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B1G roundtable: Toughest coaching job

What's the best coaching job in the country? Stay with ESPN.com this week for an answer as the full list of Power 5 coaching seats is unveiled. The countdown began Monday, with Nos. 48-65Insider.

Here at the Big Ten blog, we got involved by offering a look at coaching in the Big Ten. We'll offer our takes on the league's jobs.

Monday's roundtable topic: What's the toughest coaching job in the Big Ten?

Mitch Sherman: Northwestern

No Big Ten program fights for relevancy in its home market quite like Northwestern, with its long history of struggles in athletics and demands academically unlike even the other elite institutions of the league. Northwestern went 64 years without a bowl win until 2012, when it finished 10-3, just its third season out of 132 with more than nine victories. Coach Pat Fitzgerald, after a breakout season in 2008 and unprecedented success in Evanston, has clouded our minds about the difficulty of sustaining success at Northwestern. The past two 5-7 seasons, though, serve as a reminder. It’s tough. The fan base tends to get disinterested, the margin for error is slim, and the emerging culture in college athletics to empower student-athletes further establishes challenges at the league’s lone private institution that aren't as difficult elsewhere in the Big Ten.

Dan Murphy: Indiana

Expectations aren't particularly high for football among the Hoosiers faithful. A bowl game -- Indiana's first since 2007 -- would keep the masses happy, but making it through the Big Ten's East Division gets more treacherous each year. That side of the league is loaded, with two top-five programs in Ohio State and Michigan State. If Jim Harbaugh's track record follows him to Ann Arbor, Michigan won't be far behind. James Franklin is another proven winner at Penn State, and newcomers Maryland and Rutgers held their own in their first year. That leaves Indiana as a hanger-on in a league full of climbers. Unless the Hoosiers start investing more in the program as a whole, winning in Bloomington will be a tall order for Kevin Wilson or anyone else in his seat.

Brian Bennett: Purdue

In my view, the two toughest jobs in the Big Ten are both in the Hoosier State, and Indiana has struggled the most in the past two decades. But the Hoosiers have made some upgrades in their facilities, and Bloomington is an excellent college town. Purdue has a stronger tradition than IU but is in an even tougher position. It's a great school with rigorous academics, but Ross-Ade Stadium and West Lafayette both lack charm. There isn't much local talent from which to draw. Fan support and revenue are major issues, as the program recently announced it was cutting prices on its season tickets. It's even more remarkable, in retrospect, what Joe Tiller accomplished during his tenure with the Boilers. The team hasn't done much since he left.

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