So far, the Big Ten is having one of its best years since the conference was founded back in 1896. Heading into week four, the combined records of the 14 schools stood at 30-8 with a number of those wins coming against Top 25 teams.
The conference has picked up a bunch of impressive non-conference victories as No. 2 Ohio State went on the road and beat then-No. 14 Oklahoma 45-24. It was just Oklahoma’s ninth home loss under head coach Bob Stoops in his 18 seasons in Norman.
Don’t forget about No. 8 Michigan State who was in total control in a 38-26 road win over then-No. 18 Notre Dame. Nebraska knocked off then-No. 22 Oregon 35-32, and Wisconsin already has a win over then-No. 5 LSU as well. Before conference play started last week, eight of the Big Ten’s 14 teams were still unbeaten with four teams ranked in the Top 11.
The #B1G Co-Defensive Players of the Week are @UMichFootball's Jabrill Peppers & @OhioStateFB's Jerome Baker pic.twitter.com/Ok3pRrU1ZC
— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) September 19, 2016
That of course spurred talk by numerous media outlets that believe the Big Ten will make history by sending two teams into the College Football Playoff this season.
However, the crazy thing about all of this, is that it wasn’t too long ago that the Big Ten was wildly considered the laughing stock of Power 5 conferences.
Let’s take a quick trip down memory road.
For Big Ten fans, the start of the New Year in 2011 was a disaster.
With five bowl games on New Year’s Day, the Big Ten had the nation’s attention. Unfortunately, it was for the wrong reason as the conference went 0-5 to open the New Year. Not only that, but the games weren’t even close as Big Ten teams were outscored 204-102 in those games.
2011 Big Ten Bowl Games
| Alabama | 49 | Michigan State | 7 |
| Mississippi State | 52 | Michigan | 14 |
| Texas Tech | 45 | Northwestern | 38 |
| Florida | 37 | Penn State | 24 |
| TCU | 21 | Wisconsin | 19 |
Fast forward two years later and things didn’t get much better. The Big Ten went 1-4 on New Year’s Day with the only win coming from Northwestern, which happened to win its first bowl game since 1949.
2013 Big Ten Bowl Games
| Oklahoma State | 58 | Purdue | 14 |
| Georgia | 45 | Nebraska | 31 |
| Northwestern | 34 | Mississippi State | 20 |
| South Carolina | 33 | Michigan | 28 |
| Stanford | 20 | Wisconsin | 14 |
Now in 2016, all the talk is about not what team is getting into the playoff this year, but which teams.
My oh my what a difference a couple of years can make.
Happy Homecomings
Several new coaches have recently come into the conference and have quickly taken teams that were treading water and have taking them to the top.
Michigan, one of the most dominating programs in the history of college football went on to lose 42 games after former head coach Lloyd Carr resigned after the 2007 season. That’s an average of six losses per year.
So the Wolverines brought in former San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh to be the 20th head football coach at Michigan. He also became just the sixth former Michigan football player to be named head coach of college football’s winningest program.
In just his first year, Harbaugh guided the Wolverines to a 10-3 record, including a 41-7 win over No. 19 Florida in the 2016 Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl.
Wisconsin replaced Gary Andersen — who is now at Oregon State — with Paul Chryst who is off to a strong start (14-3) in his second year as head coach of the Badgers. Like Harbaugh, Chryst also returned to his roots as the Madison native was named the Badgers’ 30th head coach two years ago.
In his first season, Chryst led Wisconsin to a 10-3 record which concluded with a victory over USC in the Holiday Bowl.
Success
Ohio State hired Urban Meyer who is now 53-4 in four-plus seasons which includes a national title. While Meyer is arguably the face of the Big Ten, there are a number of other coaches (Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio, Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, etc.) who continue to overachieve every year.
While some will say the Big Ten has achieved this with bigger and better recruits, critics will argue that other conferences such as the SEC and Big 12 have taken a step back due to the cycle of college football (players leaving early for the NFL Draft, etc.).
The answer is likely in the middle as the Big Ten has brought in great coaches who have not only brought in top recruits, but have also put players in the best situation to succeed. This year the Big 12 is a mess and the SEC graduated a bunch of talented and experienced players last year. Alabama will always be Alabama but the rest of the SEC has taken a step back as evident by the firing of LSU head coach Les Miles.
