Saunders Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Big Ten West win total picks: Predicting one of the most unpredictable divisions When it comes to talking about Big Ten contenders for the College Football Playoff, the conference's West Division tends to be overlooked. It gets the same kind of treatment that the SEC East has in recent years. The "somebody has to win it and lose the conference championship game" treatment. Which is why when a team like Iowa goes 12-0 during the regular season we're all caught off guard. Iowa wasn't supposed to be good! Nobody from the Big Ten West is supposed to be good! It's a narrative that's a bit off base. Somebody is going to be good in the Big Ten West every season. Things just get murky because we don't know who is going to be good from year to year. That's what makes the West one of the more entertaining divisions to follow on a weekly basis, because you never really know what's going to happen. Before Iowa went 12-0 during the regular season last year, it was a team coming off a 7-6 record in 2014. Nebraska went 6-7 in 2015, but if it suddenly turns around and wins the division this season, it really won't be that much of a shock. It's that unpredictability that makes the division fun, but also makes it difficult to predict how things are going to go down before the season begins. I'm going to try anyway, though. Using the Vegas Insider win totals for each team, I'm going to break down each Big Ten West squad's chances in 2016 to try and figure out whether or not they'll go over or under. http://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/big-ten-west-win-total-picks-predicting-one-of-the-most-unpredictable-divisions/ 1 Quote Link to comment
Kiyoat Husker Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 This prediction is for us to go 8-4 and Iowa 9-3. That does not technically pick a division champ, because they have us losing to Oregon. Since they didn't specifically call a winner of the NU-Iowa game, either team could win the division under this scenario. Quote Link to comment
NUinID Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 This prediction is for us to go 8-4 and Iowa 9-3. That does not technically pick a division champ, because they have us losing to Oregon. Since they didn't specifically call a winner of the NU-Iowa game, either team could win the division under this scenario. I see a lot of national type guys picking a loss to Oregon. I am not sure I get the reasoning for this pick. At the very least it is a toss up game and I would actaully favor NU at home. Oregon has a lot of problems. Number one on the list being they really have no idea who will be the QB on the team. The second problem is that their defense was actually worse than Nebraska's last year, and they are moving from a 3-4 to a 4-3 alingment. The third problem is they lost there OC. The forth problem is that there HC is not Chip Kelly. They still have talent, but not really any more talent than Nebraska except for maybe at the RB spot. Royce Freeman is better than anything we have. I guess Oregon is getting the benefit of the doubt, they probably have earned it. I am not saying that Oregon is going to be terrible, but a 7-5 season from them would not surprise me at all. Quote Link to comment
NUance Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Iowa Schedule 03/16 vs. Miami (Ohio) 09/10/16 vs. Iowa State 09/17/16 vs. North Dakota State 09/24/16 at Rutgers 10/01/16 vs. Northwestern 10/08/16 at Minnesota 10/15/16 at Purdue 10/22/16 vs. Wisconsin 11/05/16 at Penn State 11/12/16 vs. Michigan 11/19/16 at Illinois 11/25/16 vs. Nebraska I'd be surprised if Iowa loses even three games this year. Their schedule is cake. They avoid tOSU, Sparty and Michigan. The four bolded look to be their toughest games. And two of those are at home. Quote Link to comment
Saunders Posted June 15, 2016 Author Share Posted June 15, 2016 Iowa Schedule 03/16 vs. Miami (Ohio) 09/10/16 vs. Iowa State 09/17/16 vs. North Dakota State 09/24/16 at Rutgers 10/01/16 vs. Northwestern 10/08/16 at Minnesota 10/15/16 at Purdue 10/22/16 vs. Wisconsin 11/05/16 at Penn State 11/12/16 vs. Michigan 11/19/16 at Illinois 11/25/16 vs. Nebraska I'd be surprised if Iowa loses even three games this year. Their schedule is cake. They avoid tOSU, Sparty and Michigan. The four bolded look to be their toughest games. And two of those are at home. Add Michigan to the list of tough games too. Ferentz seems to have a historical pattern that he underachieves when they're supposed to do well, and then after a few years of mediocre seasons, they have a good one. Quote Link to comment
NUance Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Iowa Schedule 03/16 vs. Miami (Ohio) 09/10/16 vs. Iowa State 09/17/16 vs. North Dakota State 09/24/16 at Rutgers 10/01/16 vs. Northwestern 10/08/16 at Minnesota 10/15/16 at Purdue 10/22/16 vs. Wisconsin 11/05/16 at Penn State 11/12/16 vs. Michigan 11/19/16 at Illinois 11/25/16 vs. Nebraska I'd be surprised if Iowa loses even three games this year. Their schedule is cake. They avoid tOSU, Sparty and Michigan. The four bolded look to be their toughest games. And two of those are at home. Add Michigan to the list of tough games too. Ferentz seems to have a historical pattern that he underachieves when they're supposed to do well, and then after a few years of mediocre seasons, they have a good one. Yeah, oops. My bad. I overlooked Michigan. lol Still a pretty easy schedule though. Quote Link to comment
Redux Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Iowa Schedule 03/16 vs. Miami (Ohio) 09/10/16 vs. Iowa State 09/17/16 vs. North Dakota State 09/24/16 at Rutgers 10/01/16 vs. Northwestern 10/08/16 at Minnesota 10/15/16 at Purdue 10/22/16 vs. Wisconsin 11/05/16 at Penn State 11/12/16 vs. Michigan 11/19/16 at Illinois 11/25/16 vs. Nebraska I'd be surprised if Iowa loses even three games this year. Their schedule is cake. They avoid tOSU, Sparty and Michigan. The four bolded look to be their toughest games. And two of those are at home. Iowa goes 5-7 with losses to ISU, NDSU, Minny, Wiscy, UM, PSU and NU Quote Link to comment
Kiyoat Husker Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 I think the Thanksgiving game will be impactful this year. I could see Iowa coming into the game with losses to Michigan and Wisconsin, and us with losses to Oregon(not a conference loss), Wisconsin and Ohio State. Winner take all game. Add in a loss to Northwestern for Nebraska, and it's still a winner take all game. This assumes Wisconsin loses to two East teams (very likely). Quote Link to comment
husker98 Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Iowa Schedule 03/16 vs. Miami (Ohio) 09/10/16 vs. Iowa State 09/17/16 vs. North Dakota State 09/24/16 at Rutgers 10/01/16 vs. Northwestern 10/08/16 at Minnesota 10/15/16 at Purdue 10/22/16 vs. Wisconsin 11/05/16 at Penn State 11/12/16 vs. Michigan 11/19/16 at Illinois 11/25/16 vs. Nebraska I'd be surprised if Iowa loses even three games this year. Their schedule is cake. They avoid tOSU, Sparty and Michigan. The four bolded look to be their toughest games. And two of those are at home. Add Michigan to the list of tough games too. Ferentz seems to have a historical pattern that he underachieves when they're supposed to do well, and then after a few years of mediocre seasons, they have a good one. Yeah, oops. My bad. I overlooked Michigan. lol Still a pretty easy schedule though. How could you forget this guy? Quote Link to comment
NUance Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Iowa Schedule 03/16 vs. Miami (Ohio) 09/10/16 vs. Iowa State 09/17/16 vs. North Dakota State 09/24/16 at Rutgers 10/01/16 vs. Northwestern 10/08/16 at Minnesota 10/15/16 at Purdue 10/22/16 vs. Wisconsin 11/05/16 at Penn State 11/12/16 vs. Michigan 11/19/16 at Illinois 11/25/16 vs. Nebraska I'd be surprised if Iowa loses even three games this year. Their schedule is cake. They avoid tOSU, Sparty and Michigan. The four bolded look to be their toughest games. And two of those are at home. Add Michigan to the list of tough games too. Ferentz seems to have a historical pattern that he underachieves when they're supposed to do well, and then after a few years of mediocre seasons, they have a good one. Yeah, oops. My bad. I overlooked Michigan. lol Still a pretty easy schedule though. How could you forget this guy? Well thanks. That image will be burned into my memory for life now. Quote Link to comment
Red Five Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Will Harbaugh be back to coaching at Michigan by then? Or will he still be on the satellite camp circuit? 1 Quote Link to comment
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