2020 BIG CCG

[Huskers93-97]

1 minute ago, Hilltop said:

Wisconsin is not given a loss because they decided not to play.  It is a no contest.  I think it's BS since they weren't at red/red but it's within the rules for them to chicken out.   

I agree. But that is part of the point I am trying to make. Because of that loophole Wisconsin exposed not every team is playing on a level playing field to have a fair and EQUAL chance to qualify for the CCG.

[Husker in WI]

6 minutes ago, zeWilbur said:

Actually we don't. The final games during championship weekend are based on seeding within the division and everyone plays. With cancellations in both divisions already this will be an issue. It might be to decide who is 3rd/4th, 7th/8th, etc. but it will be relevant. 

 

I suppose, I would hope if it's not Wisconsin we're tied with head to head would take precedence over the half game difference. That probably isn't the case though.

3 minutes ago, Huskers93-97 said:

For me it's about evaluating the system and saying. Wait with Wisconsin opting out of the game they rigged the system a bit and put us at a large disadvantage. 

 

Right, I totally agree it's a stupid system. I just have doubts that the season will play out in a way where it's going to matter a ton, but it could and there are a lot of scenarios that will expose how poorly thought out this season was. If we're not in play for the CCG, I'd rather play Wisky in our 9th game than anyone in the East. We'll already have played OSU/PSU.

 

I legitimately don't think they cancelled to avoid a game with us, but it does set them up nicely. I'm more inclined to believe they are now in Red/Red - 22 cases has to be if they were Orange/Red with 14 or whatever, right? And by cancelling and starting the minimum of a 7 day lockdown, I think they knew or suspected they were going to hit Red/Red and just started it early. As far as I can tell the 7 days don't start over when you hit Red/Red, so in theory they can come back as soon as they drop back into Orange as long as it's 7 days after they started the lock down. They just chose when to start it earlier so they can theoretically come back earlier. 

[HuskerNation1]

Let's assume Wisconsin has to miss another game and finished the season 6-0 and Nebraska finished 6-1...again very hypothetical. How would the BIG decide who goes because they both have the same number of wins and because there is no head to head matchup?  The same scenario could exist if Wisconsin finshed 5-1 and we finished 5-2.  

[ColoradoHusk]

3 minutes ago, HuskerNation1 said:

Let's assume Wisconsin has to miss another game this week and finished the season 6-0 and Nebraska finished 6-1...again very hypothetical. How would the BIG decide who goes because they both have the same number of wins and because there is no head to head matchup?  The same scenario could exist if Wisconsin finshed 5-1 and we finished 5-2.  

My guess is that Wisconsin would go as their win percentage is better than NU's.  Yes, it stinks, but win percentage is the only way to evaluate teams with different number of games.

[ColoradoHusk]

I know it's fun to think about projecting NU's record, potentially winning the division, and figuring out the necessary tie-breakers, but I am going to take things week-by-week this season and not worry about the future.  While I think NU is improved vs. the past few years, we still haven't seen the product on the field get to where it will get enough wins to compete for the division title.  Frost said it in his press conference today, the thing he is most frustrated about is not getting those in-game reps.  Players can get a ton of reps in practice, but it doesn't mean much until it moves game situations.

[bugeater17]

7 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

I know it's fun to think about projecting NU's record, potentially winning the division, and figuring out the necessary tie-breakers, but I am going to take things week-by-week this season and not worry about the future.  While I think NU is improved vs. the past few years, we still haven't seen the product on the field get to where it will get enough wins to compete for the division title.  Frost said it in his press conference today, the thing he is most frustrated about is not getting those in-game reps.  Players can get a ton of reps in practice, but it doesn't mean much until it moves game situations.

 

Along the same lines is maintaining the mental focus for 4 quarters. Over the last few years we have been unable to maintain discipline and play a full 4 quarters of football without the penalties and/or turnovers against quality opponents. The last game against OSU was a prime example, as we played the first 25 minutes of fairly sound/disciplined football. At about 5 minutes left in the 2nd quarter is when things began to slip. 

[HuskerNation1]

13 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

I know it's fun to think about projecting NU's record, potentially winning the division, and figuring out the necessary tie-breakers, but I am going to take things week-by-week this season and not worry about the future.  While I think NU is improved vs. the past few years, we still haven't seen the product on the field get to where it will get enough wins to compete for the division title.  Frost said it in his press conference today, the thing he is most frustrated about is not getting those in-game reps.  Players can get a ton of reps in practice, but it doesn't mean much until it moves game situations.

 

Yes I agree the focus needs to be week to week by the team, but given how crazy the West division appears this year, it may be more open than we have seen in a long time.  I am not sure many predicted Minnesota and Iowa to be 0-2 and Northwestern and Purdue to be 2-0 at this point.  

[ColoradoHusk]

3 minutes ago, HuskerNation1 said:

 

Yes I agree the focus needs to be week to week by the team, but given how crazy the West division appears this year, it may be more open than we have seen in a long time.  I am not sure many predicted Minnesota and Iowa to be 0-2 and Northwestern and Purdue to be 2-0 at this point.  

Agree that it's wide open.  The current records are surprising at the moment (although Minnesota losing to Michigan wasn't a surprise) but there isn't much separation between those 4 teams (and Nebraska) so those division records are more of a timing oddity and favorable schedule for NW (playing Maryland week 1) and Purdue (playing depleted Illinois week 2) right now.

[Hilltop]

I'm still just hoping for a winning season...  I don't see us being deserving to be in contention for the CG yet.  I think most of us would be pretty happy if we win 5 of our next 7.  

[BigRedBuster]

36 minutes ago, Hilltop said:

I don't see us being deserving to be in contention for the CG yet.  I think most of us would be pretty happy if we win 5 of our next 7. 

I always find comments like this odd.  Of course we aren't "deserving to be in contention for the CG yet".  We haven't played the games.  Nobody has.

[Hilltop]

21 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

I always find comments like this odd.  Of course we aren't "deserving to be in contention for the CG yet".  We haven't played the games.  Nobody has.

I agree I didn't state it well.  I mean that I don't see our level of play to be deserving of this conversation.  I think our talent is close but we are fairly mistake prone and don't play clean enough football.  I think that is likely a result of playing so much youth without many veteran leaders.

[Mavric]

Here is the official word for this season:

 

Quote

The championship game participant and division champion from each division will be determined by the following:

• With all conference games completed, the best winning percentage in all conference games.
• In the event of an unbalanced schedule due to cancellation of games:

1. If two (or more) teams have the same number of conference losses but a different number of conference wins, head-to-head results will take precedence over winning percentage, as long as the two (or more) teams meet minimum number of games language noted above.
2. If the game was cancelled between two teams with the same winning percentage in all conference games or the same number of conference losses but a different number of conference wins, move to tiebreaker for two teams below.
3. If a game or games was cancelled between three or more teams with the same winning percentage in all conference games or the same number of conference losses but a different number of conference wins, move to tiebreaker for three or more teams below.
4. The team or teams with the best winning percentage in all conference games and both championship game participants will earn at least a share of the division championship. 

 

Quote

The following procedure will determine the championship game participant and/or division champion from each division, along with all other Big Ten Champions Week matchups, in the event of a tie per above language:

• If two teams are tied per above language, steps 1 through 8 will be followed until a determination is made:

1. The winner of the game between the two tied teams shall be the representative. If the game was cancelled between the two teams, move to next step in tiebreaker.
2. The records of the two tied teams will be compared based on winning percentage within their division:
   1. In the event of an unbalanced schedule:
      1. If two teams have the same number of division losses but a different number of division wins, move to next step in tiebreaker.
      2. If two teams have a different number of division losses, the teams will be compared based on winning percentage within their division.
3. The records of the two tied teams will be compared based on winning percentage against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish (3, 4, 5, 6, and 7):
   1. When arriving at a group of tied teams while comparing records, use each team’s record based on winning percentage against the collective tied teams as a group, rather than record against the individual teams.
   2. In the event of an unbalanced schedule:
      1. i. If one or both teams did not play a certain team, move to the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish.
      2. If one or both teams did not play all teams in the group of tied teams, move to the next highest placed team or teams in their division in order of finish.
      3. If one or both teams did not play the lowest placed team in their division, move to next step in tiebreaker.
4. The records of the two tied teams will be compared based on winning percentage against all common conference opponents.
5. The records of the two tied teams will be compared based on the best cumulative conference winning percentage of non-divisional opponents:
   1. Example: East 1 non-divisional opponents are 20-7, East 2 non-divisional opponents are 19-8 – East 1 would be the representative.
   2. In the event of an unbalanced schedule, the records of the two tied teams will be compared based on the best cumulative conference winning percentage of non-divisional opponents, regardless of how many nondivisional opponents each team played. If one or both teams played no non-divisional opponents, move to next step in tiebreaker.
6. The records of the two tied teams will be compared based on winning percentage against the highest placed non-divisional teams in their division order of finish (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7):
   1. When arriving at a group of tied teams while comparing records, use each team’s record based on winning percentage against the collective tied teams as a group, rather than record against the individual teams.
   2. When comparing records against a single team or a group of teams, the record will prevail, even if the number of games played against the team or group are unequal (i.e. 1-0 is better than 0-0, 2-0 is better than 1-0, etc.).
7. The team with the best overall winning percentage [excluding exempted games] shall be the representative, regardless of number of games played.
8. The representative will be chosen by random draw.

 

[Comish]

I probably missed it due to the overwhelmingly transparent and voluminous volumes put out by the Big Ten, as is their rich tradition of keeping all matters wide open in the public purview, BUT is there anything spelled out among the contingencies that gives any sort of priority to division wins versus overall wins since as we know, not all crossovers are created equal?

[Huskersince62]

3 hours ago, Huskers93-97 said:

But you do realize our fate is not in our hands anymore? It was taken away by Wisconsin. Say Wisconsin plays this weekend and wins the rest of their games. We play and win the rest of our games. We will be 6-1 and they will be 7-0. They go to conference title game out of default because they didnt have to play us. If we played them and lost so be it. But they would get to go to the CCG because they didn't have to play Ohio State is the only difference. 

 

Depending what the tie breaker formula is. Wisconsin could even lose a game and potentially still go ahead of us with no head to head. 

 

Does that sound like a fair competitive balanced system?

Does not sound fair and balanced...but why would we kid ourselves and expect fair  from Big  at this time.

[ColoradoHusk]

18 minutes ago, Comish said:

I probably missed it due to the overwhelmingly transparent and voluminous volumes put out by the Big Ten, as is their rich tradition of keeping all matters wide open in the public purview, BUT is there anything spelled out among the contingencies that gives any sort of priority to division wins versus overall wins since as we know, not all crossovers are created equal?

It may be a tie-breaker when there are multiple teams tied or there isn't a head-to-head winner.