The football programs at different colleges and universities are various. We may be reminded of it even more often now that the most recent league expansion round has occurred.
Others are forced to compete in a cruel game of musical chairs, in which one participant will almost indeed be relegated to a less desirable alternative since other leagues are poaching the most powerful and prosperous programs to boost their reputations.
Meanwhile, those programs are being grabbed up to raise the status of those leagues.
At the moment, the Big Ten, the Southeastern Conference, and to a lesser extent, the Big 12 are hunting for and devouring colleges in quest of a better and sweeter bargain (ACC, you have till the end of the day).
To the extent that the Pac-12 is likely to go the way of the rotary phone unless Bruce Willis jumps on an asteroid and prevents the presumed crash, burn, and inhalation of the conference.
which is now down to just four members after the most recent news that Oregon and Washington will join UCLA and USC in the Big Ten, the conference is likely to go the way of the rotary phone.
But even inside the Big Ten, some of the league’s most famous cash cows need to catch up with specific teams, which is causing those teams to fall farther and more behind.
With 18 schools playing in the Big Ten Conference from coast to coast and sea to sparkling, warming ocean, evaluating each Big Ten football program based on its contribution to the league would be interesting.
Our ranking of the best football programs in the Big Ten goes from number 18 to number 1.
1 Northwestern Wildcats
2. Rutgers Scarlet Knights
3 . Indiana Hoosier
4 . Purdue Boilermakers
5 . lllinois Fighting Illini
6 . Maryland Terrapins
7 . Minnesota Golden Gophers
8 . Nebraska Cornhusker
9 . Michigan State Spartans
10 . UCLA Bruins
11 . Iowa Hawkeyes
12 . Washington Huskies
13 . Wisconsin Badgers.
14 . Oregon Ducks
15 . Penn State Nittany Lions
16 . USC Trojans
17 . Michigan Wolverines
18 . Ohio State Buckeyes
