Can anyone still say the B1G is down

[keln]

with a straight face?

I think they proved on the field that they aren't.

5-4 bowl record so far, with two of those losses against ranked teams by 3 pts or less. 2 of the wins against #1 and #5 ranked teams.

Cold hard facts gentlemen. The B1G is and has not been "down" this year.

Using the data from bowls so far, I would say the PAC-12 is the best with the B1G at #2, unsurprisingly like the representatives of the NC game.

Big XII is 3rd and the ACC and SEC can fight over 4th place.

[baller]

Jan 2, 2015 11:18:07 GMT -5 keln said:

with a straight face?

I think they proved on the field that they aren't.

5-4 bowl record so far, with two of those losses against ranked teams by 3 pts or less. 2 of the wins against #1 and #5 ranked teams.

Cold hard facts gentlemen. The B1G is and has not been "down" this year.

Using the data from bowls so far, I would say the PAC-12 is the best with the B1G at #2, unsurprisingly like the representatives of the NC game.

Big XII is 3rd and the ACC and SEC can fight over 4th place.

I just laugh now at the old "I'd rather do blah then watch big ten football"

[cwerph]

Talk to me after NLOID. It's about getting good players. After the second or third week of the season next year.

The B1G out-performed expectations in the bowls this year. _ichigan has a new coach who may improve their lot.

The conference needs to step up and carry this momentum forward.

[mikeytbuckeyes]

I think, to Keln's point, the over the top declaration that the B1G was dead (or at least on life support) after that rough week 2 of the season has certainly been contradicted. I think something else of importance was demonstrated this year and that was this simple lesson: Let the season play itself out before declaring any team or collection of teams DOA (or world beaters).
It would take a few more bowl seasons like this one for the SEC to change how they do business but something I'd like to see is the OOC of the SEC to get beefed up a bit to include more power 5 conference teams..the legit ones and not the Kansas or Indiana's of the bunch (that goes for more than just the SEC). So much was made of the 28-0 OOC of the SEC West during the regular season but now that you matched them up against quality opponents they went 2-5. I believe the SEC is an exceptionally talented and very deep conference. However, would the media have been falling all over themselves collectively about the SEC West had Ole Miss and Miss St had a TCU or a GT on their schedule early in the season (like Minnesota did)? Obviously not because 2 of their world beaters would have been exposed as frauds (as evidenced by their blow out losses). This would have made Alabama's loss to Ole Miss look especially bad and then Auburn's loss to Miss St look equally bad. That's one of the things I believe that propagates the SEC world beater mentality is they operate in a bubble until bowl season. By that time they've gotten their team into the championship game (during the BCS era) by having to navigate the "minefield" that is the SEC schedule. My question was always "well how good is (insert SEC School) really?" If you only play against your conference then you have no comparison to how good a team is as compared to the rest of the nation. By playing a soft OOC schedule they can maintain their "we beat each other up" motto and get people to buy into that. They are forgiven for conference losses that really aren't any "better" than what most other teams suffer during their own conference schedule. However, by maintaining that mirage of supreme talent as compared to the rest of the nation they are forgiven more readily. While I'm not ready to declare the SEC dead I will say I'm glad its image (and hopefully its smoke and mirrors effect as well) has taken a significant hit. Perhaps more teams will be evaluated more fairly when being discussed along side a team from the SEC.

[Deleted]

As I have maintained, it's all perception and how much you buy into it. I do not care about "conference" other than debunking the myth. The B1G can go 2-9 in bowls every year as long as those 2 are wins for the Buckeyes.

[cwerph]

Michigan State lost only Ohio State and Oregon. They should finish top 5 with their win over Baylor.

[keln]

As to Mikey's point about stronger OOC scheduling in the SEC...

It could be dangerous, but wouldn't an annual Bama-Buckeye game be awesome?

[Deleted]

Jan 3, 2015 11:38:16 GMT -5 cwerph said:

Michigan State lost only Ohio State and Oregon. They should finish top 5 with their win over Baylor.

It will be close. Last AP had
1 Bama
2 FSU
3 Oregon
4 Baylor
5 OSU
6 TCU
7 MSU

Really it might take an OSU loss for that to happen and that ain't happening! I don't see them dropping Bama below them, FSU is the unknown and I think Oregon may stay ahead even with loss. I'm guessing 6th with a possibility of 5th

[Deleted]

I think MSU is a given for top 5. FSU will drop like a rock after that performance. Baylor will drop. That moves TCU and MSU up into the top 5.

If you are looking at just those teams...
1. Oregon
2. OSU
3. TCU
4. MSU
5. FSU
6. Baylor

[mauricxe]

I like ur ratings jtr. Except id put bama at 5. Fsu at 6...if not 7

[Deleted]

Jan 4, 2015 0:45:29 GMT -5 @jtrbucks said:

I think MSU is a given for top 5. FSU will drop like a rock after that performance. Baylor will drop. That moves TCU and MSU up into the top 5.

If you are looking at just those teams...
1. Oregon
2. OSU
3. TCU
4. MSU
5. FSU
6. Baylor

Bama?

[keln]

Bama got exposed, but Baylor is NOT better than Bama. Come on.

Rankings Today should be:

1. Ohio State
2. Oregon
3. TCU
4. MSU
5. Alabama
6-8. Boise State/Georgia Tech/FSU
9. Baylor

You can take your pick on #6-8 there.

Why did I include Boise? Why not? They beat Arizona, the only team to beat Oregon, in the Fiesta Bowl. Boise is in a bottom 5 conference, but easily the best of the bottom five. I'm not sure how much worse the Mountain West is than the ACC to be honest. And Boise keeps sticking around. They really ought to find a way to get into the Big XII maybe. They're a good team and they don't depend on garbage trick offense to do their thing like some Cinderella teams from the bottom five have done. BSU also has a better recent record against Oregon than most power five teams do. I think they should be in the discussion of top ten rankings, and I can't overlook them from the top 6 at least. They did what they had to do, and their schedule wasn't any worse than Baylor for sure.

Hate to sound like I am pumping up Boise, but I'm just being honest. We have a Boise fan at work and that dude is annoying and a big Ohio State hater, but I gotta give credit where it is due. I don't have much credit for Baylor, and it's all I could do to include FSU in the discussion for 6th place. Those guys won every game in the regular season, but they did it by the hair of their chinny chin chins. Which is fine if you are the 2001 Buckeyes and win the big game. But they not only didn't win the big game, they lost in a spectacular fashion. And Baylor...yeah, well, they sucked. They didn't play enough teams even as good as a middling B1G team. TCU did their thing, so they get props for it. MSU lost to Ohio State and Oregon. 3rd place would be easy to put them in, except TCU might be a lil better.

[mauricxe]

"We have a Boise fan at work and that dude is annoying and a big Ohio State hater"

What brought on the hate? did we take on their BCS spots or something?

[Deleted]

I see no way Boise jumps from 21st to the top 8

Bama will not fall far from #1. Assuming a Buckeye win I think the chances are good that it could be

1 OSU
2 TCU
3 Bama
4 Oregon
5 MSU
6 GT
7 FSU

[Deleted]

Jan 4, 2015 3:27:58 GMT -5 @theref said:

Jan 4, 2015 0:45:29 GMT -5 @jtrbucks said:

I think MSU is a given for top 5. FSU will drop like a rock after that performance. Baylor will drop. That moves TCU and MSU up into the top 5.

If you are looking at just those teams...
1. Oregon
2. OSU
3. TCU
4. MSU
5. FSU
6. Baylor

Bama?

Right. Bama and msu are interchangeable at 4/5

Boise won't jump to the top 10. Not even worth entertaining.