This past weekend saw the Big Ten become the first conference to ever win a national championship in football (Indiana), men's basketball (Michigan) and women's basketball (UCLA) in the same year. The league now owns the ultimate bragging rights in both revenue-generating sports and the most popular women's sport. Plus two more national titles on top of that. Additionally, they claimed the football national title in 2024 (Ohio State) and 2023 (Michigan). Without a doubt, this is the most dominant collegiate athletic conference in the country right now, and no one else comes close.
“We play in the best league in the country, so anything's possible when it comes to winning a national championship," said Illinois men's basketball coach Brad Underwood, ahead of the Final Four in Indianapolis.
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"I never doubted — and I don't want to sound arrogant — I've never doubted us getting to a Final Four would happen. But I also know how doggone hard it is to do it. For that, I just say thank you."
Underwood beat another Big Ten school, Iowa, to reach the Final Four, as the conference comprised half the Elite Eight and half of the Final Four. So where/when will the league flex its muscles next?
NFL Draft night, exactly two weeks from today, to be exact, where the conference will once again reign supreme.
You can start right at the top, where Indiana quarterback, Heisman winner and national champion Fernando Mendoza is destined to go number one overall. Then you can take a look at the Ohio State football program, who will produce more first rounders than anybody else. They'll go at the top of the draft too.
In our latest mock draft, we have Buckeyes slated to go fourth, fifth, eighth and tenth overall.
So if you're scoring at home (not literally, I'm not sure anybody actually "scores" mock drafts), that's half the top ten coming out of the Big Ten. We also have three more Big Ten players going within the top 15, so that's good for more than half of the top half of the first round.
These trends continue later on in the first round, as well as into the later rounds. And while mock drafts are not prophecy, they are a great guide as to what might happen. When April 23rd-25th arrives, the Big Ten will emerge as big time winners once again.
This article originally appeared on Draft Wire: The Big Ten could comprise more than half the top 15