I don't know how much conference pride the rest of you have. If you look at the main CSNBBS NCAA Men's Tournament threads, the Big Ten is getting killed. They're saying the teams were overrated, didn't deserve the seeds they got, didn't deserve nine teams in the tournament, etc. As an alum of two Big Ten schools, I'm pretty PO'ed at this, especially since one of those two schools, Illinois, is one of the schools that lost, and Illinois got the abuse as bad as any Big Ten school (Ohio State probably got it the worst for obvious reasons). I'm not saying it wasn't justified. The schools lost the games and deserve the criticism for that. I think the overrated part is not justified, the seeds are based on the regular season and everyone thought the Big Ten schools were the best in the country including the NET, the AP, and the coaches. Top players such as Ayo Dosunmu, Koki Cockburn, and Luka Garza received national attention and are candidates for top awards. Before the NCAA Tournament, Big Ten Tournament games were the most watched TV games of the season, beating the perennially top watched Duke/North Carolina games. And Big Ten teams, while not having won a national championship since 2002 if you count Maryland's and 2000 if you don't, have traditionally done well in the NCAA Men's Tournament. When other fans rip the Big Ten, I take it personally, especially since they ripped one of my schools. Even if Michigan wins the national championship, the word I get from the comments is it won't make up for the rest of the conference.
From 2010-2019, the Big 10 is the 2nd best team in the NCAA Tournament in most measures. Same with 2000-2019.
https://www.bloggingthebracket.com/2019/...tournament
The exception is national championships. The SEC, Big 12, and Big East have more (then again the Big 12 has just one since 2000). The data here include Connecticut as an AAC member, I'd have to redo it with UConn as a Big East member. But as "bad" as the Big Ten is, we can always look at one conference and say hey we're not as bad as they are!
So if you're a "conference pride" person, Tuesday's game between Michigan and UCLA means everything. If the Big Ten can't even be better than the Pathetic 12, then we're the bottom of the P6, the laughing stock of college sports. Do you really want Oregon State and Washington State laughing at us? It's one thing to have the ACC laughing at us. We're not supposed to be better than the ACC in men's basketball when they have Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, Syracuse, etc. The SEC can say what they want but take Kentucky out of their conference and they're a mid major. If the Pathetic 12 is a better basketball conference than us, we should quit basketball altogether, especially if their doormats are making the Final Four. Imagine if the Pac-12 wins the national championship this year and all of a sudden the Big 10 is the joke conference that can't win a national championship.
Don't care? You're a football fan? Well the Big Ten was shut out of the College Football Playoff twice in the last four years. Did you enjoy that? The Pac-12 was shut out since Washington made it in 2016. Why do you think they have the worst TV ratings of all? Yes, time zone differences and late night games contribute but winning cures everything. If USC in 2021 was USC during the Reggie Bush era, people in LA (heck people in Philly) would be watching. If teams win, TV ratings go up and TV contract values go up. If more fans out west (or nationally) demanded the Pac-12 Network, it would have more coverage. People demanded the ACC Network, SEC Network, and Big Ten Network because they had teams worth watching. If Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan become USC, UCLA, and Washington and no one else in the conference can pick up the slack, the Big Ten ratings will go down, future Big Ten contract values could go down, and your school could have less money in the future. Who knows, maybe the top Big Ten schools get picked off by other conferences. How do you prevent this from happening? Big Ten schools have to WIN! That starts Tuesday night.
GO MICHIGAN!