Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Oregon fans likely cared.  Fans are more enthused when they can aspire to winning the conference, IMHO.

It maybe isn't as bad in the B1G as history could suggest, as fan bases at Oregon and PSU can realistically aspire to winning the conference, along with OSU/UM.  USC at least has some historical cred along with Nebraska, and one could see teams like Iowa/Minn/Ill/Ind creeping into the mix these days.  

fOregon won the B1G last year.

Does anyone care?

I honestly didn't remember who won the B1G last year.  I knew it wasn't tOSU or Michigan but I thought it was Indiana or Illinois or some surprise team like that.

I only gave two choices, and you chose both. I presumed it wasn't the Buckeyes.

The Buckeyes weren't great at the time but they were far from dreadful.  There is a bit of a misstatement in here because @Brutus Buckeye said that Northwestern played "a few" OSU home games in the Browns stadium" but it was actually only one.  The other two neutral site games between tOSU and Northwestern were the 2018 and 2020 B1G Championship Games in Indianapolis.  

The one tOSU/NU neutral site regular season game was on October 19, 1991 in Cleveland.  That was during their dreadful phase and right before they finally improved.  Northwestern had back-to-back winning seasons in 1970 and 1971 but unfortunately for them that was before the league allowed non-champions to play in bowls.  Also, those good seasons were the exception for them, not the rule.  Prior to going 6-4 in 1970 they had six consecutive losing seasons from 1964-1969.  After the winning seasons in 1970 and 1971 they went 23 seasons (1972-1994) without a winning record.  During that time they were winless in:

• 1978 0-10-1
• 1980 0-11
• 1981 0-11
• 1989 0-11

In the six seasons from 1976-1981 they won three games, 3-62-1.  

For their part, the Buckeyes were good but not great at that time.  1991 was the fifth consecutive season of four or more losses for the Buckeyes.  For most programs that wouldn't be all that unusual but for Ohio State I'm nearly certain that the five seasons from 1987-1991 is the only such streak in program history or at least since WWI.  

Winning the B1G now, more than ever, is all about schedule.

I've been banging this drum since the expansion to 18.  @Mdot21 LOVES to point out that Ohio State finished 4th in the B1G last year and that is fair, I'd do the same thing if the roles were reversed but it is also incredibly misleading.  Ohio State played the other three top-4 teams with two of those games being on the road and ended up with:

• A road loss by a single point
• A solid road win
• A blowout home win

The other three, the ONLY top-4 game for each of them was when they had to play Ohio State.  

Wisconsin's schedule is brutal this year.  I don't know if Fickell is the right guy in Madison but it would be unfair to him to not take SoS into account when evaluating his performance at the end of this year.