According to ESPN’s Big Ten columnist/blogger Andrew Rittenberg, Iowa was the #2 program of the past decade

Yes, it’s that time of year.  No, Adrew Rittenberg’s opinions don’t cause the tides to ebb and flow.  However, I enjoy reading & sharing things like this for a couple of reasons…

First, they are fun when they favor your team.  Two, it keeps us talking about college football and three, they give me ideas to either do my own list or rank the teams myself, which is what I have in mind right now.

Here’s my list.

1) Ohio State.  There is no debating with Rittenberg here.  Even though Ohio State is supposed to be good every year and has program advantages greater than any program in the league and all but two or three in all of the sport, they won six Big Ten titles and a national title.

2) Iowa.  Again, I agree with Rittenberg here.  Iowa won two Big Ten titles this decade and four January bowl games, second most in the league.  Historically, Iowa is not supposed to be able to do this.  One could make the case that this was second best decade of Iowa football, behind the 1950′s where Iowa won two Rose Bowls.  I’d still say it’s the third, because the 1980′s snapped horrible trends of losing and the program had to be rebuilt

3) Wisconsin.  They actually had the 2nd best overall winning percentage in the league for the decade, but no Big Ten titles

4) Michigan.  They were extremely consistent under Lloyd Carr, as Rittenberg pointed out, but they should be, as they have amazing advantages that most of the schools don’t have.  But, lacking a stiff challenger here, we give them the #4 slot.

5) Penn State.  They came on strong the second half of the decade after sputtering early on, and they did win two Big Ten titles and four bowl games.

6) Purdue.  They won a Big Ten title back in 2000 and made it to a lot of bowl games, but they finished slowly.  However, given their resources, not a bad decade.

7) Northwestern.  They shared a title and Pat Fitzgerald is a guy that I begrudgingly respect…oh, he’s earned the respect, it’s just that he’s built quite a bit of it by picking off Iowa too many times for my liking.

Michigan State.  I guess?  We are down to the point where there are not too many teams left that have really distinguished themselves and they have a below .500 record.  MSU did go to the Cap One last year and they have stunk less than Illinois has.

9) Illinois.  They have played in two BCS games this decade; a Sugar Bowl and a Rose Bowl.  One was a Big Ten title.  But they have also been at or near the cellar more often than not.

10) Minnesota.  A lot of bowl games and records around .500.  Given their track record over the past four decades, not horrible.  However, they loaded up on non-conference patsies for the most part and their fans don’t see to care all that much.

11) Indiana.  Were it not for Antwan Randle-El and James Hardy, we’d be talking about possibly the worst program from any BCS conference.  18-62 in league play deserve the bottom ranking.

What do you think?  Sound off below

Tags: Big Ten, Big Ten Football, hawkeye football, Hawkeye Nation, Iowa football