state moving down a tier IMO
 




Some guy said:
The team most likely to move a tier in the next 5 years is Michigan state moving down a tier IMO
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Will be interesting to see how teams do when expanded to 10 years of data. All 2020 did was show how far ahead tOSU is form the rest of the league.
 

1994Convert said:
A fair point. I probably shouldn't have stretched Purdue up there, but did toss in a qualifier by putting maybe in italics!

Great analysis. Numbers never lie.
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No I know, that's why I said I liked your argument I just didnt agree with purdue and I know purdue vs. Iowa wasnt the point of your post. It's all good!
 





Looking over roughly the same time frame (2011 to 2019) most teams have performed equal to their recruiting level.

Nebraska, Maryland, and Rutgers have not met the expectations of recruiting and have had a number of coaching changes.

Wisconsin and Northwestern have out performed recruiting.

Considering the coaching changes at the U of M, we've outperformed our recruiting over this same period of time.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Considering the coaching changes at the U of M, we've outperformed our recruiting over this same period of time.
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True, but in defense of the hometown team, we have had a pretty good streak of quality coaches. Glen Mason got it started, Brewster was the blip, but then Kill transformed us into a team that wouldn't lose to DII schools. Claeys and Fleck both inherited good teams that weren't coming off of losing seasons. Sure they had to put their stamps on the teams, but they weren't building from the bottom.

That makes a huge difference.
 


1994Convert said:
I'm not sure that we have any better depth than the East division. Casting aside the crazy year of 2020, the East has three perennially good teams in Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State. In the second tier are teams that are 50/50 in any given year to be good, which I would put Michigan State. Then there are three bad teams in Indiana, Rutgers, and Maryland (yes Indiana and Maryland are good in 2020).

In the West, Wisconsin is the only top tier team. Iowa and maybe Purdue would be the only second tier teams. Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Illinois typically are not good but occasionally pull out good seasons.

The East is still stronger in my opinion....although Rutgers and Maryland are worse than any West team. Missouri should have been brought into the Big Ten.
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Purdue?...
huh.gif
 

Removing Irish from ACC and it has one great team and a bunch of also-rans. If Clemson were to drop from its elite level of performance, even to very good, ACC would be the worst P5 conference.
 

Would be fun to do a division crossover. I don't think the Big Ten West would win it all, probably middle of the pack.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Removing Irish from ACC and it has one great team and a bunch of also-rans. If Clemson were to drop from its elite level of performance, even to very good, ACC would be the worst P5 conference.
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Reminds me of Pete Carroll and USC. "The PAC 1" some people called it. Now with Oregon or Washington not doing well, they are not very good as a total conference.
 

BTChamp said:
Reminds me of Pete Carroll and USC. "The PAC 1" some people called it. Now with Oregon or Washington not doing well, they are not very good as a total conference.
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Wasn't there a recent time when the Pac-10 didn't have a single team in the Top 25? Or am I just thinking of basketball? Crazy how that conference continues to struggle in both sports.
 

Nokomis said:
Wasn't there a recent time when the Pac-10 didn't have a single team in the Top 25? Or am I just thinking of basketball? Crazy how that conference continues to struggle in both sports.
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How on earth has UCLA sunk so far in college sports? Its a top public university, in a beautiful part of LA, with a rich history of athletic success.
 

TurfGopher said:
How on earth has UCLA sunk so far in college sports? Its a top public university, in a beautiful part of LA, with a rich history of athletic success.
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Lived out there for awhile. Saw them play at the Rose Bowl. Lots of family out there too. Things changed once the "Arms Race" started in College Football. Maybe it was when Nike started underwriting Oregon? USC, who's alumni have very deep pockets, decided to compete in that atmosphere.

UCLA didn't. The people running it kept their belief that people would come to Coach and play at Westwood. When other schools kicked-up recruiting budgets and coaching salaries to outrageous level, UCLA passed. Combo of CA public schools budgets and being spoiled by Mens' Basketball recruiting.

Understand that in the last few years there's been some changes. Doubt they'll ever go all in though.
 

Iceland12 said:
Lived out there for awhile. Saw them play at the Rose Bowl. Lots of family out there too. Things changed once the "Arms Race" started in College Football. Maybe it was when Nike started underwriting Oregon? USC, who's alumni have very deep pockets, decided to compete in that atmosphere.

UCLA didn't. The people running it kept their belief that people would come to Coach and play at Westwood. When other schools kicked-up recruiting budgets and coaching salaries to outrageous level, UCLA passed. Combo of CA public schools budgets and being spoiled by Mens' Basketball recruiting.

Understand that in the last few years there's been some changes. Doubt they'll ever go all in though.
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I mean, they hired one of the big names in football
 

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Re: the B1G West division.

I would not say the best division, but one could argue that it may be one of the better balanced divisions. from top to bottom, every team in the division has at least had its moments. and the division rarely has a team completely fall apart. even the teams in the bottom part of the division can be dangerous or pull off some upsets.

the East division has been all haves and have-nots. the good teams in the East may be a little better than the Good teams in the West, but the bad teams in the East are worse than the bad teams in the West.
 

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