12 seems like a lot of players left after week 8. is it normally this many left this late?
I'm not sure as it's my first year doing it. Do we also normally start with as many as 22 entrants?
When I started looking at my spreadsheet, though, I definitely see where the land mines are the next few weeks. I suspect that it thins out QUICKLY once we reach this point. We all tried to get the lower-tier B1G teams out of the way early in the season when they're playing cupcakes, but I think all of us still have several questionable teams remaining.
I.e. a majority of the remaining entrants still have Nebraska, Northwestern, and Purdue, and two of us still have Rutger. Next weekend (Oct 26), Nebraska hosts Indiana, Northwestern plays #23 Iowa, Purdue hosts Illinois, and Rutger hosts Liberty. Do you feel
truly safe about any of those matchups? OSU hosts Wisconsin, and PSU has to travel to MSU. Those are dangerous matchups as well.
The following weekend (Nov 2), OSU, PSU, and Wisconsin all have BYE weeks. Rutger is @Illinois, but nobody can still choose Illinois. Purdue/Nebraska face each other, and that tilt could go either way. The few people who still have Michigan can probably trust they'll beat Maryland, but only 3 teams of 12 remaining haven't yet picked Michigan yet.
This is one of the last remaining "safe" weeks for most players, and then we all run into problems.