Which is the second-best team in the Big Ten? Which is the sixth-best team in the Big Ten? Do legitimate answers even exist in a season this crazy? The Big Ten is a land of parity and balance in 2020, with Maryland leading the pack and a large group of teams bunched together a few games behind the Terrapins.
The second-place team in the Big Ten right now is also the sixth-best team in the league, because spots two through six are all shared. Michigan State, Penn State, Iowa, Illinois, and the Wisconsin Badgers are all part of a five-car pileup at 10-6 in the conference, two games behind 12-4 Maryland. Michigan — 4-7 in the Big Ten at one point — is the only other Big Ten team with fewer than eight conference losses. Rutgers, at 9-8, is in eighth place. The rest of the conference is no better than .500 in league play.
It doesn’t make sense that in a season when Big Ten basketball teams fluctuate so wildly between their very best versions of themselves, and their absolute worst iterations, so many of them have settled in at four games above .500 with just four games left in the conference season. Yeah, Nebraska and Northwestern are providing conference victories for everyone else, but the volatility throughout the league — from spots one through 12, excluding the two NU schools — would seem to suggest that there shouldn’t be five schools at 10-6 with one game left to play in February.
It is that rarest of seasons in which teams never rise too high or fall too far. Ohio State and Michigan both went into tailspins but just as surely regrouped to solidify their places in the NCAA Tournament. Minnesota and Purdue are the only non-NU teams in the Big Ten this season which went on a downturn and couldn’t rescue themselves. (Minnesota gets one last chance to potentially save its season when it hosts Maryland. That is a must-win for the Gophers, no questions asked.)
It’s a happy occurrence for the Big Ten in this first season after the reign of Jim Delany as commissioner. All these NCAA Tournament bids — 10 — offer lots of chances to fill league coffers. That much is clear. As for who is the second — or sixth — best team in the conference? Your guess is as good as mine.