nic

This is moot at this point. Personally I am just hoping NU makes a bowl. They could use the extra practice. And I hope they upset MSU to get there. Sorry but I need Iowa to 12-0 for that champ game. That could change between now and when you play them. Just beat MSU first.

I heard sling is negotiating with Fox. Which means BTN maybe on the slate soon.

MSUs kicker is terrible this year. Even if the punter falls on that snap versus handing the ball off it would have been a 53 to 58 yard FG attempt.

MSU would have probably gone for the hail mary. They had no TOs left and the clock would have been down to at least 7 seconds after he fell on the snap.

If they run a play, and get stuffed its 51 yards to pay dirt with 3-4 seconds left on the clock.

That said, the Michigan punt game was lights out for 59:50 minutes of the game, too. So I guess you could take your pick between the D and special teams.

With a fluke like that, they could have just easily tried to run it and fumble the ball for a TD return too.

Big Ten division tie breakers..

The following procedure will determine the representative from each division in the event of a tie:

(a) If two teams are tied, the winner of the game between the two tied teams shall be the representative.

(b) If three or more teams are tied, steps 1 through 7 will be followed until a determination is made. If only two teams remain tied after any step, the winner of the game between the two tied teams shall be the representative.

1. The records of the three tied teams will be compared against each other.

2. The records of the three tied teams will be compared within their division.

3. The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish (4, 5, 6, and 7).

4. The records of the three teams will be compared against all common conference opponents.

5. The highest ranked team in the first College Football Playoff poll following the completion of Big Ten regular season conference play shall be the representative in the Big Ten Championship Game, unless the two highest ranked tied teams are ranked within one spot of each other in the College Football Playoff poll. In this case, the head-to-head results of the top two ranked tied teams shall determine the representative in the Big Ten Championship Game.

6. The team with the best overall winning percentage [excluding exempted games] shall be the representative.

7. The representative will be chosen by random draw.

This came up today with regard to a 3-way spit versus Mich/MSU/OSU....big if.

Yup. Dumb call. Lots of them in this game. Lots of overturns without the evidence.

I certainly would not take them lightly. Kickers lose games sometimes. It will be interesting to see if they fold after that game or get better. Under Hoke they tended to fold. It will be a good measuring stick. Minnesota in two weeks.

 

MSU's Magic Johnson statue painted maize.

 

 

https://twitter.com/AEllisIII/status/654662050690396160

I'm surprised they didn't put khakis on the statue.

 

Now that's a good idea.

When someone mentions Tressel (9-1), I just mention Cooper (2-10-1).

Harbaugh is only that high this year because of a signing bonus. He normally would be 5 mil.

Seems like Dantonio is under paid and Ferentz is over paid, although he might earn his money this year.

Maybe Harbaugh is overpaid too.

Big Ten coaches in 2015 pay:

Michigan: Jim Harbaugh — $7,004,000
Ohio State: Urban Meyer — $5,860,000
Penn State: James Franklin — $4,400,000
Iowa: Kirk Ferentz — $4,075,000
Michigan State : Mark Dantonio — $3,671,520
Nebraska: Mike Riley — $2,700,000
Minnesota: Jerry Kill — $2,500,000
Northwestern: Pat Fitzgerald — $2,490,858
Wisconsin: Paul Chryst — $2,300,000
Purdue: Darrell Hazell — $2,140,000
Maryland: Randy Edsall — $2,110,848
Indiana: Kevin Wilson — $1,312,277
Rutgers: Kyle Flood — $1,260,000
Illinois: Bill Cubit — $916,010

I was hoping NU would get McElwain. Maybe they tried. He's doing well at Florida.

Spurrier "retires" mid year...that's a new one. Don't they usually announce it early and ride off into the sunset at the end of the year?

Preseason, people expected losses to Utah, MSU, MInn, PSU, and OSU, four of whom are still on the schedule. So the current record is not unexpected, but Minn and PSU are struggling a bit. From here on out, if UofM loses 2 more, its still a successful year given the expectations. If they lose 4 more, I would be bummed, but still excited for the future.

I felt like there were 3 games in the 11-2 season that Michigan had some lucky breaks. Felt more like it should have been 9-4 season. This team seems more real but we will see. Angst. I have a lot of MSU and OSU friends/neighbors. I got comments regarding patience after Utah. Then congrats on how it must be nice to win after ore St and unlv. After BYU, the football talk stopped. After this weekend I would call it avoidance. The MSU guys don't want to talk football anymore.

I sense angst.

 

 

Maryland might have a national championship caliber team in basketball this year. I'd say that has to count for something

 

With Delany, It sure does.

 

just because its the wrong sport?

I am in for new coaches at RU and Maryland. Make them better.

I think Mavric was being sarcastic.

I am more intrigued by the west right now. Minn and Wiscy were thought to be good pre season...not so sure now. Iowa and NW are better than expected. Big weekend out west in my opinion. Is NU still a contender? I am not sure yet. That test comes next week. Might actually be fun if NU Iowa means something on Black Friday.

 

 

 

Even with 20 we would play each other every 3 years. 6 years home and home. Better than we have now.

 

This line up is pretty good. All AAU teams other than OU. geographically connected.

 

 

I think if the conferences go to 20. ND joins the Big Ten.

I would LOVE to have ND join the B1G. But I just don't see it happening in the near future, especially with their new AAC scheduling contract. And if the whole AAU membership thing is a deal-breaker (it shouldn't be since they didn't kick us out when we had our membership revoked), Mizzou would be another viable option in place of OU. However, the B1G had to chance to invite the Tigers back in 2010, but they invited us instead.

Do you mean ACC? With all the ACC teams you have in your list of 20, that scheduling agreement would be toast.

 

 

Yeah, sorry I meant ACC. And good point about them potentially dissolving. But in my scenario, I only have 3 or 4 ACC teams moving to the B1G. That leaves 10 or 11 teams behind - more than enough to keep their conference and scheduling agreement with ND intact. And they'd only have to add 1 or 2 new teams to maintain their CCG.

 

Your list covered all the possible teams. minus maybe ND and Texas. Unless we have to settle and take a Uconn or Pitt. From a football perspective I would like to get to 16 and even 20 over staying at 14. I would prefer 12 over 14, too. I think the Big10 was headed to 16 except they couldn't find a suitable partner for UVA and then the GORs shut expansion down.

 

Even with 20 we would play each other every 3 years. 6 years home and home. Better than we have now.

 

This line up is pretty good. All AAU teams other than OU. geographically connected.

 

 

I think if the conferences go to 20. ND joins the Big Ten.

 

I would LOVE to have ND join the B1G. But I just don't see it happening in the near future, especially with their new AAC scheduling contract. And if the whole AAU membership thing is a deal-breaker (it shouldn't be since they didn't kick us out when we had our membership revoked), Mizzou would be another viable option in place of OU. However, the B1G had to chance to invite the Tigers back in 2010, but they invited us instead.

Do you mean ACC? With all the ACC teams you have in your list of 20, that scheduling agreement would be toast.

 

I say expand to 20 teams (yes 20), and split into four five-team divisions as follows:

WEST - Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma

CENTRAL - Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin

NORTHEAST – Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers

SOUTHEAST – Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, Vanderbilt/Georgia Tech, Virginia

*New members are in bold.

Each year on a rotating basis, the divisions pair up to form two “super divisions.” For example, in Year 1 the West and Central divisions would pair up, as would the Northeast and Southeast divisions. Then in Year 2, it would be the West and Southeast in one super division and the Central and Northeast in the other. The ten teams in each super division play the other teams in their respective super division round-robin style, for a total of nine conference games. The winners of each super division play in the Big Ten Championship game. Voila!

 

Even with 20 we would play each other every 3 years. 6 years home and home. Better than we have now.

This line up is pretty good. All AAU teams other than OU. geographically connected.

I think if the conferences go to 20. ND joins the Big Ten.

Legends Pod

Nebraska

Iowa

Northwestern

Illinois

 

Leaders Pod

Wisconsin

Purdue

Indiana

Minnesota

 

Scholars Pod

Michigan St

Michigan

Pittsburgh

UConn

 

Ahole Pod

Ohio St

Maryland

Rutgers

Penn St

 

I am not saying i want KSU or ISU or Okie Lite... just saying that when things start shaking we might get stuck with them.

 

If we go the 16 team route, my preference is to add Oklahoma and Notre Dame.

 

I dont think OK will go B1G so then i am fine with Kansas for the basketball aspect... the one negative is if you stay with the current East/West est up, you are adding even more talent to the east and less talent to the west for football.

 

I think you have to re-organize to make it more balanced.

 

My suggestion is:

Nebraska

Minnesota

Northwestern

Michigan

Michigan State

Kansas

Iowa

Wisconsin

 

 

Rutgers

Penn State

Illinois

Ohio State

Notre Dame

Indiana

Purdue

Maryland

 

You add Michigan/Michigan State and send over Illinois and Purdue.

 

Michigan was a tough flip and i doubt would happen because of the connection to Ohio State and Notre Dame.

 

 

 

After doing all this work, i realized they probably would just do 4 pods.... so the above is probably not even a possibility.

 

So, in my above situation I tried to think about possible Pods. When i started, I tried for location but that got a bit thrown off.

 

 

 

Pod 1

Michigan

Michigan State

Purdue

Indiana

 

Pod 2

Minnesota

Ohio State

Northwestern

Illinois

 

Pod 3

Nebraska

Iowa

Kansas

Wisconsin

 

Pod 4

Rutgers

Penn State

Maryland

Notre Dame

 

Kansas screws things up, because normally i would shoot for the MN/IA/NE/WI look, but Kansas should probably be with Nebraska. Iowa as well. So we are sitting at a very weak pod if MN is in there, so that is why Wisconsin got put in here.

 

Michigan/Mich state is a pretty good group, so tried to lump two weaker schools.

 

The Minnesota pod is sort of thrown randomly together. I would have liked to keep MN with Wisconsin, so i guess we could always flip wisconsin and Ohio State, but OSU makes no sense in Nebraskas pod.

Adding KU and ND is tough. The point of a pod is to keep the teams together that you want to play every year. I think your eastern pod is good with ND even though they have a history with Purdue, msu and mich. they joined the acc to play out east anyway. Wish granted, and they get psu as an annual game. I guarantee you msu, mich and osu will be in a pod together. My guess is Indiana and Purdue get split but would be allowed to play anonconference game every other year to keep their series annual.

OSU

UofM

MSU

Indy

PSU

ND

Maryland

Rutgers

Wiscy

Minn

Illini

NW

NU

Iowa

KU

Purdue

If we get OU instead of ND, move Purdue out east and place OU with NU.

I am not saying i want KSU or ISU or Okie Lite... just saying that when things start shaking we might get stuck with them.

 

If we go the 16 team route, my preference is to add Oklahoma and Notre Dame.

 

I dont think OK will go B1G so then i am fine with Kansas for the basketball aspect... the one negative is if you stay with the current East/West est up, you are adding even more talent to the east and less talent to the west for football.

 

I think you have to re-organize to make it more balanced.

 

My suggestion is:

Nebraska

Minnesota

Northwestern

Michigan

Michigan State

Kansas

Iowa

Wisconsin

 

 

Rutgers

Penn State

Illinois

Ohio State

Notre Dame

Indiana

Purdue

Maryland

 

You add Michigan/Michigan State and send over Illinois and Purdue.

 

Michigan was a tough flip and i doubt would happen because of the connection to Ohio State and Notre Dame.

 

 

 

After doing all this work, i realized they probably would just do 4 pods.... so the above is probably not even a possibility.

The major advantage of pods is getting to play each other every other year (home and home every 4 yrs) with a 9 game conf schedule. That and you get to keep the rivals within a pod and play every year.

I would love that versus waiting 4-5 yrs to play NU.

Sigh. I agree with Woody. I think Hell just froze over that I agree with an OSU fan.

No way Okie St. and KSU are even considered. Even OU is an exception to the rules, just like Notre Dame would be.

I would prefer to add two and stay there. 4x4 pods.