Through the first three weeks of this college basketball season, the general consensus was that the Big Ten is a much-improved league. Coming off a dreadful 2017–18 season in which it sent only four teams to the NCAA tournament, the conference roared to a strong start, exhibiting both strength at the top and surprising depth. Michigan crushed Villanova on the road, Iowa won the 2K Classic, Michigan State won the Las Vegas Invitational—when Cyber Monday rolled around, there were seven Big Ten teams in the AP top 25 and three more receiving votes.
It couldn’t hold on to the victory (blame Purdue for that), but the league’s collective performance in tying the ACC-Big Ten Challenge 7–7 this week did nothing to dispel the notion that it has returned to its place as one of the two or three best conferences in the country.