Heralded as arguably the best conference in college football this year, the Big Ten took it on the chin this postseason. The conference finished 3-7 in its bowl games. The Big Ten East, perhaps the most competitive division in all college football, finished 0-5. The seven losses are the most in the entire history of the conference for a single bowl season.
These are bad statistics, and certainly disappointing, but hardly unusual or even the nadir for the conference in its recent past. The Big Ten had worse stretches more recently. All things considered, 2016 was only the fifth-worst bowl performance for the Big Ten this century.