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

And I'm no sports psychologist, but anecdotally I buy that reasoning.

Well a 12 pack,fire place and 2 people - you have philosophy,anyhoo gonna need that EggNog recipe - the season is coming

of course the Hawkeyes had a loss to the physical Badgers last week

If they win at Iowa, I think it means a lot, almost as much as the PSU win (which had they lost would have relegated them).

The Pac is nearly all 4-5 and 5-4 teams (two 6-4 and one 4-6) plus the two 8-1 teams.  That is a collection of mediocrity, aside from Oregon and Utah, both of whom look pretty solid to me.  Oregon could easily be 9-0 of course with one break.

Presuming one of them finishes 12-1 and OU is 12-1, we'd have a "discussion" with one spot remaining.

Oh, I totally buy into this 100%.  Back in 2012, WVU went to Austin to play Texas.  Both teams were undefeated.  WVU was number 8 and Texas was number 11 I believe.  It was Fox’s prime time game and one of the more anticipated games of the weekend.  It turned out to be a great game that WVU won 48-45.  After the game all of the WVU players were really celebrating the win on the sideline.  You could tell it was really a huge win for the them and they had put a lot of emotion into it.

I can distinctly remember seeing how happy they were and how much it meant to them and I had a very sobering thought.  “We’re gonna get beat at Texas Tech next weekend.”  I knew there was no way they would be able to come down from that high and put the game in the past to focus on TT and another road game.  In fact, Tech would be the team more focused on that game given WVU’s big win and move up in the polls.  Tech rolled them 49-14 the next Saturday.

Now, obviously this isn’t something you can bank on all the time.  For instance, I’m not expecting on LSU losing to Ole Miss this weekend (although I wouldn’t be surprised if they look sloppy).  But this Iowa-Minnesota game just feels like a game that the Minnesota kids are still going to be reliving PSU on Tuesday while Iowa is laser focused on the the Gophers.  I love Iowa in this spot.  In fact, if Minnesota wins this I might be more impressed with that than the PSU win.

I will be for the reasons that you listed and also because it will give them two quality wins.  Right now they have one but anytime we are talking about one game I always have in the back of my mind that the one game we are talking about could have just been an unusually good game for the winner or an unusually bad game for the winner, those things happen.  

If Baylor wins out, it will have two victories over OU and a win over Texas in addition to what it's got now.  And it will have virtually no way of getting into the CFP because there are too many teams ahead of it who perhaps are ranked higher than they should be.

I disagree with your assumption that Baylor can't get to the CFP.  

They are currently 9-0 and 13th.  There are very good reasons for them to only be 13th:

• Their OOC was pathetic.  Stephen F. Austin is an FCS team and a bad one at that.  UTSA is a midling CUSA team and Rice is winless and fighting it out with Akron for #1 in the Bottom 10.  
• Their nine wins include multiple close calls against mediocre teams:  They beat 5-4 ISU by two at home, they beat woeful Rice by only 8, they beat sub .500 TxTech by only a FG at home, they beat 3-6 WVU by just a FG at home, and they beat sub .500 TCU by one score as well.  

All of that said, last week Minnesota got their first quality win and vaulted up nine spots to 8th from 17th.  If Baylor beats #10 Oklahoma this weekend I expect them to jump over at least Oklahoma, Auburn, and Florida.  That alone would get them to #10 without any upsets.  Then the next week they host #19 Texas while #9 PSU travels to #2 Ohio State.  If they back up the hypothetical OU win with a hypothetical TX win they'll likely jump the tOSU/PSU loser which would put them even with the two 12-1 PAC teams (Oregon and Utah).  

Note, I'm assuming here that by that time (after the 11/23 games) Minnesota will either be 11-0 and ahead of the two PAC teams or not 11-0 and no longer a problem for Baylor.  

Then in the final weekend Baylor has woeful Kansas but there are a whole lot of opportunities for upsets ahead of them:

• #1 LSU has aTm
• #2 tOSU has #15 Michigan on the road
• #3 Clemson . . . nevermind
• #4 Georgia's best opportunity for an upset is this weekend
• #5 Bama has Auburn on the road
• #6 Oregon has a rivalry game against OrSU
• #7 Utah has Colorado
• #8 Minnesota has #14 Wisconsin

Then on CG weekend, the Bears (at 12-0) would most likely get another shot at Oklahoma.  If it isn't Oklahoma it will be a B12 team that wins out from here and is pretty highly ranked.  Meanwhile:

• Either #1 LSU or #4 UGA will lose (if they haven't already), and
• Either #2 tOSU or #8 Minnesota will lose (if they haven't already), and
• Either #6 Oregon or #7 Utah will lose (if they haven't already).  
• #5 Bama will not have an opportunity to impress the committee with a game against a highly ranked opponent while Baylor will.  

If Baylor wins out I confidently predict not only that they will make the CFP, but that they will be seeded no worse than behind these three potential higher seeds:

• LSU, if they win out
• Clemson, if they win out
• tOSU/MN if one of them wins out

They will be ahead of the potential 12-1 PAC Champion and ahead of a potential 11-1 Bama.  At 13-0 Baylor is in.  

I don't know if it's "press clippings" so much as sheer psychological fatigue.  Many college athletes have said it's only possible to get sky high-- and mentally sharp-- for a couple games per season.  It's just human nature, you can't be "UP" for every single game.  Most humans don't work that way.

So simple human nature could dictate they play down to the mean, not because they're full of themselves, but simply because it's too difficult and exhausting to keep getting UP over and over again.Eventiually it''' catch up to you and you'll have a DOWN day.  Will that be this weekend? Stay tuned...

And I'm no sports psychologist, but anecdotally I buy that reasoning.

I agree and I think it is harder when you are trying to do it back-to-back and even harder when it is three or more games in a row.  This is why I think it was insane of the B1G to force their traditionally best team to (possibly) play back-to-back-to-back games against two typically stout border rivals and the B1G-W Champion leading into potentially playing back-to-back games against two CFP qualifiers.  If Ohio State has to do all of that it will certainly be the toughest five game stretch that any team has ever faced in CFB.