Indiana Hoosiers: Making the perfect Big Ten
Right in the middle geographically of the conference, we start with the Hoosier state. This would be the only state to have three teams included, starting with our beloved Hoosiers.
Indiana Hoosiers
There was no way we would make the perfect Big Ten without Indiana. The Hoosiers are getting better at football, but have long been a team to beat in basketball. Even with their struggles lately, but every team still looks forward to trying to beat the Hoosiers in Assembly Hall. There is still a mystique to playing there and it is the epitome of Big Ten basketball. Indiana puts out good to very good teams in almost every other sport and simply put are just a staple of the Big Ten and it is where we start.
Purdue Boilermakers
You can’t make a conference without rivals and Purdue is without a doubt the top rival for Indiana. Whatever conference they are in they have to be in together. There is no way you split them up. Everything we just wrote about Indiana we could say the same thing about Purdue. Just change it to Mackey Arena. When you think of the Big Ten you think Michigan vs Ohio State followed closely behind with Purdue and Indiana. If you are talking about basketball it doesn’t get any better than the battle in Indiana. These two schools hate each other but would hate it just as much if they weren’t in the same conference.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Notre Dame has long spurned the Big Ten and any other conference for that matter for football. They have joined the ACC for other sports outside of hockey but are trying desperately to hold on to their independence for football. Like them or hate them, having Notre Dame in the Big Ten would be great. They obviously fit geographically and bring a lot to the table. They are a huge market with football and they are good in a lot of other sports. This year was down in women’s basketball but they have been one of the top teams in the country for a while. Their men’s team is always a tough out, just ask Indiana and their other sports are good also. There is no downside to having the Irish part of the Big Ten.