Big Ten football has withstood the test of time and there are a number of all-time greats who have come through the conference over the years.
The Big Ten is by far the oldest conference out of all the Power Five conferences in Division I (FBS). It was founded in 1896 as the Western Conference and the original members consisted of Purdue, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, University of Chicago, and Northwestern. The conference then became known as the Big Nine following the additions of Iowa and Indiana. Finally, following the 1912 addition of Ohio State, the conference became known as the Big Ten.
Since then the conference has seen more changes, Chicago’s athletic program left in 1939 and was replaced by Michigan State in 1949. The conference remained at ten teams until the addition of Penn State in 1993. Conference realignment also happened in the early 2010’s, with Nebraska joining in 2011, followed by Maryland and Rutgers in 2014.
A lot of football has been played in that time period and the Big Ten is perhaps the most storied conference in college football. The conference has produced 15 Heisman Trophy winners, including Archie Griffin’s back-to-back Heisman’s in 1974 and 1975, along with hundreds of All-Americans and award winners.
It is definitely hard to take over 100 years of football and thousands of players and make a list containing the top 30 of all-time. But, this list will reflect as best it can what an official list would look like.
*Note: Players will have had to play at least one season in the Big Ten conference, which removes some players from Nebraska, Penn State, Maryland and Rutgers. Also, all statistics will come from Sports-Reference.com or ncaa.org.