There was a time in college sports where things were very different and much simpler; a time when the Big Ten actually had ten teams or when other conferences made sense. The Big Ten is particular has been a beneficiary of recent realignment, jumping to 14 teams last decade before adding four more former Pac-12 members this season as well.
Now standing tall at eighteen members, the strength of the Big Ten has increased, but numbers don’t always mean a better conference. Something feels a bit more disconnected with this league, especially with most teams not playing their league opponents multiple times in a season anymore. Regardless, the 18 teams in this league have to take advantage in the twenty conference games they’re given.
College basketball is an ever changing landscape and we’ve certainly seen that in these recent times. These Big Ten schools have to adjust to NIL, the Transfer Portal, new conference mates, and other different surroundings. Building a program has never been harder with how rosters change drastically from year to year, but it makes impressive coaching jobs look even better, and we’ve certainly seen both the bad and the good this season.
With March less than a week away, and the postseason looming large for most of this conference, we’re going to take our latest crack at ranking the teams in the Big Ten. There’s no specific metric we’re using, though we’re obviously considering conference records, predictive metrics, and other measures in our conclusions. Each of these eighteen teams has been telling a story, and even the ones near the bottom of the rankings have more to tell us in the weeks ahead. Without further ado, let’s run through what we’ve learned so far about these programs.