Illinois’ Bret Bielema and his staff fared especially poorly in 2023, the final season of Big Ten divisional play.
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Is it really over?
Promise?
The painful, pathetic existence of the Big Ten West, that is.
What a run it wasn’t. Technically, there’s one game to go — the Big Ten championship game, in which West winner Iowa will face playoff-bound Michigan and lose, and do so with the valiance and panache of an upside-down roly poly, for Indianapolis is where pretend-good teams from the West go to surrender and die. The East winner is 9-0 in championship games, soon to be 10-0, and then, officially, thank goodness, divisional play in the conference will be a thing of the past.
This season, the West simply had to be the worst it ever was, right up there — sorry, down there — with the worst divisions in Power 5 history. Iowa went 5-1 in division play despite having literally the worst offense in the country. Northwestern and Wisconsin tied for second despite massive challenges faced by the Wildcats and more obvious shortcomings than we’ve seen in a Badgers team in many years.
Tied at the bottom was Illinois, which almost was fitting. The final 10-year records of West teams against one another: Wisconsin 44-13, Iowa 41-19, Northwestern 32-27, Minnesota 29-30, Purdue 23-36, Nebraska 21-38 and Illinois 17-43. If you ever want a simple way to express how horrible the Lovie Smith era was, just point to his 4-26 mark against division mates. Bielema was a promising 8-4 heading into this season, but now he’s 9-9. For the Illini to go 1-5 against West foes in this, of all seasons, required a barrage of breakdowns that began with Bielema and called the entire Illini staff into question.
Tonight, we say farewell to one of the most beautiful groups ever assembled - the Big Ten West.
— cobra. (@cobrastats) November 26, 2023
Below is each team in the West's record against the rest of the West.
RIP Big Ten West (2014-2023) pic.twitter.com/K5v0gXnjU0
“I know where we are three years from [where we were when] we got here and how much growth we‘ve had,” Bielema said after a 45-43 loss to Northwestern left them at 5-7 and out of bowl season, “but it obviously didn’t put us in postseason play, which is everything.”
That’s OK. Nobody needed to see these Illini play again. …
The Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium? The Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix? Somewhere else?
Northwestern (7-5) awaits its postseason marching orders. Even at seven wins instead of six, this still has to be the unlikeliest bowl team in the country. And — zero doubt about it — David Braun will be the Big Ten’s coach of the year. …
And then there’s poor Ryan Day. The man is 56-7 at Ohio State. He’s 38-0 against Big Ten schools not named Michigan. But it’s just not good enough in Buckeye land. If Day keeps his job — which, come on, he should — the heat under his seat will be extreme. …
A tip of the helmet to Northern Illinois for winning five of its last seven games to get to 6-6 and earn a spot in the postseason. The 37-27 win at Kent State on Saturday was especially nice after the death earlier in the week of NIU Hall of Famer Mark Kellar, who led the nation in rushing in 1973 and went on to set school career rushing marks in yards, touchdowns and 100-yard games. Kellar was 71. …
The last Saturday of the regular season unfailingly delivers. We had the intense drama of Michigan’s win over Ohio State. We had Washington’s fourth-and-1 conversion — from its own 29-yard line — on the winning drive that allowed the Huskies to stay perfect. We had the latest Iron Bowl miracle, Alabama’s last-ditch touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the 31 to save the day against Auburn. Expanding the playoff will eat away at this excitement, though. …
Michigan State hired a good one in Jonathan Smith, who knows a thing or two about excelling as second banana in a state after his impressive success at Oregon State. Smith was born in Pasadena, Calif., too, just saying. …
Book it: The playoff four on Tuesday will be Georgia, Michigan, Washington and Florida State. Any chance Michigan slides into the No. 1 spot ahead of Georgia after beating Ohio State? Sure, it could happen. …
My Heisman five if I were voting today: 1. LSU QB Jayden Daniels, 2. Oregon QB Bo Nix, 3. Ohio State WR Marvin Harrison Jr., 4. Washington QB Michael Penix Jr., 5. Oklahoma State RB Ollie Gordon II.
