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

Yeah, but I'm not really talking about that far back. I'm more or less referring to the period after the 70's, even really the 80's and into the 90's.  And I'm only speaking about my own observations, mainly from watching college football shows and interacting with fans on these boards.  And, I might add really, I didn't realize the Rose bowl was such a big deal to Big 10 fans.  I knew it was considered an important bowl game, but never really considered the importance WRT conference champions like you show in your list.  Maybe because I didn't follow CFB until bowl season was already diluted and there was just so many damn bowl games that none seemed really important. 

Up until 1998, the Rose Bowl was the ultimate prize and priority for the Big Ten coaches, players and fans - win or lose. The BCS changed some things, but the Rose was still very important. Then they playoff happened. Less important. Now there is no PAC-? and so it is meaningless to most everyone.

No, not really. This isn't an exact parallel with being the best due to tiebreakers, the no-repeat rule, and the longest loser tiebreaker but the Big Ten/Pac Ten Rose Bowl agreement started just after WWII for the 1946 season. In the 22 seasons from 1946-1967 here we're the Big Ten's Rose Bowl representatives (going by game year)

• 3 Illinois, 3-0, 47, 52, 64
• 3 Michigan, 3-0, 48, 51, 65
• 3 Ohio State, 3-0, 50, 55, 58
• 3 Michigan State, 2-1, 54, 56, 66
• 3 Wisconsin, 0-3, 53, 60, 63
• 2 Iowa, 2-0, 57, 59
• 2 Minnesota, 1-1, 60, 61
• 1 Northwestern, 1-0, 49
• 1 Purdue, 1-0, 67
• 1 Indiana, 0-1, 68

So in 22 years all 10 teams went with eight (all but UW and IU) winning at least once. Ohio State and Michigan had three appearances each which was tied for the lead but it wasn't a dominating lead as IL, MSU, and UW also had three appearances each.


The "Big Two / Little Eight" thing basically started with 1968.

If you look at it based on league titles (includes co-championships and does NOT include RB appearances without a league title), it looks a little more slanted toward tOSU/M but still not at the level that most people would describe as "domination" prior to 1968.  Here are league titles from 1946-1967:

• 5 Michigan:  64, 50, 49, 48, 47 (Note that Michigan was dominant in the immediate post-war period but then faded and more-or-less sucked for the better part of two decades prior to hiring Bo).  
• 5 Ohio State:  61, 57, 55, 54, 49
• 4 Illinois:  63, 53, 51, 46
• 3 UW:  62, 59, 52
• 3 IA:  60, 58, 56
• 3 MSU:  66, 65, 53
• 2 Minnesota:  67, 60
• 2 Purdue:  67, 52
• 1 Indiana:  67
• 0 Northwestern (NU had a RB appearance without having a league title because the Wildcats finished second to repeat-champion Michigan in the 1948 season and the Big Ten had a no-repeat rule that made Michigan ineligible for the RB).  

Ohio State and Michigan each "only" had five league titles in the 22 years from 1946-1967 but it didn't take them long to match that starting in 1968:

• Ohio State had five in six years from 1968-1973
• Michigan has five in six years from 1969-1974

When MSU split a title with Michigan in 1978 (MSU lost the tiebreaker) that was the first time since 1967 that any team not named tOSU or Michigan had won even a  share of a league title.  

When Illinois won an outright title in 1983 it was the first time since 1967 that neither Michigan nor Ohio State had won at least a share of the league.  

From 1968 through 1986 Ohio State had 13 titles, Michigan had 11, and the entire rest of the league combined had four.  

Look at it one more way:
In the 1950's and 1960's the Big Ten had THREE stretches of three consecutive years in which neither tOSU nor Michigan won a league title:
1951-1953:

• IL in 51
• UW and PU in 52
• IL and MSU in 53

1958-1960:

• IA in 58
• UW in 59
• MN and IA in 60

1965-1967:

• MSU in 65
• MSU in 66
• MN, PU, and IU in 67

Since then that has only happened once, the four years from 2010-2013 but that is only because tOSU had to vacate their co-championship from 2010 and was ineligible for the CG in 2012 for the same infraction.  

I know YOU know this, but I'll add mostly for @Gigem that prior to the mid-1970's the Big Ten had a rule that the ONLY bowl a league team could go to was the Rose Bowl so even the VERY good non-champions from the league simply did NOT bowl.  Additionally, until around the same time they had a "no repeat" rule so some of our champions didn't even go to a bowl.  Michigan, for example, won an NC in 1948 but DID NOT go to the 1949 Rose Bowl because they had gone to the 1948 Rose Bowl after winning the 1947 league title so they were ineligible based on the "no repeat" rule and Northwestern went in their place. 

The Rose Bowl was HUMONGOUS for us in part because for a LONG time it was the ONLY bowl for a Big Ten team. 

On top of that, the Big Ten dominated the Rose Bowl in the early years of the Big Ten / Pac Ten agreement and frequently the winner was the national Champion.  Looking, for example, at Woody, his first three Rose Bowls were each wins and each of the three resulted in an NC for the Buckeyes.  Back then when Ohio State fans said that the goals were to 1) Beat Michigan, 2) win the Big Ten, 3) win the Rose Bowl, and 4) win the National Championship those four things were more-or-less just different ways of saying the same thing. 

I kinda knew this vaguely, but thanks for the explanation.  

Rose Bowl was like all the B1G teams cared about until the BCS and CCG upset that apple cart a little bit and then the playoff basically destroyed the apple cart.

Rose Bowl > Super Bowl until like yesterday, if B1G fans are to be believed.

The 70s:
Big Ten:  UM and/or OSU all 10 years, with MSU a share 1 season
SEC:  Bama 8 out of 10 years
SWC:  Texas 6, with UH and Ark getting a pair each
Big 8:  UNL or OU all 10 years, shared with others in '76
PAC-8:  USC 6, Stanford 2
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The whole decade was an annual blueblood convention in the top 10 each year.  Add to that ND being a top 15 team in 8 of the 10 years, with 2 NCs.....and yeah.  
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The problem with what may transpire now is that all those big-boy programs separate, but don't have the have-nots to fatten up on.  They'll all feast on each other and it will create a new bell curve, with some pretty sexy programs on the wrong end.

No 9-7 team ever won a Rose Bowl.

Give it time.

well I mean before BCS and CCGs and expansion and playoffs there was no real way of crowning a national title.....I mean look at Nebraska and Michigan in '97, they didn't get to play. The natty was out of your control, even if you ran the table back then. So the only thing that was actually obtainable within your own control for the B1G teams was the Rose Bowl. And before the divisions/CCG's there was no way for Northwestern or Iowa or Purdue to win a West side of the conference and then get smoked in the CCG by Michigan or Ohio State in the East side of the conference.

I get it, but it was kinda dumb.....speaking about the RB in hushed tones, marveling at the San Gabriels and getting turned on by a parade with one breath and then bitching about having to play in the Orange Bowl or Sugar Bowl as an away game in the next breath.
Maybe it's 2 diff fanbases, but the dichotomy is/was vast.  Maybe Big 8 teams needed an attitude adjustment.  Snorting coke off a dance club toilet seat doesn't rival the Tournament of Roses parade?!?