Back to the title of the thread and OP.
Look how perfectly the 2022 Big Ten West was set up for Minnesota to win the division.
- Nebraska is historically bad
- Iowa and Wisconsin started the year out, and still largely are, as bad as they've been since the West was formed
- we had owned Purdue and Brohm going into this year
- NW could end up with 1 win, for the first time in a very long time/ever?
- Illinois is in year 2 of a new coach
- @ Penn St is tough, but @ MSU ended up being easy and Rutgers was easy. 2 out of 3 from the East is usually as good as it gets.
It was never going to get better set up for us to win the division, than this.
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We weren't going to win the Illinois and Penn State games. Just wasn't going to happen.
But we easily could've won the Purdue and Iowa games. With momentum from a nice win yesterday, we roll into Madison. 10-2 is an awesome regular season and easily wins the division.
Nope. We're looking at 7-5 or if we somehow turn it around and keep the axe 8-4.
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We'll never have this opportunity again. Divisions are going away, so we'll have to compete directly with USC, Ohio St, Michigan, Penn St, and all the rest to win the conference.
Tough to see Minnesota ever getting a trophy from the Big Ten, again.
College football doesn't distribute talent in any kind of way that even comes close to resembling "fair". The talent you need to win the Big Ten, is almost never going to choose to come to Minneapolis, Minnesota. No matter who the coach is or what "culture" is installed.
And the few blue-chips that do grow up in the Cities, want out.