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

I watched the PSU-OSU game, I thought PSU was "almost" competitive, they were in it for three quarters?  OSU's talent prevailed.  THey might be 11-2 again.

In that case THE GAME could be meaningless to the B1GCG.

In that case, if you are Ryan Day, do you rest your starters for THE GAME?

Realistically he won't. He can't for at least four reasons:

• Ohio State fans would absolutely melt down, and
• CFB still uses voters to decide admission to the CFP and there is no guarantee that those voters wouldn't punish him for taking a week off, and
• If you rest your starters and effectively concede THE GAME then ALSO lose the BIGCG you become an 11-2 non-Champion with basically no shot at the CFP because the other two co-champions from your division would be 11-1.
• Seeding matters. Last year ended up weird because #1 got tOSU while #2 got TCU and most people would agree that #1's assignment was tougher but that isn't necessarily going to be the case.

No, he wouldn't do that of course.  I do wonder what sorts of similar things could happen with the 12 GPO.

I'd say probably not for a couple reasons:

• The break between the regular season and the playoff (at least if you get a bye) is longer in CFB than it is in the NFL.  Thus, resting starters makes less sense because if you get a bye they get a rest anyway so you are better off to play for the bye.  
• The 12-teams in the new playoff will be in tiers: 1) top-4 get a bye in the first round.  2) middle-4 host a first round game.  3) bottom-4 travel in the first round.  

Those tiers are a big motivation to keep playing to win even after you have effectively locked up a spot.  

Consider Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State in the hypothetical above but applied to last year:
Heading into the final weekend the CFP rankings were:

• Georgia, GaTech
• Ohio State, vs #3 M
• Michigan, @ #2 tOSU
• TCU, vs ISU
• LSU, @ aTm
• USC, vs #15 ND
• Bama, vs Auburn
• Clemson, vs USCe
• Oregon, @ #21 OrSU
• Tennessee, @ Vandy
• Penn State, vs MSU
• KSU, vs Kansas
• Washington, @WSU
• Utah, @ Colorado
• Notre Dame, @ #6 USC
• FSU, vs UF
• UNC, vs NCST
• UCLA, @ Cal
• Tulane
• Ole Miss
• OrSU, vs #9 Oregon
• UCF
• Texas
• Cincy
• Louisville

If we assume the same except applied to this year's tOSU/PSU/M H/A schedule and a Penn State win over Michigan in Happy Valley then:

• #2 Ohio State stays at #2
• #3 Michigan with a loss to PSU drops to roughly #4/5.  
• #11 Penn State with a win over Michigan improves to roughly #4/5.  

All three are essentially playoff locks heading into the final weekend but there is still a lot at stake:
#2 Ohio State, 11-0/8-0:

• Best case is to beat M and win B1GCG, finish 13-0/9-0 and no worse than #2, get a bye.  
• Upper middle case (for CFP purposes) is to lose to M, get into B1GCG anyway, win that, finish 12-1/8-1 and B1G Champions, probably get a bye (as league champ)
• Lower middle case (for CFP purposes) is to beat M but lose B1GCG, finish 12-1/9-0 and NOT B1G Champions, probably host a first round game.  
• Worst case is to lose to M, get into B1GCG anyway, lose that, finish 11-2/8-1 and NOT B1G Champions, probably travel for first round game.  

#3 Michigan, 10-1/7-1:
They would obviously be a CFP lock because even with a loss to tOSU they'd finish 10-2 with the two losses being to highly ranked and CFP-bound teams.  However, even if they were locked out of the B1GCG by the tiebreaker before THE GAME ever got started, they'd still get a lot out of winning it.  Apart from regional pride/bragging rights/recruiting advantages, a win also gets them to 11-1/8-1 and probably hosting a first round game where a loss drops them to 10-2/7-2 and probably travelling for their first round game.  

yup, Switzer and Osborne would always start the ones

Osborne would put in the 2nd team after up by 28

even up 35 or 42 at the half the starters would play the first series in the 3rd quarter

Yeah, it's not comparable to The Game, except the part about resting your ones, it's more a case for that than The Game.  I've mentioned before I would prefer to drop them from the schedule especially if we have a 9 game conference slate.  It's like playing Charleston Southern or something.

Yeah, Tech on occasion has had a decent to good team in the past, but even that has been a while now.  The common result is a blow out.  When Tech wins, it's barely.  Tech has not won in Atlanta since 1999 oddly enough.  It's boring, to me.

96	November 24, 2001	Atlanta	# (Number)19 Georgia	31–17
97	November 30, 2002	Athens	# (Number)5 Georgia	51–7
98	November 29, 2003	Atlanta	# (Number)5 Georgia	34–17
99	November 27, 2004	Athens	# (Number)8 Georgia	19–13
100	November 26, 2005	Atlanta	# (Number)13 Georgia	14–7
101	November 25, 2006	Athens	Georgia	15–12
102	November 24, 2007	Atlanta	# (Number)6 Georgia	31–17
103	November 29, 2008	Athens	# (Number)18 Georgia Tech	45–42
104	November 28, 2009	Atlanta	Georgia	30–24
105	November 27, 2010	Athens	Georgia	42–34
106	November 26, 2011	Atlanta	# (Number)13 Georgia	31–17
107	November 24, 2012	Athens	# (Number)3 Georgia	42–10
108	November 30, 2013	Atlanta	Georgia	41–342OT
109	November 29, 2014	Athens	# (Number)16 Georgia Tech	30–24OT
110	November 28, 2015	Atlanta	Georgia	13–7
111	November 26, 2016	Athens	Georgia Tech	28–27
112	November 25, 2017	Atlanta	# (Number)7 Georgia	38–7
113	November 24, 2018	Athens	# (Number)5 Georgia	45–21
114	November 30, 2019	Atlanta	# (Number)4 Georgia	52–7
115	November 27, 2021	Atlanta	# (Number)1 Georgia	45–0
116	November 26, 2022	Athens	# (Number)1 Georgia	37–14
Series: Georgia leads 70–41–5[1]

tech doesn't generate the level of hate as Michigan