We now reside in the B1G conference. Arguably the most powerful conference in all of college football due to the size of it, and the money involved.
Let us think about what that actually means. Here is who and what we have, I'm also going to list size, stadium size, revenue, etc. Student Body size, etc.(reason being, because it shows the difference in fan base, and alumni potential)
I didn't include conference titles, because with so many new teams in this conference, it's not truly applicable, because some of them were not won here. Penn state, US, Rutgers, Maryland,..
-Ohio State, 8 claimed National Titles, 64,000 Students, Stadium-The Horseshoe, 104,000+ capacity,
-Michigan, 11 claimed National Titles, 43,000 Students, Stadium-The Big House, 105,000+ capacity
-Penn State, 2 claimed National Titles, 97,000 students, Stadium-Beaver Stadium, 106,000+ capacity
-Michigan State, 6 claimed National Titles, 50,000 students, Stadium-Spartan Stadium, 75,000+ capacity
-Wisconsin, 0 claimed National Titles, 43,000 students, Stadium-Camp Randall, 80,000+ capacity
-Iowa, 2 claimed national Titles, 32, 000 students, Stadium-Kinnick, 70,000+ capacity
-Minnesota,7 claimed national Titles, 51,000 students, Stadium-TCF Stadium, 52,000+ capacity
-Indiana, 0 claimed National titles, 110,000 students, Stadium-Memorial Stadium, 52,000+ capacity
-Purdue, 0 claimed National titles, 38,000 students, Stadium-Ross ade stadium, 57,000+ capacity
-Northwestern,0 National titles, 9,000 students(had no idea, wow), Stadium-Ryan Field, 47,000+ capacity
-Rutgers, 1 claimed National titles, 65,000 students, Stadium-High Point, 52,000+ capacity
-Maryland, 1 claimed National Titles, 37,000 students, Stadium-Byrd Stadium, 54,000+capacity
Now lets compare that to Nebraska:
-Nebraska, 5 claimed National Titles, 24,000 students, Stadium Memorial Stadium, 87,000+ capacity
Now that is pretty damn respectable. But we have to also understand what we are up against, and we also have to understand that we are in new territory here. It has only been 4 years, and we have yet to hit a high. We have a lot of money to deal with in this conference. As a matter of fact, our conference is the richest conference in the land, yes that includes the SEC. I honestly didn't know that.
We have 4 schools ahead of us in revenue. Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan and of course Ohio State. Along with them the Spartans and the Hawkeyes are neck and neck with us. It seems to rotate year in and year out with those two. So that would make us 5th at best.
Quite simply we are technically outgunned, in the sense that we have AT LEAST 4 schools with superior advantages. Alumni, money, exposure, facilities, etc. Then we have 2 schools who again, are neck and neck with us in that regard. The facility race is causing all teams to upgrade, and the momentum is shifting so fast it is hard to keep up. Michigan and OSU will always have superior facilites, it makes sense, they have a lot more money to play with. Iowa just upgrade, Wiscy is upgrading and so is MSU from what I've heard. Then of course you have PSU, but let's face it, they are able to get as good as facilites as they wish to have.
In short, what I'm saying, is that this is a new era, and we have schools all around us, that are capable of giving us a run for our money at every turn. It's just the way it is now.
