How the Big Ten East Is Becoming College Football's Best Division

How wide was the ripple effect when Jim Harbaugh was hired by Michigan last year? He didn't just instantly make the Wolverines program better. He made the entire Big Ten East division better. 

After one season, that much has been validated. Michigan State and Ohio State are heading to the College Football Playoff and Fiesta Bowl, respectively, but the success didn't stop there. Michigan finished the year 9-3 with a respectable, early-season road loss to Utah, a loss to Michigan State on one of the more memorable plays the rivalry has ever seen and a loss to Ohio State when the Buckeyes played their best football of the season. 

Not bad, is what we're saying. And Michigan has a good opportunity to finish with 10 wins in Harbaugh's first year with a victory over Florida in the Citrus Bowl. Getting double-digit wins would be a major benchmark. Per OddsShark.com, the Wolverines are a 4.5-point favorite over the Gators. 

If Michigan does win, the Big Ten East would have three 10-win teams and a playoff participant. No other division in the Football Bowl Subdivision could say that. 

On that note, the search for finding college football's top conference is antiquated moving into 2016. The strengths of conferences aren't nearly as simple to determine as the strengths of divisions. As we've seen with the SEC's West and East divisions, there's sometimes a wide gap between the two:

Despite the disparity, football writer Bill Connelly has the SEC West as college football's strongest division. There's reason to believe this is true. For the second straight year, every SEC West team will go bowling. However, Ralph D. Russo of the Associated Press made an obvious statement earlier this season about the actual strength of the SEC West. 

In short, the top dog was Alabama. After the Tide, the margin between great teams and good ones was rather large:

Similarly, there's a big gap between the Big Ten East's "Big Three" and the lower tier of the division. Still, though, it's the top that really matters, and the Big Ten East division is as top-heavy as it gets. The overall depth of the Big Ten East is hurt by new additions Maryland and Rutgers, both of which were dreadful in 2015, but in the grand scheme, bottom-dwellers play a minuscule role in overall perception. 

Take the American Athletic Conference, for example. The AAC was one of college football's best surprises in 2015 because Houston, Memphis, Navy and Temple all emerged as top-25-caliber teams. When was the last time you heard someone talk about how bad the AAC West was because of SMU?

If Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State are competing at high levels, hardly anyone is going to care if Rutgers goes 4-8 or if Indiana makes or misses a bowl. 

The Big Ten East got to this point because of the respective hires made. The paths for Ohio State's and Michigan State's dominant runs were set the moment they hired Urban Meyer and Mark Dantonio, respectively. Meyer has led the Buckeyes to a 49-4 record in four years, won a national championship and at one point 24 straight regular-season games. 

As for Dantonio, is there a coach in college football who gets less respect for what he's accomplished? Dantonio has beaten Meyer twice in three years, won a Rose Bowl and could win a national championship this year. Yet major news outlets can't even get his name right:

But that plays into the narrative on which Michigan State actually thrives. Its run of success is built on having a boulder-sized chip on its shoulder. In that way, this top-10 program is built differently from the foundation on up. The Spartans haven't been "little brother" to Michigan in years, but they operate—and will continue to do as long as Dantonio is in East Lansing—as though they've never been respected. 

This leads us back to Michigan, the blue blood back on the rise. The general belief is that Harbaugh would win in Ann Arbor, and he has already at a rate faster than most realistically expected. It was also assumed Harbaugh would recruit at a high level. That, he has. 

The 2015 Summer Swarm Tour (i.e. the satellite camps dreaded by the SEC) was a massive success. This past week, Harbaugh landed two blue-chip recruits: 4-star running back Kareem Walker and 4-star linebacker Devin Bush Jr. The latest bump gives the Wolverines the No. 2 class nationally for 2016 (behind Ohio State), according to 247Sports' composite rankings. 

In fact, the Big Ten East has four teams—the other two being Penn State and Michigan State—ranked in the top 15 in recruiting. That's tied with the SEC West for the most among any division. Granted, we're still two months away from signing day, but that gives you an idea about the talent coming into the division. 

With the reputation Dantonio, Harbaugh and Meyer have for developing talent, the Big Ten East is setting itself up to play at the highest level for the foreseeable future.

To recap: The Big Ten East has a coach who won a national championship at his current job, one who can this year and one who many think will. 

There are only so many wins to go around, of course. Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State can't all go undefeated in the same year. What the addition of Harbaugh has done, however, is increase the urgency to win. Ohio State's 42-13 win over the Wolverines was a reflection of this. 

"I want to make clear, I think one of the reasons why they practiced and got refocused so quickly is because of the respect they have for their opponent. That is an excellent football team and very good personnel. Excellent personnel," Meyer said after beating the Wolverines, per Eric Seger of ElevenWarriors.com. 

This is nothing new for Meyer. Remember when Ohio State lost to Michigan State in the 2013 Big Ten Championship Game? Remember the "sad pizza" memes? Meyer takes these games personally. Dantonio takes everything personally. Harbaugh is mad when he's up 31 points on Northwestern.

These coaches are wired for nothing less than total success. They get the results to boot.  

As long as Dantonio, Harbaugh and Meyer are around, the top of the Big Ten East will be as formidable as any division in college football. 

In fact, it is right now. Take that, Big Ten cynics. 

Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.