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The Big Ten is a mess, what do you make of it?

I live in Big Ten country and I talk about NCAA basketball a lot, so anyone who knows me well enough will ask the question of how I feel the conference is going to be this year. I will get into it but before we start let us just get this out of the way. I am a Nebraska fan, watch or go to all of their games, and have watched all Big Ten teams play numerous times because of that. Here is what I think by watching the games.

Through four league games, there are already some clear-cut tiers. We know that Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, and Ohio State will likely finish in the top tier. The Bottom tier looks to be Minnesota, Northwestern, Maryland, and Iowa. Keep in mind that is just watching the teams a lot over the last two months. The middle tier gets very jumbled and who knows what can happen. Rutgers, Nebraska, Penn State, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin are all going to make up the middle tier, but where do they all fall?

Road wins are going to be almost impossible for teams to get in the league, sure it has happened but it is going to be hard. The top-tier teams have stars and are well-coached. They also are pretty complete teams without a ton of flaws. The Bottom tier of teams is struggling for a lot of reasons. Minnesota is young and does not have much depth, Northwestern is very inconsistent and they struggle to score at times, Maryland can’t score and they are breaking in a new head coach.

Iowa has massive injury problems and they have zero depth. It is the middle tier no one knows what is going to happen. Those teams can beat anyone in the league and also lose to anyone in the league. Nebraska is much improved and does deserve to be there right now given how they have played this year so far.

Rutgers has already beaten Purdue and Indiana, but they are also likely going to lose a game to Minnesota or Northwestern and make everyone scratch their heads. Michigan has a ton of talent but doesn’t play defense and doesn’t seem to be overly motivated to play every night. Penn State has a great set of guards but doesn’t know if the rest of the roster can sustain the success over the course of the season. Illinois has the most talented roster in the league but the players do not like each other and they have zero leadership.

Wisconsin is interesting because they have not really beaten anyone of note. The verdict is still out on how good they actually are. The Big Ten is a mess every season because the league is so hotly contested every year. This year is no different and there are about to be some massive upsets in that middle tier of games.