CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: medinabuckeye1 on November 18, 2019, 11:41:36 AM
-
The short version is that this week's tOSU/PSU game will almost certainly decide the East while next week's UW/MN game will almost certainly decide the West:
B1G-E
The wins by PSU and tOSU eliminated the Wolverines and Hoosiers from B1GCG contention. Michigan could still tie for the B1G-E Championship but they can't win the tie so they can't get to Indianapolis.
- 7-0 Ohio State: Clinches an outright Championship and a spot in Indy with a win over PSU. If the Buckeyes lose to PSU they are effectively eliminated because they would need Rutgers to beat PSU to get back into the race.
- 6-1 Penn State: Effectively clinches a spot in Indy with a win over tOSU (technically they also need either a win over RU or a tOSU loss to Michigan).
- 5-2 Michigan: Can only tie for the B1G-E if they win out (@IU, vstOSU) and tOSU loses their other game (vsPSU), and PSU loses their other game (vsRU). Even if all that happened the Nittany Lions would win the tie based on their H2H wins over the other two.
- 4-3 IU, 2-5 MSU, 1-6 UMD, and 0-7 RU are mathematically eliminated.
B1G-W:
Despite beating the Gophers this weekend, the Hawkeyes were eliminated from contention for a spot in Indy by Wisconsin's win over Nebraska. This week's Iowa/Illinois winner can still technically tie for the B1G-W Championship but they can't win the tie.
- 6-1 Minnesota: The Gophers go to Indy with either a win over UW or a win over NU and a UW loss to PU.
- 5-2 Wisconsin: As long as they beat Purdue at home this weekend, the Ax game will be for a spot in Indy.
- 4-3 Iowa: Much like the Wolverines in the East, the Hawkeyes in the West can tie for their division if they win out but they cannot win the tie. All of the following would have to happen for the Hawkeyes to tie for the B1G-W: 1) Iowa wins out (vsIL, @UNL), 2) MN loses out (@NU, vsUW), 3) UW loses their other game (vsPU). If all of that happened the Badgers would win the tie based on their H2H wins over the other two.
- 4-3 Illinois: The Illini have a slightly different situation than the Hawkeyes but it ends up in a similar result. They can only tie for the division and for that to happen they need all of the following: 1) they win out (@IA, vsNU), 2) MN loses out (@NU, vUW), 3) UW loses their other game (vsPU). If all of that happened the Illini, Gophers, and Badgers would all tie at 6-3. They would also all tie with one-another at 1-1. The next tiebreaker is divisional record which Wisconsin would win because their "other" loss was to Ohio State.
- 3-4 PU, 2-5 UNL, and 0-7 NU are mathematically eliminated.
Bowl position*:
- 10-0 Ohio State clinched
- 9-1 Minnesota clinched
- 9-1 Penn State clinched
- 8-2 Michigan clinched
- 8-2 Wisconsin clinched
- 7-3 Indiana clinched
- 7-3 Iowa clinched
- 6-4 Illinois clinched
- 4-6 Michigan State: Needs to win out (@RU. vsUMD) should make it
- 4-6 Nebraska: Needs to win out (@UMD, vsIA) not likely
- 4-6 Purdue: Needs to win out (@UW, vs IU) not likely
- 3-7 UMD, 2-8 RU, and 2-8 NU cannot make it.
*I have excluded the possibility that a 5-7 team could get in.
-
Here are the mediot preseason predictions:
BIG TEN EAST
1. Michigan, 222 points (20 first-place votes)
2. Ohio State, 214 points (14)
3. Michigan State, 156 points
4. Penn State, 154 points
5. Indiana, 86.5 points
6. Maryland, 82.5 points
7. Rutgers, 37 points
BIG TEN WEST
1. Nebraska, 198 points (14 first-place votes)
2. Iowa, 194.5 points (14)
3. Wisconsin, 172.5 points (4)
4. Northwestern, 142.5 points (1)
5. Purdue, 110.5 points
6. Minnesota, 100 points (1)
7. Illinois, 34 points
-
Michigan is always the top team up until the season starts.
-
I can't believe anyone put Illinois below Rutgers. Is there a way to give them negative points?
-
A thought just occured to me about when/if the Big Ten changes its schedule to get rid of divisions and have its top 2 teams make the CCG game.
An alternative idea is to go with 3 divisions so teams still have a banner to play for. Just make the division championship meaningless when it comes to picking the 2 teams to play in the CCG and still pick the top 2 teams.
So let's say the Big Ten splits into 3 divisions
West Division
(each team gets 2 permanent rivals outside the division)
Neb (PSU, Indy)
Iowa (Rut, NW)
Minn (MD, Pur)
Wisc (OSU, ILL)
....
Central Division
(each team gets 1 permant rival outside the divsion)
NW (Iowa)
ILL (wisc)
Pur (Minn)
Indy ((Neb)
MSU (Mich)
...
East Division
(each team gets 1 permanent rival outside the division)
Mich (MSU)
OSU (Wisc)
PSU (Neb)
MD (Minn)
Rut (Iowa)
Everybody has 5 permant rivals and plays everybody else 50% of the time. Top 2 teams in the conference make the Big Ten CCG regardless of whether they are in the same division or different divisions.
-
I just read today that the SEC is considering doing away with its divisions and one of the proposed scheduling models is to give each team 3 permanent rivals and the other 10 teams rotate through so that everyone plays each other home and away over 4 years, with the top 2 teams playing for the conference championship, much like the Big 12 does and the AAC will next year when Connecticut is out.
That could work for the BigTen, though the risk of rematches - particularly for rivalries (especially if it's Michigan - Ohio State, of course) concerns me as would've happened in 2006 and 2018, though I'd much rather play the BigTen West teams more often than Maryland and Rutgers, of course.
The ACC could do that as well, but they'd probably be better off just realigning their divisions to be more geographic and maintain more rivalries (Virginia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest, Duke, Clemson / Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Boston College, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Miami FL, Louisville)
CUSA is also a 14 team league that could adopt the same model, but they don't have any split rivalries as it is, so they'll probably just keep it as is. Same with the MWC at 12 teams. I don't even understand why the Sun Belt has divisions with just 10 teams. And the MAC should probably just swap Toledo and Buffalo to keep all of the Ohio teams together.