Can North Carolina Finish the Job? Or Will the Big Ten Break Through?
After all that has happened in college football this year, I would have hoped that the Big Ten would be the national football power it has been all season. In fact, there is a good argument to be made that the Big Ten has emerged as the national power of college football. With the league’s recent streak of five undefeated seasons, the conference looks to be on a roll at the moment.
Last season, the Big Ten finished with three straight winning seasons for the first time in its history. There were a couple of close losses, and some big wins as well, but the Big Ten overall, as a conference, was very competitive for most of the season. The Big Ten had a better conference record than the other conferences in the country. It dominated the SEC, with two straight top-five national finishes, out-rushing the SEC in total offense by over 200 yards. The Big Ten’s win total was fourth-best nationally, while the SEC’s loss total was second-worst.
In order, the Big Ten’s three losses were out of conference. Two were to teams from the conference’s own Big Ten, while one was to a team from the Pac-12. The two conference losses were to Big Ten foes Michigan State and Penn State, and Big Ten teams Michigan and Nebraska, respectively. The only games against an SEC opponent that the Big Ten lost were Tennessee-Arkansas and Ohio State-Missouri, both wins for Tennessee. The overall conference winning percentage of the Big Ten was.872. That was a little lower than the.887 winning percentage of the SEC and the.904 winning percentage of the Big 12.
The Big Ten also had the second best season in the history of college football, according to the College Football Data Warehouse. As a conference, the Big Ten had at least one win against every FBS team and had 13 of its 14 teams finish with a winning record. This was a new record for the Big Ten, as the 2012 season had only been the conference’s fifth year.
The Big Ten also has a winning conference record for the first time since 1999, when the Big Ten won eight consecutive games out of conference. The Big 12 Conference had won at least six conference games in eleven of the previous fourteen seasons. In 2013, six Big Ten teams won a conference game, while the Big 12 had nine winning teams,
