the big ten has a below .500 all-time bowl record (worst of P5)
the big ten has won the least national championships of every decade vs other P5 conferences since modern football began
how can you possibly defend those facts and say it is a competitive conference with a straight face?
Because you are straining to cherry pick stats. The Big Ten plays the fewest amount of bowls on its home turf. They only could send one team to a bowl game into the 1970s; even when they had two top five teams. OSU, Michigan, Sparty, Minnesota, Illinois & the University of Chicago have all won NCs in the Big Ten. Maybe even Iowa has some sort of claim. And there is no date for "modern" football.
The Big Ten has two teams in the playoff THIS year. We will have four blue blood programs in the conference in 2024, one more than the SEC will have with OU and Texas.
I think that makes us competitive.