INDIANAPOLIS – Zip-It, SEC. ACC, Big East, Big 12 — it’s not about you.
It’s a Big Ten world now. Everyone else is just living in it.
On Monday, April 6, the day after UCLA won the Big Ten women’s championship for the first time in 27 years, Michigan State gave the conference its first men’s basketball title in 26 years. And both came less than three months after Indiana won the College Football Playoff.
This is the first time since 2007 that one conference has won all three titles.
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“I think it’s a huge deal for the Big Ten, and for everyone in the Big Ten, for UCLA to win their first championship after the national championship in football, and for us to win today,” Michigan athletic director Ward Manuel said after the Wolverines’ 69-63 victory over Connecticut, completing one of the most dominant runs in NCAA Tournament history.
“We are here and we won because of what the Big Ten brings to basketball,” Manuel added. “And I think the same can be said for UCLA.”
It’s not just basketball and soccer!
This year, a Big Ten team also won the national championship in men’s soccer. men’s wrestling. Men’s water polo. women’s hockey. Women’s field hockey.
And this year isn’t over yet. The men’s Frozen Four begins Thursday, April 9, with Michigan State and Wisconsin competing. UCLA is currently ranked No. 1 in baseball.
“We expect to win a national championship,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petiti said. “That’s what we compete against.”
The SEC likes to claim bragging rights in college sports. “It Means More” is the conference’s tagline, a nod to the way college athletics revolves around the SEC. Especially in football and basketball.
However, the SEC has been a little sluggish lately.
This is the third straight season the SEC has failed to win a national title in football, which will basically go on forever. Florida State won the men’s basketball title last season, breaking a 13-year drought. South Carolina has lost the past two women’s title games.
The Big Ten stepped into a vacuum.
“When we first joined the league three years ago, they said, ‘We want to compete in all areas,'” Petiti said.
The Big Ten and Petiti have a lot of grief for wasting their weight. They may not have the same air of superiority as the SEC and its Commissioner Greg Sankey, but they come close.
They want to expand the CFP and basketball tournament so more teams can participate. They blew up a traditional rivalry to significantly expand their conference footprint. They want Congress to turn off the NIL spigot because they can’t be bothered.
But please say this. As long as there are titles to win, the Big Ten is going to do everything they can to win as many titles as possible. That means paying for facilities, paying coaches, and in this day and age, paying players.
“Our job in the league office is to provide the resources and support that teams need to be able to compete at this level, and to put that in the hands of all the great coaches and student-athletes and all the great ADs and presidents,” Petiti said.
There’s another element to it as well.
Few conferences are as ruthless to their members as the Big Ten. The conference season often resembles the Hunger Games, as teams in the Big Ten thoroughly beat each other.
Let’s take a look back at the Big Ten men’s tournament. Three of the top seeds, Illinois, Nebraska, and Michigan State, were eliminated without winning a single game. The University of Michigan looked more poised for an early elimination than a national title.
It was so bad that some idiots even said there was no way a Big Ten team could win the men’s championship.
But you don’t get steel without enough heat, and the conference’s meat grinder has helped turn Big Ten teams into juggernauts come the postseason.
The Big Ten has five teams in the men’s Elite Eight and two teams in the women’s. He currently holds both basketball titles.
“We play in a great league,” Petiti said. “Regardless of your sport, when you’re in the Big Ten, you’re playing in a great league.”
And they have the trophies and titles to prove it.
Follow USA TODAY sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
