T5 in AP poll

[Spartanmack]

Oh.

Is that the reason?

I thought it was kinda like...split geographically, and stuff...

Like, East Division...

...and West Division...

Or so I thought anyway.

It's convenient to split them geographically the argument against a more balanced split was clearly to protect the osu/uofm rivalry.

 

[tinselwolverine]

It's convenient to split them geographically the argument against a more balanced split was clearly to protect the osu/uofm rivalry.

Yes, I think convenience is the whole point of the geographical splits and it's the reason every other conference and professional sports leagues (with a few exceptions) is split geographically.

It's a perfectly balanced split.

Every school in the Western Division is to the west of every school in the Eastern Division, and every school in the Eastern Division is to the east of every school in the Western Division.

It's only been a few years that there have been divisions at all in the Big 10 - before to win the conference championship a team had to have a better record than everybody else, whether it was Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State or whomever.

 

[Spartanmack]

cry me a river...

it's going to annoy you even more when the pendulum swings back against you.

of course you would think this all about michigan and msu fans' little brother syndrome. But it's bad for all of us in the division and the conference to have one stacked division and one mediocre one. IF michigan actually rebuilds and unless MSU completely falls apart, the 3 best teams in the conference will be in one division - likely for a while. That means at best, the B1G champ game will be a 1 vs. 4 matchup and then there's the chance (albeit small) that the 4th best team could win the game - missing out or underrepresenting the B1G in the playoff or the conferences top non-playoff bowl game. There's no justification for not having balance, unless like Tinsel says, you want to split them arbitrarily along some geographic line - maybe save a little money on gas and be a little more eco-friendly.

 

[Spartanmack]

Yes, I think convenience is the whole point of the geographical splits and it's the reason every other conference and professional sports leagues (with a few exceptions) is split geographically.

It's a perfectly balanced split.

Every school in the Western Division is to the west of every school in the Eastern Division, and every school in the Eastern Division is to the east of every school in the Western Division.

It's only been a few years that there have been divisions at all in the Big 10 - before to win the conference championship a team had to have a better record than everybody else, whether it was Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State or whomever.

If everyone else was jumping off bridges, would you also jump off a bridge? it makes a lot more sense for pro leagues to split geograpically as they more than twice as many teams and are all over the the US and Canada (Boston to Miami, New York to San Fran, even ottowa and Vancouver)and have more parity. That makes sense. But you could achieve balance and still have a decent geographic layout in a conference that spans just 2 times zones with most teams inside a 300 mile radius from Chicago.

I'm aware that divisions are pretty new - and I prefer the old method. Back then before expansion, you played every team but 1 so the team with the best record was usually the best team in the conference. It's certainly more likely to be the case that way than with a conf championship game between unbalanced divisions.

 

[tinselwolverine]

If everyone else was jumping off bridges, would you also jump off a bridge?

Probably.

If everybody else was jumping off of a bridge, it only makes sense that the bridge was on fire, or collapsing, or bullets were reigning down on it from a machine gun turret, or some other such thing that would make remaining on the bridge more dangerous and calamitous than jumping.

Or it could be for a reason more joyous, and festive, such as this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMzdBkyig9U

There are potentially a lot of good reasons to jump off a bridge when everybody else is jumping off the bridge too.

 

[Michchamp]

holy schnockers...

 

[Spartanmack]

Probably.

If everybody else was jumping off of a bridge, it only makes sense that the bridge was on fire, or collapsing, or bullets were reigning down on it from a machine gun turret, or some other such thing that would make remaining on the bridge more dangerous and calamitous than jumping.

Or it could be for a reason more joyous, and festive, such as this.


There are potentially a lot of good reasons to jump off a bridge when everybody else is jumping off the bridge too.

Out here the bridges are high and "jumpers" become "floaters" which falls under the "not a good outcome at all" category of outcomes. I should have known better because in high school I gave a similar response to my mom when I got caught doing some stupid shit and told her I was doing it because my friends were all doing it.

 

[tinselwolverine]

Out here, jumpers become floaters which falls under the "not a good outcome at all" category of outcomes. I should have known better because I gave a similar response to my mom when I was in high school and she her I did something stupid because my friends were doing it.

Nobody's mom ever gets that it's not necessarily always the best analogy.

 

[Spartanmack]

Nobody's mom ever gets that it's not necessarily always the best analogy.

Yeah, when my kids are old enough to get into trouble like that and use that excuse, i'll try to remember to explain how sheep will follow each other sheep off of a cliff because they're not thinking for themselves and just going along rather than ask them an open-ended question like that and set myself up for a smartass response.

 

[tinselwolverine]

anyway, the only thing that might be a little unbalanced between the two divisions is that right now Michigan State and Ohio State are by far the two best teams, and they're in the same division.

That's the case a lot of the time in the S EC with Auburn and Alabama, just like last season.

But it's a year-to-year thing. In my years of watching college football off the top of my head I've seen Illinois ranked number one I've seen I Iowa ranked #1, obviously Nebraska has won national championships, Wisconsin has one Big Ten championships and Rose Bowls...if they started dividing the conference based on who they speculated was going to be good this year, are they going to start re-dividing it in seasons I had based on the same speculation?

That is why to me the geographical split makes the most sense; I thought the Leaders and Legends split was stupid, and beyond that, they were going to leave the Ohio State Michigan rivalry every season intact anyway.

 

[Sbee]

cry me a river...

it's going to annoy you even more when the pendulum swings back against you.

what makes you think it's a pendulum? just because you've had success in the past doesn't mean that failure is in your future, the inverse is true. it's not a pendulum necessarily.

also, this is the typical Michigan fan line, just wait until _________________

 

[Spartanmack]

anyway, the only thing that might be a little unbalanced between the two divisions is that right now Michigan State and Ohio State are by far the two best teams, and they're in the same division.

That's the case a lot of the time in the S EC with Auburn and Alabama, just like last season.

But it's a year-to-year thing. In my years of watching college football off the top of my head I've seen Illinois ranked number one I've seen I Iowa ranked #1, obviously Nebraska has won national championships, Wisconsin has one Big Ten championships and Rose Bowls...if they started dividing the conference based on who they speculated was going to be good this year, are they going to start re-dividing it in seasons I had based on the same speculation?

That is why to me the geographical split makes the most sense; I thought the Leaders and Legends split was stupid, and beyond that, they were going to leave the Ohio State Michigan rivalry every season intact anyway.

True but there are only 2 mainstay traditional powerhouses in the B1G and they should be split up - the rest are much more cyclical. Wisco came out of nowhere with Alvarez - prior to him, they were a doormat for decades and it looks like as long as Alvarez is AD, they're going to have strife and after he dies who knows what will happen. Nebraska had the two titles in the 90s but haven't done much since and the Big 12 had similar problems for a long time w/ the North being much weaker than the south. Illinois is completely dysfunctional and like NW, PU, Iowa, MN, IU can't hope for much more than 1 or 2 good years every 20. And so what if the SEC has imbalance, if every conference was jumping off of tall bridges, should the B1G also jump off a bridge? wait, don't answer that - but you know what I mean.

We could have balance by simply swapping OSU for one of the Indian teams - each division would have a traditional powerhouse with a couple others that pose a threat somewhat regularly (NE, Wisc, MSU, PSU) then the rest of them and it wouldn't upset the precious geographic balance much - or you could go North/South and achieve a similar result.

 

[johnny2x2x]

what makes you think it's a pendulum? just because you've had success in the past doesn't mean that failure is in your future, the inverse is true. it's not a pendulum necessarily.

also, this is the typical Michigan fan line, just wait until _________________

Maybe he means tent stake rather than pendulum. And it's going to keep getting shoved...

We're going to continue to drop anvils on UM's head over and over, Harbaugh might be a good coach, but so is Dantonio and Dantonio has a big head start with the program and is still building it each year to be better.

2 top 5 finishes in a row and a preseason top 6 or 7 ranking in 2015, the future is bright and the goal is clear, win a National Title.

 

[Spartan23MSU]

Career Bowl wins:
Mark Dantonio 5
Bo Schembechler 5

You'll always have 1997 when you were voted second best by the coaches.

Ha!

 

[tomdalton22]

early odds for next year's championship

"Ohio State lead the way at 6/1, with Peach Bowl winners TCU right behind at 15/2. Alabama, whom the Buckeyes defeated in the Sugar Bowl, comes in third at 10/1, with Auburn and Oregon tied for fourth at 14/1. Four schools are tied at 16/1 -- Florida State, LSU, Michigan State and Baylor"

 

[Spartan23MSU]

Early 2015 Top 25 Predictions

TCU at #1


http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/12138345/tcu-leads-2015-way-too-early-top-25-rankings

 

[everyoneneedsasmil]

Early 2015 Top 25 Predictions

TCU at #1


http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/12138345/tcu-leads-2015-way-too-early-top-25-rankings

I was a little surprised that Oregon and Baylor were ranked so high (specifically above MSU). We beat Baylor in a toss-up ending, sure, but it was also a defacto home game for Baylor. Oregon is losing the best player in college at the most important position on the field. I would be surprised if they remain a top 5 team without Mariota.

 

[Sbee]

I was a little surprised that Oregon and Baylor were ranked so high (specifically above MSU). We beat Baylor in a toss-up ending, sure, but it was also a defacto home game for Baylor. Oregon is losing the best player in college at the most important position on the field. I would be surprised if they remain a top 5 team without Mariota.

hopefully they have ranking that's a little too high when they travel to EL next season

 

[MSUMatt28]

I was a little surprised that Oregon and Baylor were ranked so high (specifically above MSU). We beat Baylor in a toss-up ending, sure, but it was also a defacto home game for Baylor. Oregon is losing the best player in college at the most important position on the field. I would be surprised if they remain a top 5 team without Mariota.

I guess Baylor because they have like 18 starters returning. One of them is not Petty, but his backup I guess played pretty well in a few games when he was injured.

Oregon is there because they seem to be there every year. I think it's high for them this time, although there seems to be a lot of chatter that Braxton Miller might ultimately end up there and their ranking might be based somewhat on that. They return a lot on defense, lose some skill guys, but they seem to be able to plug in new guys there each year.

 

[everyoneneedsasmil]

It would be pretty sweet to have an early top 5 showdown in EL next year.