I have a confession to make - I’ve had the tendency to jump on the occasional bandwagon.

Yes, I “Blame(d) it on the rain” with Milli Vanilli, “Jump(ed)” with Kris Kross, and sang along to “YMCA” at sporting events. I’ve bling-blinged as rap hit the rough and tumble streets of my ’hood - a northwest suburb of Chicago.

I’ve French-rolled my jeans, owned a Darnell Autry Northwestern football jersey, and had racing stripes shaved into my head, not to mention a bowl cut.

I’ve frosted my tips, and asked the stylist to “frost my tips” - a personal low.

I spoke a little “igPa atinLa,” anointed the Baha Men as the next big thing, got fired up for “Karate Kid Part II” and bought a Phish album.

I’ve tried to mimic the greats with varying success - Zack Morris, Vince Vaughn in “Swingers” and master thespian Peter North.

I’m currently a member of the “messy-head” army, I shop at Gap, listen to Dave Matthews Band and, yes, own Dr. Martens. I’m like no one you know - no one.

I am a sheep, bahh, bahh.

I even nearly spent my collegiate years in the “Girls Gone Wild” atmosphere of the wild and crazy campus of Valparaiso after they wore the glass slipper during their Sweet 16 run in the 1998 NCAA Tournament. I legitimately applied to go there.

But one bandwagon jump I’ve been trying to fight off is using the word “parity” to describe college basketball, or more pertinently, Big Ten college basketball.

I despise “parity.” I hate it. It angers me in a Tori Spelling sort of way - dirty and way too easy to use.

Call me ignorant, stupid or vocabulary-challenged, but I had never heard the word before this season. It wasn’t until every Big Ten coach was asked about the strength of the league that I had the slightest clue that the dirtiest of all six-letter words existed.

So in early January after the 14,372nd time I heard the word, I cracked open Webster and his dictionary for answers. Parity is “the state or condition of being the same in value, power, rank, etc ...”

And since “parity” has weaseled its way into my life, I have really avoided ever typing it - all quotes involving the term were scrapped.

The overkill of this word is tremendous. It’s right up there with the hype for “Pearl Harbor,” Britney Spears’ relationship with silicon (or saline for that matter) and the final bonfire on “Temptation Island.”

Isn’t it ironic that a word meaning balance is so exclusively used? It’s just like rain on your wedding day or a free ride when you’ve already paid.

But here comes the shocker - there is a lot of parity in the Big Ten this year.

I know I said I hate the word in a Spelling-fashion. I still do. But using parity as a description of the conference season is too good a fit. Trying to go a season without using it in description is like watching “90210” and not seeing Tori Spelling overact. Neither could happen and, now, neither did.

But back to parity. With the Big Ten Tournament a week away, I have no idea who will win. Certainly, some teams are more capable than others.

Illinois and Indiana probably have the most talent of the Big Ten’s top teams. Ohio State and Wisconsin have a veteran savvy that makes them tough.

The Spartans are hot and definitely capable.

Even the eighth-place Iowa Hawkeyes are dangerous. There isn’t a single team in the conference MSU should want to play, and not one team who we couldn’t beat.

And it’s like this for almost everyone in the league.

With all this parity (I can’t stop using it), I see zero reason why the Big Ten doesn’t get eight NCAA Tournament bids.

I can almost hear the battle cries streaming out of the Big Ten offices - “We want eight bids - We have parity.”

So now that my leap onto the parity bandwagon is complete, I can only hope it works out as well as my other jumps. If not, I’ll find something that will.

Dan Woike, a State News men’s basketball reporter, is debating whether to get a barbed wire tattoo, a body piercing, take up an extreme sport or be a guest on “Shipmates.” E-mail him at woikedan@msu.edu and tell him what to do.