What is conference dominance?

It's eight years of holding or sharing a regular-season title. It's six championship rings in nine conference tournament appearances. It's going just one year without a representative in the conference tournament championship game.

And it is exactly what Penn State and Purdue have achieved during the 11 years they have been together in the Big Ten.

As the two current top-10 teams square off Sunday to directly determine this season's regular-season conference champion, it will be just another chapter in the story of dominance and rivalry that these two teams have been composing since the Lady Lions joined the Big Ten for the 1992-93 season.

"[The rivalry] is exciting," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said. "People try to make things happen in-state, but for both of us it's a great conference thing. It's clean and it's competitive and it's fun to watch."

And, as Portland is quick to note, the rivalry extends beyond the conference to a national level, for which the teams track each other's progress to see which one is able to prove the most about the Big Ten on a national scale. In a sport that is consistently dominated by the UConns and the Tennessees, Penn State and Purdue have nevertheless been able to poke their noses into the top tier at times. In the total history of both programs are a combined five Elite Eight appearances, two Final Four showings, and two performances in the NCAA title game -- both Purdue's -- yielding one national title.

The way in which the two programs have been able to consistently dominate the Big Ten is, however, what impresses Purdue women's basketball coach Kristy Curry the most.

"Consistent is the word," Curry said. "And it speaks for itself."

While the years in which the teams finished at the top tell the best part of the consistency of the programs, the other seasons still tell the same story.

In the past 11 years, only once, the 1992-93 season, did Purdue finish below fourth in the Big Ten in the regular season. Penn State has only finished out of the top-four twice, in 1996-97 and 1997-98. In that time, neither school has ever been a conference bottom-dweller. Penn State's seventh-place finish in 1997-98 was the worst finish between the two teams, and in that season the Lions made it to the finals of the Big Ten tournament.

So where lies the magical secret, the hidden buoy that allows Purdue and Penn State to float to the top?

"I'm not real sure how Purdue has done it, but I know how Penn State has done it," Portland said. "I've been here a long time, and I got a commitment 24 years ago to let this program grow. I've always felt the support, and we've had the financial commitment to make things happen. The consistency that we've been able to give and the hard work, you put all those things together."

For Purdue, the coaching consistency has not been there, with four different head coaches since 1992. However, the Boilermakers have not allowed that to affect the consistency of the program. For example, when Curry arrived in West Lafayette, Ind., in 1999, inheriting a national championship team, she knew maintaining that level of success would be her priority and establishing consistency would be her goal.

"I was really glad to work at Louisiana Tech under Leon Barmore [head coach from 1985-2002] who said, 'It's a lot harder to maintain than to get there,' " Curry said. "I've been blessed to have a great staff and a great administration. But in the end, I'm just a blue-collar, hard-working country girl and I've been blessed to have some good things happen. I just hope I can have the consistency that Rene has had."

It is clear that beyond the requisite hard work, both programs are based on expectations and tradition -- for Purdue in the old Gold and Black, and for Penn State in the Lady Lions' treasured Blue and White. According to Curry, it is the family-oriented nature encouraged by both head coaches that makes the teams special.

And the lofty goals set by both, of which there is no better example than the season at hand, are what generate the excitement, the fan support and the record crowds, which ultimately help propagate the success.

"It's just euphoria; it's just excitement," Curry said. "There isn't a place we go that people aren't talking about what we're doing."

What is perhaps the best propagator of success for both teams, however, is being in the same conference and facing off head-to-head at least one time each season.

It is said that a team can only get better by playing the best, and, often enough, Purdue and Penn State can find a top-10 team in each other. This has led to not only a healthy rivalry, but also a true respect that can be, at times, nonexistent between foes.

"I do think both programs are class programs," Portland said. "It's interesting how we talk to each other and how the players treat each other. It's not like that with every team in the Big Ten. It really isn't like that."

Sunday, the rivalry and, hopefully, the respect will be as intense as ever, with a Big Ten regular season title, Player of the Year honors and a top-five national ranking potentially all at stake.

But after the past 11 years of co-dominance in the Big Ten for the Lions and the Boilermakers, it is hardly a surprise that the season worked itself out this way.

At her press conference on Tuesday, Portland remarked that whoever made the selection back in January to broadcast the Penn State-Purdue game nationally on ESPN2 showed remarkable foresight.

Foresight, maybe. But hindsight all the more.