The Adopt-a-G5 Team decision map - Big Ten West edition

Hello fellow Sickos Committee members, 

One of our favorite reporters/writers/podcasters, Steven Godfrey (@38Godfrey on Twitter), always preaches to adopt a Group of Five (G5) program to follow throughout the season. But just adopting a G5 team on a whim can be a bit of a daunting task for fans of a Power 5 (P5) school.

Where do you even start?

How do you find a school that aligns with what you enjoy, or avoid a school that maybe doesn’t have enough punts for your liking? 

Well, lucky for you, we have some guidance for you to help you hone in on exactly what you want.

As the Sickos Committee, we watch an enormous amount of G5 football, because we love it and just can’t get enough college football at any level. Whether a game is taking place in Monroe or Muncie, we’re there watching the game as always. During the long off-season, fellow Committee members tried to brainstorm and determine a good way for fans of P5 schools to determine what G5 school they should follow. 

As the chairman of the Sickos Committee, I figured the best way to do this is to make an “Adopt a G5 Team” decision map for each of the 65 P5 teams. I undertook the gargantuan task, and in the coming days and weeks before the 2022 college football season begins, we will be releasing the “Adopt-a-G5 Team” decision map mostly on a division by division (unless the P5 conference doesn’t have divisions) basis for all of the P5 Conferences. 

We attempted to get into the mindset of each fan base and create a different set of questions tailored specifically to your fandom. We consulted with members of the Sickos Committee who were fans of the teams and gathered their input along with their thought processes for their favorite teams and how they would align to a certain G5 team.

As for how the “Adopt-a-G5 Team” decision map works, it will prompt you, the fan of the P5 team, to answer questions on the decision map and follow it to your G5 team who hopefully matches your P5 team based on some unique criteria. Consider this like a choose your own adventure, but the adventure might lead you to Conway, SC or somewhere else. 

Now, this is not a scientific experiment and remember we are the Sickos Committee, so we cannot guarantee 100% satisfaction on where the decision map leads you. Proceed at your own risk. 

Also, if you're a fan of a P5 team and you already have a G5 team you follow, that’s fantastic but you’re welcome to play along anyway.

Finally, this is mostly meant for fun and to pass the time in the off-season. We hope you enjoy our work! (Disclaimer - most of the G5 teams are G5 for the 2022 season and beyond but some may be P5 in the near future)

You know we couldn't start anywhere else, here’s the Big Ten West division:

Illinois:

Iowa:

Minnesota:

Nebraska:

Northwestern:

Purdue:

Wisconsin: