The Big Ten West has long been thought of as “the other division” of the Big Ten. Since the conference realigned in 2014, no team from the West division has won the Big Ten Championship and, in fact, the gap between the two divisions appears to be growing.
In the two most recent championship games, the Michigan Wolverines outscored their opponents —Iowa and Purdue— by a combined score of 85-25. So, how does the Big Ten West catch up to the East to at least command respectability?
It starts at the top with the hiring of Matt Rhule to Nebraska and Luke Fickell to Wisconsin.