I could hardly believe my eyes reading an email from The Athletic, as he was writing about four Big-10 teams making the Elite Eight, and he wrote...

"The basketball conference of the year: We’ve mentioned a bunch of Big Ten teams in here, haven’t we? Since 1985, this is just the fourth time a conference has taken up half the Elite Eight. Guaranteed one Final Four spot, and could have three. Pleasingly, these are all traditional Big Ten members, too. So … is this the year the B1G breaks its quarter-century championship drought (2000 Michigan State)?"

Pleasingly?

How do YOU read that? The new West Coast teams are invaders? The Vikings from the West? That only pure members, those who founded the conference count?

How much more can you diminish new conference members? Especially when we have brought so much WINNING to the Big-10?

What say YOU?

West Coast Bias is alive and well...

Yeah, I read that, too, and had that momentary thought, "Wait...what? Hey, he's referring to OBD." What a d*ck. (Not Duck.)

On a more upbeat note, maybe he was referring to Rutgers.

The resentment is strong, and the fact that Oregon won the most Big-10 championships in all sports, (considering we only have 18 of the 28 B1G sports) enhances that bias against us.

The recent baseball polls with three west coast teams on top of the B1G...

I'm not surprised. It was SC that called a lot of the shots in the Pac-8, 10, and 12.

One example was when the conference added Utah and CU, so Larry could save face after Texas told him to take a hike, and SC insisted on the Cali scheduling model so their fans wouldn't miss the annual trip to San Francisco.

(Scott adding CU and Utah and taking away SC's preferred revenue share led the way to the cratering of the Conference of Champions.)

Ohio State and Michigan have called the shots in the Big Ten since its inception. Other teams on occasion made their mark on the field, including Indiana, which went to the Rose Bowl in 1967, and garnered well-deserved publicity over the last two seasons, but the rivalry game between the Buckeyes and the Wolverines is called The Game for a reason; it is the most-watched Big Ten game year after year.

The two programs with the most wins in CFB history: 1 Michigan, 2 Ohio State.

When the general public thinks of Big Ten football, it's the games played in the Big House and the Horseshoe that are on the public's mind. Oregon's 2024 conference title and Indiana's conference and national championships in 2025 have not changed the overall perception.

While fierce rivals, the two programs have been in unison on almost all B1G things. Michigan's holding out on the private capital deal was the exception. USC joining Michigan in its objection to Petitti's fundraising, if noted at all, was treated like an afterthought.

If CFB goes to a 32-team CFB Super Conference, you can bet that the B1G Two will have more influence than OBD and USC.

Even when the Patriots were on their Brady roll, Jerry Jones and not Robert Kraft was the media's NFL go-to guy.

When the Pac-12 legacy schools win national titles in football and men's basketball, they may move up in the pecking order, but they will not surpass Michigan and Ohio State in the Big Ten's pecking order, even if the titles are won by the Ducks.

All animals are equal, except for Wolverines (and Buckeyes 🤔) that are more equal.

2 hours ago, Charles Fischer said:

That only pure members, those who founded the conference count?

As my coworker (Michigan fan) is all too happy to bring up about the "Couch Burning" Michigan State fans that their membership could theoretically be revoked at any time if the University of Chicago would want to rejoin the B1G. Apparently Chicago put some contingency plans into their leaving the conference if they ever wanted to return and MSU only got in in part because Chicago left.

At least that's the story my coworker tells. I have not been interested enough to independently verify.

I read it as “from the original 10” which allows for a non-inflated, apples to apples comparison to what happened in 1985.

Almost nobody thinks Rutgers, Nebraska, or Maryland when someone says B1G. I still have to remind myself Maryland isn’t in the ACC and that happened 12 years ago.

There is definitely bias against anyone added after PSU imo, but I don’t think it’s a west coast thing. We might not be as special to everyone else as we think we should be.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by JabbaNoBargain

3 minutes ago, David Marsh said:

As my coworker (Michigan fan) is all too happy to bring up about the "Couch Burning" Michigan State fans that their membership could theoretically be revoked at any time if the University of Chicago would want to rejoin the B1G. Apparently Chicago put some contingency plans into their leaving the conference if they ever wanted to return and MSU only got in in part because Chicago left.

At least that's the story my coworker tells. I have not been interested enough to independently verify.

Chicago dropped football in 1939 because the game was becoming too professional. 🤑

I don't expect we'll see Phil the Phoenix, the University of Chicago mascot so named after Chicago recovered from the Great Fire of 1871, on the Maroons football sideline anytime soon.

In 1898, Michigan's 12-11 victory over Chicago, which won the conference title for the Wolverines, led to Michigan music student Louis Elbel composing 'The Victors,' praising Michigan for being the Victors Valiant, the Conquering Heroes, and the Champions of the West.

Chicago, under coach Amos Alonzo Stagg, was a national power in football. In 41 seasons at Chicago (1892-1932), the Yale All-American went 244-211-27. Referred to as 'the father of modern football,' Stagg's innovations included the huddle, man-in-motion, and numbers on the jersey.

Stagg is behind only Kirk Ferentz and Woody Hayes in the number of career wins, 314 wins over 57 years of coaching.

When college football was king, and the pros a barnstorming afterthought, the University of Chicago was one of the top programs in the sport.

No matter how successful a modern program may be, including Nick Saban's terrific run at Bama, you cannot match this kind of tradition and the influence that echoes into today.

Travel eastward, and the further you get, the deeper and stronger the pull of old tradition grows. And, by comparison, B1G bias pales the further east you get (how’d they accept us in the Ivy League?), and the south is on a completely different planet.

Pretty simple formula: the less time you’ve spent together, the less time you’ve had to develop bad habits.

Give them 20 years and maybe we’ll get a few smiles. Prefer being west.

"I read it as “from the original 10” which allows for a non-inflated, apples to apples comparison to what happened in 1985."

That's the way I read it too. IF the women's Elite 8 includes Texas and Oklahoma they would be non-legacy. Of course, they have to beat Kentucky and S. Carolina (not likely for OU). Though S. Carolina didn't join the SEC until 1991.

I think the writer may have just been expressing the general Big Ten malaise in recent years has been overcome this season by old members. Didn't have to rely upon new members.