Our story begins with a simple fact: The Michigan Wolverines last played in the Rose Bowl in the 2006 season, in January of 2007. That is 13 years ago. Older folks know this. Younger college football fans might have been told this by their parents, but if you don’t actually live through an era as a fan, or witness certain realities, it can be hard to imagine a world which is very different from the one we have now.
The way things used to be in Big Ten football were markedly different from today, and no programs embody that reality more than Michigan… and Wisconsin.
For a good quarter-century — the late 1960s through the early 1990s — Ohio State and Michigan ruled the Big Ten with very few exceptions. Get this: From the 1968 through 1992 seasons — a string of 25 seasons — guess how many times a Big Ten school other than Ohio State or Michigan made the Rose Bowl.
You have 10 seconds. Go ahead. Think about it.
Waiting… waiting… okay. Time’s up.
The answer: five times.
The Ohio State-Michigan axis gobbled up 20 of 25 Rose Bowl bids for the Big Ten from the 1968 through 1992 seasons. What’s more is that only ONE Big Ten school other than Ohio State or Michigan made multiple Rose Bowls in that same 25-season stretch: Iowa, with three. Michigan State and Illinois made one trip to Pasadena.
The 1993 season — in which Wisconsin rose to power and stayed there — marked a point when the Big Ten did develop more depth and balance, but Michigan didn’t decline that year. Michigan remained strong for a solid decade and a half. Only when Lloyd Carr stepped down following the 2007 season did the Wolverines begin their decline, and while they haven’t completely sucked under Jim Harbaugh, they aren’t what they once were.
Wisconsin is the program Michigan used to be: Not as good as Ohio State in most seasons, but a reliable No. 2 in the Big Ten and a fixture in important late-season games and New Year’s Six bowls. Anyone who began following college football with great enthusiasm and dedication in 2008 doesn’t know what it’s like to go through a college football season knowing that Michigan is going to have an elite team.
On the other hand, someone who has closely followed college football since 2008 knows that Wisconsin is going to win its nine or 10 games and punch people in the mouth… and lose the Big Ten Championship Game most years.
Ohio State is still the king. Wisconsin and Michigan have traded places, with the Badgers rising and the Wolverines falling. In the larger story of the Big Ten this past decade, one other school got between Ohio State and the rest of the conference in addition to Wisconsin. One program other than the Badgers regularly inserted itself into the national conversation.
Not Nebraska. Not Iowa — the Hawkeyes had a great 2015 season but did not come especially close to replicating that kind of season in the rest of the decade.
Penn State had two great years in 2016 and 2017, but the first half of the decade involved the scandal which scarred the program and — far worse — revealed unspeakable institutional behavior in State College.
The non-Wisconsin program which made sure Michigan’s decline did not mean a decline in the Big Ten in the 2010s was Michigan State. It is true that Wisconsin has remained more consistent and durable than MSU, a big point of pride in Madison, but Michigan State’s quality under Mark Dantonio for several seasons (not just a few) gave ballast to the Big Ten. It set an example for the rest of the league.
Penn State had to figure out a way to be better because of Michigan State. Wisconsin had to figure out a way to be better because of Michigan State. Ohio State exists on its own terms — its own scale of expectations and achievements — in the Big Ten. Wisconsin and Michigan State set the example for the rest of the conference, showing the other schools in the league what was possible if a program was operated correctly.
When Wisconsin hammered Michigan State early in the 2016 season, 30-6, no one could have known how important that game would ultimately become. Yet, that day marked the point of divergence for the two programs. Wisconsin steadily rose, while Michigan State and Dantonio couldn’t regain their prominence.
Yet, it’s not as though Dantonio was a flash in the pan. From 2010 through 2015, Dantonio stood up to Urban Meyer and Ohio State. He won multiple Big Ten championships. He won a Rose Bowl. He made the College Football Playoff. He didn’t outlast Wisconsin, no, but he did reach the pinnacles the Badgers are still trying to attain under Paul Chryst.
Mark Dantonio made Wisconsin better. He made the Big Ten better. He occupies a significant place in the history of Big Ten football.