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

Actually, I claim 2011 too.  So we're up to 5 now.

Woohoo!  5-time NCs, bay-beeee!!!!!

I claim 1969 for Purdue's M*NC. 

Moon national championship 

I always razz my wife about this (Lake Forest alum).  What could have been.      I don't think she knows they were a part of all of this.  All those tennis matches she played in, she could've been a B1G champion.

The most impactful decision made in the early days of this league was the replacement of Lake Forest with Michigan in between the first discussion meeting and the charter meeting.  

The charter members were:

• Chicago
• Northwestern
• Illinois
• Purdue
• Wisconsin
• Michigan
• Minnesota

I break that down as:

• Two private Chicago-area schools (Chicago, Northwestern)
• Three large public schools geographically close to Chicago (Illinois is same state and 135 mi from downtown Chicago, Purdue is 124 mi from downtown Chicago, Wisconsin is 147 mi from downtown Chicago)
• Two large public schools a bit further from Chicago (Michigan, Minnesota, 240 and 406 mi from downtown Chicago)

If the conference had been chartered with Lake Forest instead of Michigan it would have had a very different balance.  Nearly half of the members would have been private Chicago-area schools and all but one would have been within 150 miles of downtown Chicago.  In that case I think it is likely that the conference would have developed as mostly a local, Chicago-area conference instead of the regional conference that it became.  Instead of adding Indiana and Iowa in 1899 and Ohio State in 1912 it seems more likely to me that a more Chicago-centric conference with Lake Forest instead of Michigan would have been more likely to add other Chicago-area private schools.  

Most of youse Bastages claiming unrecognized MNC'c prolly have a few Fulmer Cups to go with them 

Most of youse Bastages claiming unrecognized MNC'c prolly have a few Fulmer Cups to go with them

My opinion on claimed NCs has always been, if the NC was awarded to the team immediately after the season (or after the bowls once the wire services began doing that in the late 60s/early 70s), then you claim it.  If it's from some retroactive system that just began mathematical analysis and decided to recognize various different national champion teams from years long past, then you don't.  In an effort to "fit in" with the SEC, the Aggies just recently decided to recognize such retroactive titles from 1927 and 1919.  Not a single player from either of those two teams was alive when these national championships were "awarded" to them.  In my opinion, they are not legitimate.

However, arguing about stupid stuff like that is part of the unique, wacky craziness that is College Football.  

Marquette probably would have been considered, and Notre Dame too.

I'm sure the other six in the room were wondering what LF could have brought to the table. You had 6 schools, all with AAU in their future (UW and UC were founding members* of that, in 1900). PhD powerhouses, versus a small liberal arts school with no research goals. There was zero fit.


* This invitation is extended to the University of California, The University of Chicago, Clark University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Leland Stanford Junior University, University of Wisconsin, and Yale University.

Don't forget Texas' standing invite to the B1G/CIC.

That ship has probably sailed, unless UT and OU would leave their other 8 partners in the dust. I suppose there might be room for Kansas, if another certain member were kicked out (or voluntarily left - please!!).

But, Kansas has a lot of dirt under its fingernails right now, in their only athletic program of value.

The market forces that drove realignment in 2010 and 2011 are changing dramatically.  I don't really see any other major schools making moves at this point, there's not really any impetus to do so. It was a fun dream, though!