BleedGopher
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Per Scott:
But Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti doesn’t avoid the spotlight and doesn’t mince words about his team and the conference. Not only has the Big Ten won the last three national titles, but six of its members have reached, at least, the semifinals within the last three seasons, with Washington (2023), Penn State (2024) and Oregon (2025) joining the champs. The Huskies were still in the Pac-12 at the time of their appearance, which culminated in a CFP title game loss to Michigan.
“The results speak for themselves,” Cignetti said this week. “Those are facts.”
The Big Ten has come a long way from its overrated past, when Ohio State waved the banner and the rest of the league barely kept up. At the end of the 2006 and 2007 seasons, the Buckeyes lost BCS Championship Games decisively to Florida and then LSU, the start of seven consecutive titles for the SEC through 2012. Ohio State’s 2014 title in the first year of the four-team College Football Playoff gave the league an adrenaline shot, but the Big Ten won only one CFP game after that until Michigan broke through in 2023.
It wasn’t until players could receive payment for their name, image and likeness beginning in 2021 that the Big Ten started to assert itself again. This football season was the first during which schools could provide payment directly to athletes, and each of the Big Ten’s 18 members planned to spend to the $20.5 million cap across all sports. Most schools allocate much of that revenue sharing to football, which has facilitated an influx of elite transfers who have spurred the Big Ten to heightened success.
www.nytimes.com
Go Gophers!!
But Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti doesn’t avoid the spotlight and doesn’t mince words about his team and the conference. Not only has the Big Ten won the last three national titles, but six of its members have reached, at least, the semifinals within the last three seasons, with Washington (2023), Penn State (2024) and Oregon (2025) joining the champs. The Huskies were still in the Pac-12 at the time of their appearance, which culminated in a CFP title game loss to Michigan.
“The results speak for themselves,” Cignetti said this week. “Those are facts.”
The Big Ten has come a long way from its overrated past, when Ohio State waved the banner and the rest of the league barely kept up. At the end of the 2006 and 2007 seasons, the Buckeyes lost BCS Championship Games decisively to Florida and then LSU, the start of seven consecutive titles for the SEC through 2012. Ohio State’s 2014 title in the first year of the four-team College Football Playoff gave the league an adrenaline shot, but the Big Ten won only one CFP game after that until Michigan broke through in 2023.
It wasn’t until players could receive payment for their name, image and likeness beginning in 2021 that the Big Ten started to assert itself again. This football season was the first during which schools could provide payment directly to athletes, and each of the Big Ten’s 18 members planned to spend to the $20.5 million cap across all sports. Most schools allocate much of that revenue sharing to football, which has facilitated an influx of elite transfers who have spurred the Big Ten to heightened success.
With three-peat in hand, the Big Ten has shifted the conference bragging rights battle
The Big Ten may lack for public cheerleaders at the conference exec level, but its programs are letting the results do the talking.
www.nytimes.com
Go Gophers!!
