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

Well that's good. 

I think we sometimes get too wrapped up in the "sabermetrics" of CFB. Take the Penn State-Indiana example. Even though Indiana won the head to head match up, Penn St is still widely accepted as the better team because they have better stats and more starz. What they are missing, imo, is that they also have a HC whose weakness is a strong propensity to "beef it" down the stretch of close games with bad calls and poor clock management. Which is exactly what happened here. So if they play the game ten times, does Penn State win 7? I dunno. It looks that way on paper. But how many times is James Franklin gonna to James Franklin? 

Take Michigan. They have a strong D, and they can play man ball, and they consistently pummel the teams that they are supposed to beat. But their HC has established a record of suckage in rivalry games and bowl games. It is a mistake to not factor such things in, imo. 

With Wisconsin, they already get to play in the B1G West, where they are usually way better than everyone else. Yet they rarely challenge themselves out of conference, loading up on creampuffs, and they gripe if draw anyone tougher than Indiana on the Crossover slate. So they have an established history of bullying the little sisters of the poor while shying away from any unnecesary challenges. Now all of a sudden they are in the unusual position of being challenged by the Nebraskas and Purdues of the B1G West because they are short handed at key positions, and then they cancell the games? Are they being over cautious because of Covid? Or does "playing the Covid card" pave the way for a diabolical scheme where they "can't lose if they don't play"? It was mentioned upthread that Fitz wouldn't duck Wisconsin in order to increase their chances of winning the B1G West, and I believe that's true. King Berry, on the other hand, I could totally see doing that. 

Now if they get back at it and play the Wolverines, win or lose, I will eat my words. That is by far the most daunting game left on their slate. If they play the Wolverines, full strength or not, then it completely blows my theory out of the water. But if they instead conveniently come back the following week, or if they cancel the season altogether and celebrate going undefeated and untied at 1-0, well.... 

This is a tough year to judge. Many teams are sorely missing their OOC games (ahem Iowa). How do you place a team that has COVID issues? Take Wisconsin, I am not sure the count now but it was 20 something (?) positives and some are voting them as if they were able to field an entire team yet others are saying that since they are not playing move them down. There is no right or wrong way on these since it is based on opinion but I would look at COVID as an injury. How would you rank them if you replaced COVID with an ACL injury? If Wisconsin was able to field a team but Mertz was out with a knee injury, would you rank them differently? Personally, I haven't seen enough games this year to base an opinion other than tOSU at the top.

Edit: also how do place any emphasis on home field. Since the crowds aren't there is it really an advantage?

I agree but I don't think it's as significant as a full crowd.