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they don't do it to Michigan's rival

has this happened to the "other" East helmet PSU?

don't be too hard on the Badgers

Northwestern and Minnesota are inverses of each other, really. 

Northwestern was putrid up until the nineteen dicketies, but today they are typically "above average" with the occasional "awful" season sprinkled in.

Minnesota was a powerhouse up until the nineteen dicketies, but today they are typically "awful" with the occasional "above average" season sprinkled in. 

teams not receiving votes are doing it to the B1G-W's helmet.

I think it's more than that...

The top teams in the East are OSU / UM / PSU (#1 solid, but not necessarily in that order for 2/3 depending on year). 

The top teams in the West are UW / IA / UNL (#1 solid, but not necessarily in that order for 2/3 depending on year).

However, if I had to rank those six teams, it would be:

• OSU
• Wisconsin
• UM or PSU
• PSU or UM
• Iowa or UNL
• UNL or Iowa

For someone in the East to get to the CCG, they need to finish higher than 3 of the top 4 teams in the B1G. For someone in the West to get into the CCG, they need to finish higher than the #2 team in the B1G and two teams that are slightly above median for strength in the whole conference.

OSU might have a down year... At some point. But the most likely beneficiaries of that down year are UM or PSU, because the gap between UM/PSU and the rest of the east is pretty stark. To have all of them have a down year on the same year is unlikely. Hence why I have UM just below MN in my ranking of the 7 teams who haven't made it, because if OSU has a down year they're likely to be the heir apparent that year.

Wisconsin can certainly have a down year--arguably this is one. Given the relative strength of next-up Iowa and UNL compared to the rest of the division, it's much more likely that one of the three teams that remains behind them on one of their "up" years can get in. 

I vote that the West is easier not because Wisconsin is weaker than OSU, but that the triad of Wisconsin/Iowa/UNL is significantly weaker than the triad of OSU/UM/PSU.

Northwestern and Minnesota are inverses of each other, really.

Northwestern was putrid up until the nineteen dicketies, but today they are typically "above average" with the occasional "awful" season sprinkled in.

Minnesota was a powerhouse up until the nineteen dicketies, but today they are typically "awful" with the occasional "above average" season sprinkled in.

"dicketies" = "sixties"?

Pretty sure Northwestern was hilariously bad at least through the 80s.

Yeah, I know they had their Otto Graham years in the early 40s, but from that point until Gary Barnett in the 90s, they were a doormat.

Graham played at Northwestern immediately before and in the first years of WWII.  His three teams went 5-3, 1-9, and 6-2 in 1941-1943.  His Wildcat teams went 2-1 against Ohio State teams coached by Paul Brown which is why Paul Brown drafted him to play for the Cleveland Browns after the war. 

Postwar, the Wildcats had a really good season in 1948 with an 8-2 record and a Rose Bowl win.  They didn't actually win the league, but Michigan repeated and the "no repeat rule" was in effect.  See side note on Rose Bowl below. 

After that Rose Bowl win on January 1, 1949 (1948 season) the Wildcats did not play in another bowl game until January 1, 1996 (1995 season) when they lost the Rose Bowl to USC.  They didn't win another bowl game until January 1, 2013 when they beat MissSt in the Gator Bowl. 

In between their Rose Bowl seasons in 1948 and 1995 the Wildcats were flat awful, the worst in all of College Football.  For the 46 years from 1949-1994 Northwestern was 135-325-8 0.297.  Doormat is an understatement, here is their record against each of the teams that were in the Big Ten for at least most of that time:

• .105 against tOSU, 4-34
• .147 against M, 5-29
• .176 against Iowa, 6-28
• .194 against MSU, 7-29
• .212 against PU, 7-26
• .293 against UW, 13-32-1
• .333 against MN, 13-27-2
• .391 against IL, 17-27-2
• .462 against IU, 18-21

Northwestern was #7 in the final AP Poll for 1949 and #8 in the final AP Poll for 1995 but they were not ranked in any final poll between those two.  The Wildcats were ranked just 42 times out of 643 polls from 1949 through 1994.  Their ranking history from 1949-1994:

• 1949:  Ranked #13 and #20 in two polls, otherwise unranked. 
• 1950:  Ranked #9 and #20 in two polls, otherwise unranked. 
• 1951:  Ranked #13 and #18 in two polls, otherwise unranked. 
• 1952:  not ranked. 
• 1953:  Ranked #18 in one poll, otherwise unranked. 
• 1954-1957:  not ranked. 
• 1958:  Ranked six times between #4 and #20, otherwise unranked. 
• 1959:  Ranked 10 times between #2 and #10, otherwise unranked. 
• 1960:  Ranked three times between #6 and #14, otherwise unranked. 
• 1961:  not ranked. 
• 1962:  Ranked five times between #1 and #9, otherwise unranked. 
• 1963:  Ranked five times between #4 and #10, otherwise unranked. 
• 1964-1969:  not ranked. 
• 1970:  Ranked four times between #18 and #20, otherwise unranked. 
• 1971:  Ranked #18 and #20 in two polls, otherwise unranked. 
• 1972-1994:  not ranked.  NU was ranked #19 in the December 6, 1971 poll then fell out in the final poll.  They did not appear again until September 12, 1995 when they appeared at #25.  They started 1995 by stunning #9 Notre Dame in South Bend.  That actually didn't get them ranked but they had a week off the next week then got in at #25 before losing to Miami, OH and falling back out again.  Then they climbed all the way to #3 before losing to USC in the Rose Bowl to finish #8. 

Another way to look at it is their record against Ohio State:

• .365, 9-16-1 from their first game (1913, tOSU's first year in the league) through 1948.  That isn't great, but it isn't all that bad either. 
• .094, 5-48 from 1949 through 2020.  The five wins were:
• 2004 in Evanston
• 1971 in Columbus
• 1963 in Columbus
• 1962 in Columbus
• 1958 in Evanston

The Wildcats lost 24 straight to the Buckeyes between their wins in 1971 and 2004 and since their win in 2004 they have lost nine straight. 

Side note on the Rose Bowl:
The BigTen/Pac8/10 Rose Bowl agreement started immediately after the war, for the 1946 season.  Prior to that the game was generally the Pac Champion against the best Eastern team they could get.  Ie, the 1946 Rose Bowl (1945 season) was USC vs #2 Bama. 

The BigTen dominated in the early years, winning six straight (1947-1952) and twelve of the first 13 (1947-1959).  In those first 13 years of the agreement the BigTen teams were:

• 3-0 Ohio State
• 2-0 Iowa
• 2-0 Michigan State
• 2-0 Illinois
• 2-0 Michigan
• 1-0 Northwestern
• 0-1 Wisconsin
• Purdue, Minnesota, and Indiana did not appear. 

For the next ten years the Rose Bowl was evenly matched with each conference winning five times.  In those 10 years (1960-1969) the BigTen teams were:

• 1-0 Ohio State
• 1-0 Illinois
• 1-0 Purdue
• 1-0 Michigan
• 1-1 Minnesota
• 0-1 Michigan State
• 0-1 Indiana
• 0-2 Wisconsin
• Northwestern and Iowa did not appear. 

For the next 18 years the Pac dominated, winning 16 of 18 from 1970-1987.  In those 18 years the BigTen teams were:

• 1-6 Ohio State
• 1-7 Michigan
• 0-1 Illinois
• 0-2 Iowa
• Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Minnesota did not appear. 

For the next 14 years the BigTen then Big11Ten did very well, going 9-5 before the BCS began to interfere with the historic matchup.  In those 14 years (1988-2001) the BigTen and Big11Ten teams were:

• 3-0 Wisconsin
• 1-0 Ohio State
• 1-0 Michigan State
• 1-0 Penn State
• 3-2 Michigan
• 0-1 Northwestern
• 0-1 Iowa
• 0-1 Purdue
• Minnesota, Indiana, and Illinois did not appear. 

We all know how the right coach can generate the right outcome.

so, if we are talking about the next 3-5 years it's almost got to be a current coach or a new coach that would come in soon, such as 2021 or 2022

I would change my vote from Indiana to Michigan if Harbaugh was fired or hired away by the NFL within a month or two