Fact Check: Big Ten division records since breaking into East and West divisions……
East leads 65-59
Pretty darn equal. Only difference is Ohio State is dominating everyone in the conference and winning conference titles.
Ohio State by itself makes it unbalanced. Ordering by records looks more balanced now based on records since Michigan State has imploded and Iowa passing Penn State this past year. Before last season, Penn State was ahead of Iowa and a few years ago MSU was in Tier 3.
Tiers based on records since 2014 when divisions split
Tier 1: Ohio State
Tier 3: Wisconsin, Iowa, Penn State
Tier 4: Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern
Tier 5: Minnesota, Nebraska, Indiana
Tier 6: Maryland, Illinois, Purdue, Rutgers
Note: MSU and Nebraska are falling like rocks. Indiana is slowly climbing
It's getting more balanced based on PSU and MSU having a bad year last season
If I had to do tiers now, it would be
Tier 1: Ohio State
Tier 3: Wisconsin, Penn State, Iowa, Indiana
Tier 4: Michigan, Northwestern
Tier 5: Minnesota, Michigan State, Maryland
Tier 6: Illinois, Nebraska, Purdue, Rutgers
The problem is that Maryland and Rutgers are recruiting pretty well, especially Rutgers. I don't think it will be long before they are noticeably better than Nebraska, Purdue and Illinois (if they aren't already this year). So the records from 2014 til now will probably be the most even split that we will see. Indiana, Rutgers and Maryland (the supposed bottom feeders of the East) are getting better. It looks like Nebraska, Purdue and Illinois will be the worst teams in the conference moving forward and they are all in the Big Ten west.
In a few years, it won't look equal based on trajectory of the programs.