The Big Ten is “enjoying a rare sweep” of major college sports championships, with Michigan winning the men’s basketball title, UCLA securing the women’s title and Indiana’s recent College Football Playoff victory, according to Nancy Armour of USA TODAY. It is the Big Ten’s “world right now” and everyone else “is just living in it.” It marks the first time since the SEC in 2007 that one conference has won all three titles. But the Big Ten has also won national champions this year in men’s soccer; men’s wrestling; men’s water polo; women’s hockey; and women’s field hockey. And the year is not over, as the men’s Frozen Four starts Thursday -- and Michigan and Wisconsin are in it. In addition to that, UCLA is currently ranked No. 1 in baseball. Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti said, “We expect to win national championships. That’s what we compete for.” This was the third consecutive season the SEC did not win the national title in football, which is “basically an eternity.” Florida’s title in men’s basketball last season snapped a 13-year drought there. South Carolina was routed in the past two women’s title games. So long as there are titles to be won, the Big Ten is “going to do everything it can to win as many of them as they can.” That means “paying for facilities, paying for coaches and, yes, in this day and age, paying for players” (USA TODAY, 4/7).
MORE REACH: In Indianapolis, Nathan Baird writes the Big Ten’s current dominance “extends beyond big-ticket title games.” As college sports “transitions from the well-meaning strictures of amateurism to a free market system,” as it “evolves from regional alliances to conferences stretching coast to coast, one conference conquered both that period of turmoil and the best competition in the country better than any other.” Maybe we should “not be surprised the first Big Ten national champion in 26 years came when a coach figured out the best mix of skill and chemistry -- and, for lack of a better term, the best salary cap management.” Petitti said, “Resources matter -- you have to be honest about it. But you still need great coaching. You still need a commitment to winning and performing at the high level and building and developing players. I don’t think that’s ever going to change” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 4/7).
THE NEW REPUBLIC: THE ATHLETIC’s Devon Henderson noted three of the top seven spots in terms of “spending among schools in this Sweet 16 in men’s basketball” were Big Ten schools -- Illinois, Michigan and Michigan State (THE ATHLETIC, 4/7). In Louisville, C.L. Brown wrote Michigan’s victory culminated a tournament in which the Big Ten had half of the Final Four and half of the Elite Eight. Last season, Florida and the SEC also claimed half of the Final Four and half of the Elite Eight. What we are “starting to see is that football money pays off.” The two biggest leagues, when it comes to “raking in enormous amounts from broadcast contracts and revenue-sharing distributions,” are the “only two leagues to have at least one team in each of the past three Final Fours.” Winning the last two titles “could be a sign of more of this to come.” Programs like UConn, Duke and Kansas are not going anywhere and “will have a say in how this narrative plays out.” But it “appears that they will no longer just be competing against other perennial basketball powers.” Brown: “The average joes of the Power 2 conferences are coming up” (Louisville COURIER JOURNAL, 4/6).
GIVE HIM CREDIT: In Detroit, Carlos Monarrez wrote Michigan’s win in the national title game is a “welcome relief” for AD Warde Manuel and the university after the “myriad scandals that have plagued the athletic department” since he took over in 2016. But winning is “what matters for an AD and his department,” and Manuel “achieved some level of vindication -- though not exoneration -- for making the decision to hire” coach Dusty May two years ago and “successfully fighting off suitors from Indiana and North Carolina to keep the best coach in college basketball in Ann Arbor during his meteoric rise.” Manuel “deserves a lot of the credit for this championship and maybe even most of it” (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 4/7).
