(02-05-2018 11:31 AM)BePcr07 Wrote:  

(02-05-2018 11:06 AM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(02-05-2018 09:47 AM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  Illinois
Excellent large school in a large population state that under-performs in every major sports. Some day they will get their act together.

They made the national title game in basketball relatively recently. Football has pretty much never been great and it's tough to be good when you have to deal with Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn. State and Michigan State.

With the exception of good runs, like Purdue this year and last in basketball, the "Illiana-4" (LOL) are near the bottom of the barrel for the conference. Rutgers is down there, too. Maryland and Nebraska aren't too much higher. The conference is tiered by perception: top (Michigan, Michigan St, Ohio St, Penn St, Wisconsin), middle (Iowa, Minnesota, Maryland, Nebraska), and bottom (Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue, Rutgers). This isn't to say a school can't have a good run for a few years, but they can't run by name alone - see Nebraska football and Indiana basketball. Northwestern may be the only the school the bottom tier that could actually be in the middle.

I also believe there are no 'sleeping giants' in the G5. Sleeping giants are the programs who have all of the needed pieces but fail to put them together. The P5 schools who underachieve in spite of all of their advantages. Illinois and Cal are the most obvious to me.