Big Ten Team Conference Record by Decade and 8 Key Insights

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I thought it would be cool to look at all Big Ten team’s histories by decade going back to 1970 – what I would call the “modern era” of college football. There are lots of different perceptions out there on how good a particular program is. And many are not familiar with the history of teams going back more than 15 or 20 years. And that might be especially the case for the schools added to the Big Ten through the years like the Pac 12 schools, Nebraska, Maryland, etc.

I feel understanding team’s histories is also helpful in understanding what future expectations might be reasonable for any team. Although in some cases throwing out the history may make more sense like for Oregon and Indiana. We will be covering team expectations in future podcasts.

Note: This article’s tables and data below supports my “Big Jeff’s Football Insights” weekly Thursday Podcasts on @TheBigTenNetwork from June 19 providing the verbal explanation of all this info and drawing some Key Insights. See Link Below. You can access the weekly podcasts via YouTube or X, so please subscribe.

Who Was the Best Big Ten Team Each Decade? | Big Jeff’s Football Insights

Key Insights from Team Record by Decade

There are some key insights we can draw from this data. This list is not exhaustive but here are 8 things that really stand out.

Ohio State is clearly the most dominant program in the Big Ten and most consistent, but Michigan is also easily 2nd best – since 1970 (see Table 1), OSU had not had a decade under a 70% conference win rate and are at 81% overall since 1970; Michigan is at 76% overall and had the best Big Ten conference records in the 80’s and 90’s but OSU has been better in conference since the 2000’s.
The Big Ten is still too “top heavy” and overly reliant on traditional bluebloods Ohio State and MIchigan if they want to claim they are the best conference – looking at data from the 2020’s only (in Table 2 below), OSU and UM are a combined 70-14 for an 84% win rate, and there are just 6 of 18 Big Ten teams with a winning conference record in the 2020’s , leaving 12 teams under .500. The mid-tier teams need to step up more. This is reflected not just in these records but also if you would look at their data in recruiting and generating NFL draft picks.
This is why the addition of the four Pac 12 teams in 2024 was HUGE for the Big Ten in challenging SEC supremacy – looking at Table 3 below, which integrates conference records for teams before they joined the Big Ten show the four new Pac 12 teams (Oregon, USC, UCLA, Washington) all pretty consistently win with all 4 ranked in the Top 8 of the 18 Big Ten teams in conference win rate. The Big Ten really did get the 4 best programs from that conference and all of them have shown they are capable of having very strong periods of winning (example UCLA had a 72% win rate in the 1980s and 68% in the 70’s.
Oregon has a chance to join Blueblood like status and should be a consistent threat to win a National Title most years – they are the only program here (see Table 3) who have increased their win rate every decade from 1970 with a paltry 29% conference win rate in the 70’s up to 81% so far in the 2020’s. They have not broken through yet but are very close.
The decline of Nebraska is truly shocking – from Table 3, Nebraska at one time was the most dominant program of it’s era with an amazing 90%-win rate across the two decades of the 1980’s and 1990’s under Tom Osborne. Since then it’s been a steady decline to the current status of the Cornhusers being in the “Bad Tier” of Big Ten teams, with only a 30% conference win rate in the 2020’s – second to last only to Rutgers.
Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz gets a lot of criticism from many who say he needs to retire but Iowa is winning more now than they have going back to 1970 – table 2 shows Iowa is winning at a 69% rate in conference in the 2020’s good for 4th place in the conference, even better than Penn State’s 67%. How many would have guessed that? Plus, Table 3 shows that 69% is the best win rate of any decade since 1970. Even better than Hayden Fry’s 68%-win rate in the 1980s.
Schools that were once terrible can change their fortunes with the right coach – three good examples (table 3) are Northwestern, Indiana and Illinois. First Northwestern was the worst program in college football in the 1980’s with a 15% conference win rate. Then Gary Barnett led them to the Rose Bowl in 1995 and changed the perception of what is capable at the school. Curt Cignetti is doing the same at Indiana after 5 decades of winning no better than 36% (in the 1980’s) in the Big Ten and putting IU in the playoffs and a potential pre-season Top 25 in 2025. Third is Illinois and Bret Bielema changing the Illini status from really bad to potentially really good moving forward.
Wisconsin’s performance under Luke Fickell is a huge surprise and bad for the Big 10 – speaking of the importance of mid-tier programs. Wisconsin has regressed under Fickell and that needs to change. Would you have guessed that the program with the second-best conference winning rate in the 2010’s was the Badgers at 76%? Even better than Michigan and Penn State. It’s why the Badgers win rate of 50% so far in the 2020’s due to Fickell’s poor first two years in Madison is so surprising – especially since many considered him the best hire of that year’s hiring cycle.