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If you had Lake Forest, the original league would have looked similar to the ACC with all those NC schools clustered (Wake was in that cluster before moving to Winston-Salem).

of course

Academics? Lol. 

They could have added Stanford and Cal for free, and took a hard pass. 

It's all about football brands and ratings at this point. They are making TV events. 

they've tried to add ND & UT

had to settle

Again, Stanford said no to sharing academics with the B1G, they cut themselves out.

I have no inside knowledge and I know nothing but that sure sounds like B. S. to me. 

B1G-W:
As I said elsewhere, if Wisconsin beats Iowa this weekend, you can pretty much write in "Badgers" as the B1G-W representative in Indianapolis.  An Iowa win would put the Hawkeyes in the driver's seat, but they would be less assured than a victorious Wisconsin. 

B1G-E:
I just can't see how Maryland can recover from the loss to tOSU to get in this race.  They simply aren't as good as the Big Three so they needed to take advantage when they were in the game after halftime and they just couldn't do it. 

That brings us the the Big Three and it is pretty simple.  If one of them can sweep the other two, they are in even if they do lose an upset somewhere else.  If not then either whoever loses in an upset is out and the winner of the other two goes or else the final and most interesting possibility:

If #2 Michigan, #3 Ohio State, and #6 Penn State all finish 11-1/8-1 then the team that goes to the B1GCG will be the team whose B1G-W opponents have the best cumulative league record.  As of right now that stands at:

4-4 Ohio State:

• 2-0 Wisconsin
• 1-2 Minnesota
• 1-2 Purdue

3-6 Michigan:

• 1-2 Nebraska
• 1-2 Minnesota
• 1-2 Purdue

3-6 Penn State:

• 2-1 Iowa
• 1-2 Northwestern
• 0-3 Illinois

Northwestern's upset win over Minnesota is the only thing keeping Penn State even in this race.  Had Minnesota won that game the Buckeyes' opponents would be 5-3, the Wolverines' would be 4-5, and Penn States' would be 2-7. 

The Buckeyes are big Badger fans this weekend because a Wisconsin win helps tOSU AND hurts PSU. 

A good day for PSU today as far as the tiebreaker goes

You would think Iowa would be the clear frontrunner in the West right now,  but I don't trust Iowa to run the table.  Iowa has that special ability to win when the stats say it shouldn't by winning games with defense, special teams,  field position, and takeaways.  One thing it clearly does not need is a passing game. Although Iowa should still consider switching QB's.

But the whole key to Iowa's success is not to fall 2 scores behind.  If Iowa has a couple turnovers early and falls behind 10-0,  they can't catch up with its offense.  Although Iowa did come back from down 16-10 to MSU,  but the offense did not do that.  Iowa could lose at leaat once and maybe twice more.

In the end the West winner will probably have 3 losses again.  Wisc still has to play OSU and will get upset again.  Nobody else is good enough to win out.