Judging the conferences
Have always felt the best way to measure a conference's strength is how the middle and upper-tier teams perfrom in their bowl games. Any team that finished .500 or better in its league, that's fine, but I tend to ignore teams that finished below .500 in their league. Win or lose their games, the Big Ten should not be judged on how the Badgers and Gophers perform in their bowls. Both were 3-5. Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State, Iowa & Northwestern will determine the national perception of the Big 10. They're the middle and upper crust.
Hope I'm wrong, but I think Iowa is the only one that will come out with a victory, maybe OSU. I can see JoePa, Sparty and NW all getting crushed.