Big 10 cupcakes--
Here are the Big 10's non-BCS, non-conference games for 2008 and their rankings by Jeff Sagarin in 2007:
229--Murray State 2- 9 (Indiana)
221--Northern Colorado 1-11 (Purdue)
183--Coastal Carolina 5-6 (Penn St)
177--Montana State 6-5 (Minnesota)
173--Eastern Illinois 8-4 (Illinois)
170--Fla. International 1-11 (Iowa)
161--Maine 4-7 (Iowa)
150--Northern Illinois 2-10 (Minnesota)
138--Cal Poly-SLO 7-4 (Wisconsin)
137--Louisiana-Lafayette 3-9 (Illinois)
135--Temple 4-8 (Penn St)
128--Eastern Michigan 4-8 (Michigan St)
127--Akron 4-8 (Wisconsin)
126--Toledo 5-7 (Michigan)
125--Marshall 3-9 (Wisconsin)
118--Western Kentucky 7-5 (Indiana)
116--Miami-Ohio 6-7 (Michigan)
114--Ohio University 6-6 (Michigan St)
113--Syracuse 2-10 (Northwestern)
109--Duke 1-11 (Northwestern)
106--Western Michigan 5-7 (Illinois)
105--Youngstown State 7-4 (Ohio State)
99--Bowling Green 8-5 (Minnesota)
83--Ball State 7-6 (Indiana)
82--Central Michigan 8-6 (Indiana)
78--Florida Atlantic 8-5 (Mich St)
76--Southern Illinois 12-2 (Northwestern)
60--Fresno State 9-4 (Wisconsin)
53--Troy 8-4 (Ohio St)
34--Utah 9-4 (Michigan)
The Big 10 has scheduled 30 of its 44 non-conference games against non-"Big 6" conference teams.
If Minnesota was 122nd, Northwestern was 86th, and Iowa was 79th, were they considered in-conference cupcakes?
USATODAY.com