Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Lmao. Facts. Butt was probably a 2nd rd NFL draft pick. That is until he tore his acl, mcl, and meniscus 3 or 4 months before the NFL draft playing in a meaningless bowl game vs Florida State. I believe he re-tore the same ACL twice in the NFL and basically never played.

Case study why I'd never fault a kid who is going to be a 1st or 2nd rd draft pick for deciding to opt out of a bowl game.

I wonder where the "meaningless game" line moves to in the future, with the way things are going now.  I mean, any regular season games for a 2-5 Maryland team are even more meaningless than a bowl game.  How soon will any of their players with a legit shot to be drafted decide the risk isn't worth it?

This isn't a new question; I just don't know the answer.  I doubt I'll be interested in college athletics much longer anyway, given the current landscape...

I wonder where the "meaningless game" line moves to in the future, with the way things are going now.  I mean, any regular season games for a 2-5 Maryland team are even more meaningless than a bowl game.  How soon will any of their players with a legit shot to be drafted decide the risk isn't worth it?

I've said that before.  When Kenneth Walker skipped the Peach Bowl, I questioned why he played in the Penn State game.  MSU was eliminated from Big Ten/CFP contention with the loss to OSU the prior week.  So all that was on the line was a NY6 Bowl, that he was skipping.  If the non-CFP bowls are meaningless, then why are the games that have no impact on the CFP meaningful?

nah. f that. those guys all watch ESPN. for sure. and they need to play the videos of everyone at ESPN like Finebaum saying their luck is gonna run out this year- yes he actually said that and called them lucky- and show that enitre College GameDay crew picking Ohio State over them....guarantee that'd piss those Michigan players off if they saw it. And it should. They've smacked Ohio State straight in the mouth last two years in a row- they get them at home, they return f'ing EVERYBODY while OSU is rebuilding the OL and replacing the #2 pick in the NFL draft at QB...I'd bet those guys on that team would 100000% feel slighted, disrespected, and like Ohio State is getting all the love while they are getting none.

Ok, I'm going to defend my team.  First, let me preface all of this by saying that yes, I watched the last two iterations of The Game and that being the case, when making a League Power Ranking nearly all of our local fans had Michigan at #1.  

That being said, national guys are inherently going to focus more on the big, national games, particularly the postseason and especially the CFP games.  That makes sense and if you look only at the last few postseasons, it is honestly hard to come up with a rationale for putting Michigan ahead of Ohio State:
2019:
Ohio State:
The Buckeyes made the CFP and lost a very close game against Clemson.  
Michigan:
The Wolverines went to an also-ran Citrus Bowl and got thumped by the Tide.  

2020:
Ohio State:
The Buckeyes made the CFP again, thumped Clemson, and got drilled by the Tide.  Getting drilled by the Tide obviously isn't good but they proved they belonged with the big win over Clemson nonetheless.  
Michigan:
No post-season.  

2021:
Ohio State:
The Buckeyes missed the CFP and went to a consolation Rose Bowl where I frankly expected them to get drilled.  The motivation gap was humongous.  For Utah it was a chance to win the school's first ever Rose Bowl and one of the VERY few major bowls in school history.  For Ohio State it was a consolation game.  They spent all season in the thick of the NC discussion and lost that in the last game of the year.  So Ohio State proceeded to rewrite the Rose Bowl record book in a win.  
Michigan:
The Wolverines made the CFP and got thumped by eventual-champion Georgia.  

2022:
Ohio State:
The Buckeyes made the CFP and lost to eventual-champion Georgia on a missed FG as time expired.  They looked to be the equal or at least near-equal of the Champions. 
Michigan:
The Wolverines made the CFP and somehow lost to a joke of a CFP entrant, TCU.  That same TCU squad that Michigan lost to turned around and lost by about 100 points to the very same UGA team that tOSU pushed to the absolute limit.  

In the last four years tOSU has three CFP appearances and a 1-3 record in CFP games.  More importantly, they "looked like" they belonged in all three CFP's and their "off year" was a Rose Bowl win.  

In the last four years Michigan has two CFP appearances and an 0-2 record in CFP games while frankly "looking like" they didn't belong either time.  Their two off years included getting thumped by the Tide in an also-ran bowl and missing the post-season entirely due to a disastrous COVID year.  

I'm not saying that tOSU is/was better than Michigan but I am saying that Michigan has a post-season problem.  They haven't won a post-season game since they beat Florida in the Citrus Bowl at the end of the 2015 season.  Since then:

• 33-32 loss to FSU in the Orange Bowl, 2016 season
• 26-19 loss to USCe in the Outback Bowl, 2017 season
• 41-15 loss to Florida in the Peach Bowl, 2018 season
• 35-16 loss to Bama in the Citrus Bowl, 2019 season
• no postseason in the COVID year
• 34-11 loss to Georgia in the CFP, 2021 season
• 51-45 loss to TCU in the CFP, 2022 season.  

Compare Ohio State:

• 31-0 loss to Clemson in the CFP, 2016 season
• 24-7 win over USC in the Cotton Bowl, 2017 season
• 28-23 win over Washington in the Rose Bowl, 2018 season
• 29-23 loss to Clemson in the CFP, 2019 season
• 49-28 win over Clemson in the CFP, 2020 season
• 52-24 loss to Bama in the CFPCG, 2020 season
• 48-45 win over Utah in the Rose Bowl, 2021 season
• 42-41 loss to UGA in the CFP, 2022 season.  

So in the seven seasons since Michigan last won a bowl game they are 0-6 with three close losses (FSU, USCe, and TCU) and three blowout losses while Ohio State is 4-4 with:

• Two bad losses (Clemson-16, Bama)
• Two close losses (Clemson-19, UGA)
• Two close wins (UW, Utah)
• Two blowout wins (USC, Clemson-20) 

Also note that tOSU played substantially better opponents in all but one of the years that Michigan made the post-season and played CFP opponents when Michigan didn't:

• 2016:  FSU was good but Clemson was CFP.  
• 2017:  USCe was ok, USC is the real USC, PAC Champ.  
• 2018:  Florida was ok, UW was the PAC Champ.  
• 2019:  Bama was having an off year, Clemson was CFP.  
• 2020:  No bowl for M, CFP for tOSU.  
• 2021:  Michigan played a better opponent.  
• 2022:  tOSU's opponent beat M's opponent by what was it, 70?

So in the last seven post-seasons tOSU is .500 while playing five CFP opponents and three PAC Champions.  Michigan is 0-6 while playing two CFP opponents and four also-rans.  

your team doesn't need much defending

And therefore MSU didn't defend them much

Power rankings are somewhat subjective, as is my analysis, but today, Ohio State did not seem to me to be a Top 2 Big Ten team. We can't judge a season by opening week. 
Ohio State looked a bit like Iowa today; good defensively; bad offensively; that said, Ohio State will probably be better than 8-5.

Edwards is a goddamn cheat code.  He's what LeVeon Bell became once he shed some weight, and got in an NFL system. If you made Edwards a pure WR, he'd be the best slot WR in the Big Ten.  Instead he's a top 5 college RB, with NFL receiving ability.  Corum returning is whatever, I think Michigan has a 4* recruit who can fill those shoes.  Edwarsd is special

That's a stretch since he was making catches out of the backfield - and prolly covered more by LBs in space quite different,the potential is there and he may even play there on Sundays

IMHO, there are way too many unknowns with one game:

• Most of us think ECU will suck like last year but maybe they'll get the G5 NYD Bowl.
• Most of think Indiana will suck like last year but what if Tom Allen has that program ready to contend in the B1G-E.
• Maybe this was just a particularly good/bad game by ECU/IU.
• Maybe this was tOSU's or M's best/worst game of the year.

can't really glean much if anything from Michigan. 

ECU didn't score until literally the very last seconds of the entire game- and it was a FG at that- vs a bunch of 3rd and 4th stringers on D. Instead of just running the ball and clock out they kept trying to go all out to move the ball and get in FG range all so they could get a bullshit garbage time FG with 5 seconds left in a game all so they wouldn't be shut out on the scoreboard. Michigan's defense dominated them- even with a bunch of starters out- but that was to be expected- can't really learn anything from that- some individual performances flashed though- NT Kenneth Grant, LB Ernest Hausman, CB Josh Wallace, and S Keon Sabb all looked terrific in their first real action. The transfer portal LB Hausman might already be their best LB, all due respect to Junior Colson. Sabb looked like all that coaches hype and his recruiting hype on him might wound up being legit. Wallace looked like he belonged- made the play of the game that didn't count for some reason. Grant was literally unblockable and outplayed Mason Graham and Kris Jenkins- albeit they got less snaps than he did. 

Their 1st team O with JJ had 6 possessions. They scored TD's on 4 of them, a FG on one, and the final one they moved the ball right down to the 1 yard line and then flubbed up near the goal-line and had a turnover on downs. That's why they only had 30 points. The return teams and defense didn't generate points- which you'd typically expect vs an inferior opponent like this- and their 2nd string O was conservative mode- their backup QB David Warren attempted 1 pass. Their only scoring at all was with the 1st team on 5 of their 6 drives. 

Really only thing you can glean from their offense at all is that JJ looked extremely in command of the offense and huddle and was extremely accurate throwing dimes- his ball placement and accuracy is the best he's ever displayed. Competition caveats can apply- but at the same time not really- because a perfect throw to a perfect spot is a perfect throw to a perfect spot- and that'll beat any competition level- and he was basically throwing those on all his drives. His accuracy was on fire- best he's ever been. You can tell he's put in the work. He also seems to have a budding connection with Roman Wilson and Colston Loveland brewing. They were on the same page and JJ was putting balls right on the money to them before they were even out of their breaks in spots only they could catch them...and they flat out weren't doing that last season. JJ had a sweet throw where he froze a defender with a little look and fake pump flick and then turned his head and fired a dart to the end zone to Wilson- that was sh*t he just wasn't doing last year. My hope is they spend these next 3 games allowing JJ to throw it 30+ per game and keep working on those little details and working on the chemistry with Wilson and Loveland.