Bill Connelly's Big Ten Preview

[Anonymous Coward]

I tend to consider a lot of B.C.'s stuff to be appointment reading. Now that his school-by-school intros are done, he's compiling them into conference outlooks and power rankings. His Big Ten version is fresh off the modem.

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/7/10/15932520/big-ten-football-2017-power-rankings-ohio-state

[Anonymous Coward]

His Michigan preview:

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/7/7/15910358/michigan-football-2017-preview-schedule-roster-jim-harbaugh

Fair and thorough. It also gave us a chance to remember that Don Brown is a good guy to hire for the job he is best at:

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, buried in these reminders of last year I was surprised how much Spartan hope I found. If we ignore the offseason from hell, I'd look at these graphs and scratch my head wondering why they finished at the bottom rather than the middle of the conference. My fading memories of last year have me guessing that they were actually a medium-level team that concentrated nearly all of its boneheaded plays into a few worst-possible moments, rather than spreading them out so they'd impact the season less. This adds circumstantial fuel to the "lockerroom cancer" hypothesis.

[betarhoalphadelta]

So everyone except Michigan, Iowa, and Minnesota are expected to be better than last year? As measured by S&P+, at least?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think so. With Maryland up and Michigan down being the highest-magnitude movers.

[medinabuckeye1]

I'm lost on images.  I clicked "Add image to post" and a window popped up.  I dragged dude (annonymous coward)'s image into that window and it showed up there.  Now what?  How do I get it here?

Looking at those rankings, here is what I see:
Four really good teams (tOSU, PSU, M, UW). 
BIG GAP
Six good-but-not-great teams (NU, IU, UNL, MSU, IA). 
BIG GAP
Four bad teams (UMD, ILL, PU, RU). 

[Temp430]

Click on the Insert Image button above and you get something like this:

[img][img]    with your cursor in the middle. 


To post I just drag an image from a web page between the [img] "bookends."

I'm lost on images.  I clicked "Add image to post" and a window popped up.  I dragged dude (annonymous coward)'s image into that window and it showed up there.  Now what?  How do I get it here?

Looking at those rankings, here is what I see:
Four really good teams (tOSU, PSU, M, UW). 
BIG GAP
Six good-but-not-great teams (NU, IU, UNL, MSU, IA). 
BIG GAP
Four bad teams (UMD, ILL, PU, RU).

[medinabuckeye1]

Click on the Insert Image button above and you get something like this:

[medinabuckeye1]

I'm sure it is just operator error, but I found the "Insert Image button" above as opposed to the "Add Image" text below and I tried exactly what you said.  I dragged the image into the spot between the bookends and . . . nothing happened. 

[PSUinNC]

Am I the only one who thinks Michigan is going to be way better than most predict?  I know they lost a lot, but it's not like the cupboards are bare. 

[Anonymous Coward]

Click on the Insert Image button above and you get something like this:

[img][img]    with your cursor in the middle. 

That's right. Or at least that's what worked for me. My inserted images were offline, and I didn't drag (like at the last site) or upload a picture (as I'm told we can now do off our desktop). I just copy/pasted the URL to the image in between those brackets and 'presto!'

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only one who thinks Michigan is going to be way better than most predict?  I know they lost a lot, but it's not like the cupboards are bare.

This is a fun year, because there's a wealth of young talent and basically zero expectations. It won't have a NC-type ceiling, but Michigan will be in the mix.

[grillrat]

Am I the only one who thinks Michigan is going to be way better than most predict?  I know they lost a lot, but it's not like the cupboards are bare.

The problem is two-fold.  1)  Michigan does not just lose a lot.  They lose freakin' EVERYBODY.  Last year's team was senior laden not only in the starters but in many of the back-ups too.  2)  Their schedule is a lot harder this year.  Last year, 7 of their first 9 games were at home with the road games being @Rutgers and @MSU (which admittedly we did not know how badly they were going to suck last year, but the end result is still the point).  This year, they start off with a neutral game with Florida (in Texas), along with games @Maryland, @PSU, & @Wisconsin, along with the annual slugfest with OSU. 

They are still going to be decent to very good, but it's looking a lot more like an 7-8 win year versus a 10 win year.

[Anonymous Coward]

If 7 or 8 is the national expectation, this should be even more fun than I was thinking. :- )

Meanwhile, I think you understate what returns. I'm not waxing about unproven recruits. There was a large mass of high performing, high snap count back-ups who return. I mean...Rashan Gary, Mo Hurst, Bryan Mone, and Winovich, as examples, were technically back-ups. That's insane.