B1G Favortism Scale…and why PSU fans should lower their expectations

[Nittering Nabob]

It’s no secret that the B1G bureaucracy loves certain teams over others. Even when the conference was actually comprised of 10 teams it was evident that there was a tiered hierarchy of member schools.

Now that the conference has expanded from 10 teams to 18 teams, I thought it would be interesting to post the new hierarchy. As with the original B1G, the current teams are subdivided into semi-quintiles (5 tiers) as dictated by the “league office”.

Preference (which extends into game officiating) is awarded to longtime conference favorites and sexy new kids in town.

Are you ready?

Tier 1 (Old Faithful)

Ohio State
Michigan

Tier 2 (New Kids albeit stepchildren relative to Tier 1)

Oregon
USC

Tier 3 (Original B1G teams with some pedigree which the conference leadership desires to keep subordinated relative to Tiers 1 and 2)

Iowa (they like, but don’t love Ferentz)

Illinois (they like Beilema because of his B1G pedigree)

Wisconsin (Barry insisted they be included, but they don’t listen to him much these days).

Tier 4 (mostly comprised of underachieving original B1G teams and recent entrants the B1G really wants to keep subordinated…almost enslaved to Tiers 1-3)

Penn State
Michigan State
Nebraska
Minnesota
Indiana

Tier 5 (useful for conference academic and geographical diversity metrics)

Washington
Northwestern
UCLA
Maryland
Rutgers
Purdue

 

[PSUFTG]

There can, IMO, clearly be a case made for regular systemic "red-headed-stepchild" treatment of PSU in the first decade or so of PSU's entrance into the Big Ten. While PSU was the lone (and largely unwanted) interloper into the Big Ten's GOB network.

But that faded in time - and as the expansion into this giant globular conference went on.

If the calls in the PSU - USC game last year had been reversed, large chunks of the PSU fan base would have been apoplectic.

Most fans watch games with blinders wrapped tightly around their heads - especially vav "officiating". It is what it is.

 

[Nits1989]

Adidas must not have been aware of PSU’s standing.