FanPost

"Conference Desirability Rankings" of B1G teams

Patrick Breen / USA TODAY NETWORK


Pat Forde and SI ranked every power 5 school by their "conference desirability." There were 5 categories (Average Sagarin rating football since 2017, Us News Ranking 2022, Director's Cup Standing 2022, Average Attendance over 5 years, Number of games attracting over 1 million viewers since 2017) and all categories were ranked by ordering inside the power 5. The full methodology can be found in the original article.

https://www.si.com/college/2022/07/14/power-5-desirability-rankings-sec-big-ten-acc

I've reposted the B1G schools (including USC and UCLA) rankings and sub-rankings

1.Ohio State Buckeyes (2, 20, 4, 3, 2)

2. Michigan Wolverines (16, 8, 3, 1, 5)

7. Wisconsin Badgers (8, 17, 23, 15, 12)

9. USC Trojans (30, 10, 12, 23, 9)

11. Penn State Nittany Lions (7, 28, 41, 2, 10)

18. UCLA Bruins (43, 6, 15, 40, 28)

20. Michigan State Spartans (27, 38, 39, 18, 15)

21. Iowa Hawkeyes (9, 38, 52, 20, 21)

29. Northwestern Wildcats (38, 2, 35, 58, 32)

33. Nebraska Cornhuskers (46, 54, 47, 10, 16)

38. Minnesota Gophers (28, 30, 27, 45, 49)

41. Purdue Boilermakers (36, 20, 51, 35, 45)

49. Indiana Hoosiers (42, 30, 57, 48, 36)

52. Maryland Terrapins (58, 24, 44, 57, 41)

59. Illinois Fighting Illini (66, 18, 50, 59, 58)

65. Rutgers Scarlet Knights (67, 28, 46, 56, 67)

I think there's issues with just about every aspect of the methodology, but that the end results look approximately correct.

One thing that sticks out as incorrect is Nebraska being below Northwestern. One is a fantastic school that has had an uncharacteristically successful football team. The other a former football superpower that has had a dismal few years on the field, but still has a lot of pull with fans and viewers. I'm not sure exactly how much conferences value academics and non-revenue sports performance, however, I suspect most conferences would rather have Nebraska than Northwestern.

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