USC has won two Pac titles in 15 years. UCLA haven't won any.
Flashback. Penn State is gonna run roughshod over the Big Ten. Flash forward. 4 titles in 30 years.
Flashback. Nebraska is gonna run roughshod over the Big Ten. Flash forward. No titles in 12 years. Closest they got was a trip to Indy and got 70 dropped on them.
Flash forward. USC is gonna run roughshod over the Big Ten. Flashback. Good luck with that.
I heard this about PSU a LOT more than I did about UNL and more than I have about USC.
To be fair, some of it is status of the league. When PSU joined in 1993 the most recent Big Ten team to have won an NC was Ohio State in 1968. After that the Buckeyes had a bunch of close calls in the 1970's and Michigan had a few as well but the league (mostly just tOSU and M) went into an AWFUL slump in RoseBowls so the league's overall reputation was at a fairly low point:
- 1969 season: #7 Michigan lost 10-3 to #5 USC
- 1970 season: #2 tOSU lost 27-17 to #12 Stanford
- 1971 season: #4 Michigan lost 13-12 to #16 Stanford
- 1972 season: #3 tOSU lost 42-17 to #1 USC
- 1973 season: #4 tOSU won 42-21 over #7 USC
- 1974 season: #3 tOSU lost 18-17 to #5 USC
- 1975 season: #1 tOSU lost 23-10 to #11 UCLA (had beaten them earlier that season in SoCal)
- 1976 season: #2 Michigan lost 14-6 to #3 USC
- 1977 season: #4 Michigan lost 27-20 to #12 Washington
- 1978 season: #5 Michigan lost 17-10 to #3 USC
- 1979 season: #1 tOSU lost 17-16 to #3 USC
- 1980 season: #5 Michigan won 23-6 over #16 Washington
- 1981 season: #13 Iowa lost 28-0 to #12 Washington (first RB appearance by a BigTen team not named tOSU or Michigan since 1967 season, didn't help the Hawkeyes did even worse)
- 1982 season: #19 Michigan lost 24-14 to #5 UCLA
- 1983 season: #4 Illinois lost 45-9 to nr UCLA (This is a serious embarrassment. The 1983 Illinois team is the only team to ever beat EVERY other BigTen team in the same season. They beat tOSU by 4, M by 10, Iowa by 33. They headed to the RB 10-1 and ranked #4. UCLA was a mediocre team. They headed into the RB at 6-4-1 and unranked. The tie was with ASU, the losses were to UGA, UNL, BYU, and Zona. And the Bruins walloped the Illini)
- 1984 season: #6 tOSU lost 20-17 to #18 USC (tOSU's first appearance since 1979 and last until 1996)
- 1985 season: #4 Iowa lost 45-28 to #13 UCLA
- 1986 season: #4 Michigan lost 22-15 to #7 ASU (ASU's coach was John Cooper and this convinced tOSU to hire him)
- 1987 season: #8 MSU won 20-17 over #16 USC (first BigTen RB win by other than tOSU/M since Purdue 21 years prior
- 1988 season: #11 Michigan won 22-14 over #5 USC (first 2-game streak since '64/5, first win over a higher-ranked opponent)
- 1989 season: #3 Michigan lost 17-10 to #12 USC
- 1990 season: #17 Iowa lost 46-34 to #8 Washington
- 1991 season: #4 Michigan lost 34-14 to #2 Washington
This was the lead-up to Penn State joining. I remember it well. I think most everyone thought the Nittany Lions (who had TWO recent NC's would just dominate the stale old Big Ten. I had a HS friend who was a big PSU guy and he just constantly talked about how they would own the league. I just loved the fact that in their inaugural Big11Ten season the Lions lost two games: Ohio State and Michigan. Yep, welcome to the league, 8 point home loss to the Wolverines, 18 point road loss to the Buckeyes. 1993 was also my freshman year at Ohio State so I was in the 'Shoe for PSU's welcome.
As I am sure you know, the Lions actually got lucky in 1993 in two ways. First, they managed to wrangle a schedule that gave them a week off before BOTH Michigan and Ohio State. Secondly, they missed one of the league's best teams, your Badgers. They finished third at 6-2 behind co-champs tOSU/UW at 6-1-1 each. Here is how they did against each Big11Ten team top-to-bottom:
- 6-1-1 tOSU, lost on the road by 18
- 6-1-1 UW, dnp
- 5-3 M, lost at home by 8
- 5-3 IU, won at home by 7
- 5-3 IL, won at home by 14
- 4-4 MSU, won on the road by 1
- 3-5 IA, won on the road by 31
- 3-5 MN, won at home by 18
- 0-8 NU, won on the road by 22
- 0-8 PU, dnp
Helps to only have one league road game against a team that finished above .500.
