Big Ten West = Big 12 North

[Auger]

With the way recruiting has been going these past couple of years with Ohio St, Penn St, Michigan St and Harbaugh now at Michigan is the East division going to start dominating the West like the BIG 12 South used to do to the North? We saw what Ohio St did to Wisconsin. Ohio St has been bringing in top rated guys from all over the country and has even made Penn St's class look second rate. Ohio St also has the best coach they have had in a long time (even better then the sweater vest). Penn St since Franklin has arrived have been bringing in some of the best talent in the nation to help fill the voids left by sanctions and defections. They have a very young talented team who I expect to take a step forward next year. Michigan St has really improved their recruiting to where they are the third best BIG team the past couple seasons recruiting wise. Harbaugh will bring in top 15 classes and unlike Hoke he is a proven big program coach. That is four teams in the East that will likely be better then the two best teams in the West. Glad Iowa didnt have to play any of these team this year or we could have been 6-6 or 5-7.

Wisconsin has actually seen a slight improvement in recruiting while Nebraska has remained about the same. Iowa has seen a dropoff in recruiting. Iowa typically would see a top 35 class atleast once every 4 recruiting cycles but we havent seen that for awhile now.

Heard on a radio show that the BIG is improving and the future looks like it will bring 4 tier 1 teams in the BIG in Ohio St, Penn St, Michigan and Michigan St. They then said the BIG will have two solid tier 2 teams in Wisconsin and Nebraska with possibly one of the tier 1 teams trading off between tier 1 and 2 every other year. They said there are a handfull of tier 3 and 4 teams. this was on a PAC 12 station. The hosts didnt mention the 4 teams they put in tier 1 are all from the same division.

This post was edited on 1/29 6:18 AM by Auger

 

[Birky]

Keep in mind that ISU was winning Big 12 North co-championships by going 4-4 in conference. The B1G West has a ways to go still if it wants to fall to the depths the Big 12 North was in at one time. It could happen, but it is probably a lot closer to the SEC East than what the Big 12 North was.

Also, I would guess MSU will fall back to earth at some point.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Lone Clone]

Originally posted by Birky:
Keep in mind that ISU was winning Big 12 North co-championships by going 4-4 in conference. The B1G West has a ways to go still if it wants to fall to the depths the Big 12 North was in at one time. It could happen, but it is probably a lot closer to the SEC East than what the Big 12 North was.

Also, I would guess MSU will fall back to earth at some point.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

Also keep in mind that these things tend to be cyclical. When the Big XII was formed, the North was far stronger than the South.

 

[okayplayer76]

Originally posted by Lone Clone:

Originally posted by Birky:
Keep in mind that ISU was winning Big 12 North co-championships by going 4-4 in conference. The B1G West has a ways to go still if it wants to fall to the depths the Big 12 North was in at one time. It could happen, but it is probably a lot closer to the SEC East than what the Big 12 North was.

Also, I would guess MSU will fall back to earth at some point.

Posted from Rivals Mobile

Also keep in mind that these things tend to be cyclical. When the Big XII was formed, the North was far stronger than the South.

Agreed! Ohio State is the biggest concern by a wide margin of making this league B1G 1 and Little 13. The good news is that someone has to come out of the West, and then you end up with on an any given Saturday scenario for the Championship!

 

[Auger]

Originally posted by okayplayer76:

Originally posted by Lone Clone:

Originally posted by Birky:
Keep in mind that ISU was winning Big 12 North co-championships by going 4-4 in conference. The B1G West has a ways to go still if it wants to fall to the depths the Big 12 North was in at one time. It could happen, but it is probably a lot closer to the SEC East than what the Big 12 North was.

Also, I would guess MSU will fall back to earth at some point.

Posted from Rivals Mobile

Also keep in mind that these things tend to be cyclical. When the Big XII was formed, the North was far stronger than the South.

Agreed! Ohio State is the biggest concern by a wide margin of making this league B1G 1 and Little 13. The good news is that someone has to come out of the West, and then you end up with on an any given Saturday scenario for the Championship!

I can see Ohio St being the cream of the crop but I also see Penn St and Michigan taking some games from them. Harbaugh will have Michigan back up top quickly and Penn St's style of play matches up well with Ohio St and they are getting top recruits to play their style. Both of them are going to be top 15 programs here again soon. Between those three teams I think it will take one heck of a team from the West to beat any of these teams in the future. Iowa right now is so far off talent wise with these teams its not even funny. Joe Pa brought in great recruits to PSU but Franklin has been bringing in more of them. PSU was an OL away from having a pretty good year this last year.

If Michigan St falls off any it will only be to the level that Wisconsin and Nebraska are at. They have a pretty solid hold on some recruiting regions of Michigan and the rich border areas of Ohio but their name and reach has extended further accross the nation as well.

I would agree that the BIG West will have better teams then the Big 12 North did but I dont expect the West to win many or any championships anytime soon. My fear is this makes the BIG championship game a dud and forces the BIG to shuffle the divisions up to get better matchups in the championship game resulting in Iowa falling off further. If the BIG West gets stomped these next couple seasons again in the cahmpionship game I wouldnt be surprised to see the league make some changes.

 

[5Fan5]

Originally posted by Lone Clone:

Originally posted by Birky:
Keep in mind that ISU was winning Big 12 North co-championships by going 4-4 in conference. The B1G West has a ways to go still if it wants to fall to the depths the Big 12 North was in at one time. It could happen, but it is probably a lot closer to the SEC East than what the Big 12 North was.

Also, I would guess MSU will fall back to earth at some point.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

Also keep in mind that these things tend to be cyclical. When the Big XII was formed, the North was far stronger than the South.

That's odd. In the initial year, a team from the South won the big xii championship. Over the fifteen-year history, the South was crowned champion eleven times. Seems fairly dominant to most observers.

 

[Birky]

Originally posted by Lone Clone:

Originally posted by Birky:

Keep in mind that ISU was winning Big 12 North co-championships by going 4-4 in conference. The B1G West has a ways to go still if it wants to fall to the depths the Big 12 North was in at one time. It could happen, but it is probably a lot closer to the SEC East than what the Big 12 North was.



Also, I would guess MSU will fall back to earth at some point.

Posted from Rivals Mobile

Also keep in mind that these things tend to be cyclical. When the Big XII was formed, the North was far stronger than the South.

That is absolutely true, but the Big North at its zenith is not the one we are comparing to. Iowa and Minnesota were dominating the Big 10 at one time. In no way does that make the B1G West of today any better. Like you said, it is cyclical, and I am comparing the down cycles of the B1G West(not that it has been around long enough to even have a cycle) and the Big 12 North. Frankly I don't think they are all that comparable, unless this is not the basement of the B1G West. Maybe in five years they will be comparable. Today the B1G West is noticeably better than the Big 12 North that ISU tied for first in.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[illhawkdvv]

Wen the big ten split the teams up East and West it automatically made for a wide difference in the divisions. No way will the west ever be able to compete with the teams in the East. The tradition and recruiting grounds are just flat out crushing. Once in a while a West team will rise up but not very often.

 

[5Fan5]

Originally posted by illhawkdvv:

Wen the big ten split the teams up East and West it automatically made for a wide difference in the divisions. No way will the west ever be able to compete with the teams in the East. The tradition and recruiting grounds are just flat out crushing. Once in a while a West team will rise up but not very often.

Just for the sake of curiosity, what was the head-to-head overall record between the Big Ten divisions this past fall?

 

[Alum-Ni]

Originally posted by 5Fan5:

Originally posted by illhawkdvv:

Wen the big ten split the teams up East and West it automatically made for a wide difference in the divisions. No way will the west ever be able to compete with the teams in the East. The tradition and recruiting grounds are just flat out crushing. Once in a while a West team will rise up but not very often.

Just for the sake of curiosity, what was the head-to-head overall record between the Big Ten divisions this past fall?

If my math is correct the two divisions were 7-7 against each other this year:

Northwestern 29, Penn State 6
Minnesota 30, Michigan 14
Michigan State 27, Nebraska 24
Iowa 45, Indiana 29
Michigan State 45, Purdue 31
Maryland 38, Iowa 31
Wisconsin 52, Maryland 7
Nebraska 42, Rutgers 24
Wisconsin 37, Rutgers 0
Ohio State 55, Illinois 14
Michigan 10, Northwestern 9
Ohio State 31, Minnesota 24
Illinois 16, Penn State 14
Indiana 23, Purdue 16

 

[MarshHawk1]

What a bunch of BS. I have tiers in my eyes.

 

[hoks2415]

There will be outlier years, of course, but the Big Ten East will be stronger than the West most of the time. Besides Chicagoland none of the Western schools are in a fertile recruiting area. The East has Ohio, Pennsylannia, New Jersey and Maryland/Washington D.C. metro. Plus, you have three of the traditional powers in the East in OSU, Michigan and PSU. I think it would be pretty hard to argue that over the course of 10-15 years that the East will not dominate the conference.

As an Iowa fan, I'm OK with this. If you have a good team, it will not be daunting task to win the West. Then, who knows in a one game scenario in the BIG Championship game.

 

[hwk23]

Originally posted by okayplayer76:

Originally posted by Lone Clone:

Originally posted by Birky:
Keep in mind that ISU was winning Big 12 North co-championships by going 4-4 in conference. The B1G West has a ways to go still if it wants to fall to the depths the Big 12 North was in at one time. It could happen, but it is probably a lot closer to the SEC East than what the Big 12 North was.

Also, I would guess MSU will fall back to earth at some point.

Posted from Rivals Mobile

Also keep in mind that these things tend to be cyclical. When the Big XII was formed, the North was far stronger than the South.

Agreed! Ohio State is the biggest concern by a wide margin of making this league B1G 1 and Little 13. The good news is that someone has to come out of the West, and then you end up with on an any given Saturday scenario for the Championship!

There it is. The new and improved way to put down the Big Ten. It's becoming a lot harder isn't it, now that the Big Ten beat most of the conference and division champs.