In order to win the conference title, we must have no more than 1 loss in conference play against the big schools. Obviously that list includes Penn St, Ohio St, and Michigan, but I will also add Iowa -- since we seem to struggle against them. Mich St, Wisconsin, and Illinois are all comparable to us, but we'll assume wins if we're worthy of a conference title.
That said, here's how they pit the next few years:
2010: PSU, OSU, Iowa at home. No Mich. -- This is favorable.
2011: PSU at home. OSU, Iowa, Mich on the road. -- Not gonna happen.
2012: OSU, Iowa, Mich at home. PSU on the road. -- This is doable.