"Winning consistently in the Big Ten is not easy..."

[WestTexasGopher]

In a recent The Daily Gopher article (http://www.thedailygopher.com/2015/10/19/9562211/minnesota-golden-gopher-football-monday-perspective-asks-for-patience-jerry-kill-hot-seat), GopherNation wrote about patience. I agree with most of what he said.

He also noted that it is hard to win consistently in the Big 10. I wondered how often in the past several years teams have been average+ consistently (in consecutive seasons) and average or below average consistently (in consecutive seasons).

Below are the B1G wins for teams going back 11 years (from '04-'14. I was too lazy to go further). The last figure is the avg. yearly # of B1G wins over that period of time. I'm not sure if the data indicate it is hard to win consistently in the B1G or not. What do y'all think?

Some thoughts-

• IA, WI, NEB, PSU, and OSU did not have consecutive seasons of "below mediocrity". These 5 teams are consistently "average+".
• MSU & MI have won a lot over the 11 years but have had some stretches where they were "below average".
• Over these past 11 years, only NW, the Gophers, PUR, ILL, and IN have failed to average 4+ B1G wins per season. The rest are "above average" over that period.
• The Gophers and Indiana have had to endure the longest stretches of "below mediocrity".
• We are currently riding our longest (2 years!) "average+" B1G stretch since 2004

OSU 8 8 8 3 7 7 7 7 8 7 4 6.73
WI 7 6 4 6 7 5 3 5 7 5 6 5.55
Neb 5 5 7 5 X X X X X X X 5.50
PSU 2 4 6 6 4 6 7 4 5 7 2 4.82
MSU 7 8 3 7 7 4 6 3 1 2 4 4.73
MI 3 3 6 6 3 1 2 6 7 5 7 4.45
IA 4 5 2 4 4 6 5 4 2 5 7 4.36
NW 3 1 5 3 3 5 5 3 2 5 5 3.64
MN 5 4 2 2 2 3 3 0 3 4 3 2.82
Pur 1 0 3 4 2 4 2 3 5 3 4 2.82
ILL 3 1 0 2 4 2 3 6 1 0 1 2.10
IN 1 3 2 0 1 1 1 3 3 1 1 1.55


Not below average for long (Consecutive seasons w/o .500 or better conference record)
11-Indiana (’04-’14)
7-Gophers (’05-’12)
3-MI (’08-’10)

3-MSU (’05-07)
3-PUR (’12-‘14)
0-IA
0-WI
0-NEB
0-PSU
0-OSU


Total seasons at or above .500
OSU-10
WI-10
PSU-9
IA-9
MSU-7
MI-6
NW-5
NEB-4
PUR-4
MN-3
ILL-2
IN-0


Consistently average+ (Consecutive seasons at or above .500)
9-PSU ('05-'13)
7-OSU ('04-'10)
6-WI (’09-'14)
5-IA ('07-'11)
4-MI (’04-'07)
4-NEB ('11-'14)
4-MSU ('08-'11)
2-NW (twice)
2-MN ('13-'14)
0-PUR
0-ILL
0-IN

 

[MNGoldenGophers1]

After reading go gophers rah thread about our ineptitude beating end of season top 25 teams, this not only helps explain why but has put me in the dry heaving phase of being a gopher fan. Will the 50-year and counting hangover ever stop?

 

[Gophers09]

Thanks West Tex - that's some interesting data you've compiled.

 

[WestTexasGopher]

It seems to me that our current level has raised (rightly so!) our expectations from the "below mediocre" level we've been at since 2004. Thus our frustration about things. We've tasted 4 and 5 B1G win seasons as of late and are hungry for more. I get it, but I think I still buy GopherNation's basic point in his article. I had a professor who was fond of answering the question "How long will it take to dig out of this hole?" with the question "How long did it take to dig it?". Perhaps not always in every case on a one-to-one basis (see examples like WI who went from "below mediocre" to well above average as a program.

Think about WI- in the pre-Alvarez years their program was extraordinarily average and below (going back to the late '60's). Even Alvarez had a 3 year "below mediocre" phase until his aberration of a Rose Bowl 1993 year. That was immediately followed by B1G records of 4-3-1 , 3-4-1, 3-5, 5-3, hardly earth shattering success. Only then did they hit a phase of relative B1G success that they've been enjoying until now.

We have a very deep hole (one could argue that recently only Indiana has experienced more "below mediocre" football than have we (how painful a sentence that is to type out). Last time we had back-to-back "above mediocre" B1G seasons was '99-'00 Mason's 3rd and 4th years. It will take time to dig out. More than 5 years? Probably.

Patience, my friends.