CHICAGO _ After beating one of the two worst teams in the conference, Illinois coach Brad Underwood proselytized about the strength of the Big Ten.
"Someone mentioned this is arguably the best league in the country," he said after the Illini beat Northwestern, 74-66, last week. "You can forget that. There is no arguing about it. This is the best league in the country. You have to play every single night."
While it's common for coaches to praise their conferences, no matter how strong or weak, Underwood is right about the Big Ten this season. It has been wild _ in a good way.
Entering the final two days of the regular season, only two games separate first place from seventh and just four games separate first from 11th.
Illinois (20-10, 12-7) is in fourth, a game behind the three co-leaders, with a chance to earn a double bye in the Big Ten Tournament with a win Sunday night against Iowa.
While beating up on each other, the Big Ten teams have pulled each other up too. The conference could see a record-tying 11 teams invited to the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday. (The Big East set the record in 2011 with 11 bids in a 16-team conference.)
That would continue a remarkable progression from only four NCAA Tournament teams in 2018 to a Big Ten-record eight last year.
As CBSSports.com reporter Matt Norlander pointed out, the Big Ten is enjoying this resurgence in part thanks to its controversial decision to expand the conference schedule to 20 games last season.
Tougher scheduling has boosted both the conference's profile and its standing in quantitative rankings such as the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) and Ken Pomeroy's ratings.
Eight Big Ten teams are in the current Associated Press Top 25, a conference record.
Ten teams are in the top 37 of the NET rankings, with Minnesota (45) and Indiana (52) not far back.
KenPom likes the Big Ten even better, with 12 teams in the top 36.
ESPN's "bracketology" projection Friday morning had 10 Big Ten teams in the field, with Purdue listed in the "next four out." Illinois was projected as a No. 7 seed.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, whose team has made a late push for the Big Ten title, compared this year's conference parity to the NFL.
"Everybody's had their four- or five-game kind of strange times where you win four out of five, you lose four out of five," he told MLive.com. "Just about everybody's done it. Unfortunately, we're all going to beat the daylights out of each other. I don't know if they'll be good, bad or indifferent as we move forward, but it gives you something to play for."
Proof of the conference's increased strength is found at Rutgers. A Big Ten doormat since joining the conference in 2014, the Scarlet Knights (19-11, 10-9) set a school record with 18 home victories _ the most in the nation _ and their win Tuesday against No. 8 Maryland might help secure their first NCAA Tournament berth in 29 years.
Iowa's Luka Garza is a national player of the year candidate. Michigan State's Cassius Winston might be the nation's best point guard _ if it isn't Maryland's Anthony Cowan Jr.
Wisconsin has quietly built a contender, while Penn State has joined Rutgers in escaping the conference's bottom tier. Ohio State has bounced back from a midseason slump, something Michigan needs to do in a hurry.
Next week's Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis figures to showcase the conference's depth. Selection Sunday will confirm it.
The final step is the ultimate validation: a Big Ten team winning the national championship for the first time since Michigan State 20 years ago.
