18 Teams in the BIG TEN - Only one lost - Can you name them?

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With 18 teams, this might be the last time in the history of the B1G where we have a team that is the bottom of the conference based on record alone without needing tie-breakers.
 




Only two Big Ten teams played a P5 team. I would feel much worse if I were UCLA eking past Hawaii, Oregon surviving FCS Idaho, or wisconsin getting outgained per-play by Western Michigan.

Had Kesich made one of the two FG or their guy missed one, Minnesota would be one of the two most pleasant surprises (with USC) of Big Ten week 1.
 


fmlizard said:
Only two Big Ten teams played a P5 team. I would feel much worse if I were UCLA eking past Hawaii, Oregon surviving FCS Idaho, or wisconsin getting outgained per-play by Western Michigan.

Had Kesich made one of the two FG or their guy missed one, Minnesota would be one of the two most pleasant surprises (with USC) of Big Ten week 1.
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I won’t tell West Virginia you just called them a mid major.
 

fmlizard said:
Only two Big Ten teams played a P5 team. I would feel much worse if I were UCLA eking past Hawaii, Oregon surviving FCS Idaho, or wisconsin getting outgained per-play by Western Michigan.

Had Kesich made one of the two FG or their guy missed one, Minnesota would be one of the two most pleasant surprises (with USC) of Big Ten week 1.
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From my PSU buddy in New Ulm...

WV will contend for the Big 12. Last season they Won 9 games and beat North Carolina by 20 in their bowl. They'd beat PJ's posse by at least that much this season. They're quality.
 





Makes for a crazy looking graphic and is low hanging fruit for the trolls and those who want to find a way to be negative all the time.

Falls apart when you dig just a little bit and realize that in like 15 of those 18 games the Big Ten team was a massive favorite and really only Minnesota, USC, and Penn State played a quality opponent in week one.
 

mnsportsgeek said:
I won’t tell West Virginia you just called them a mid major.
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I guess I forgot them but I'm not even sure what conference they are in these days.

The point remains that Minnesota played a much more challenging team than most other Big Ten teams did. Optimistically, the Gophers played even-up with a winning P5 team that averaged a 24/7 recruiting rank of 19.2 over their last 5 classes. Which is a good sign the team isn't bad this year and will be competitive in most games, and will win some of the coin flips.
 



fmlizard said:
I guess I forgot them but I'm not even sure what conference they are in these days.

The point remains that Minnesota played a much more challenging team than most other Big Ten teams did. Optimistically, the Gophers played even-up with a winning P5 team that averaged a 24/7 recruiting rank of 19.2 over their last 5 classes. Which is a good sign the team isn't bad this year and will be competitive in most games, and will win some of the coin flips.
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On the conferences thing....was thinking about it.....if you gave me a list of all the FBS teams I am pretty sure I could nail the SEC and Big Ten but the Big 12 and ACC would be a struggle beyond some of the well established members of each conference.

Once you get beyond those 4 I could probably name most of the MAC but the rest....no shot.
 



Arminius said:
From my PSU buddy in New Ulm...

WV will contend for the Big 12. Last season they Won 9 games and beat North Carolina by 20 in their bowl. They'd beat PJ's posse by at least that much this season. They're quality.
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And is your PSU buddy in New Ulm always right?
 

fmlizard said:
Only two Big Ten teams played a P5 team. I would feel much worse if I were UCLA eking past Hawaii, Oregon surviving FCS Idaho, or wisconsin getting outgained per-play by Western Michigan.

Had Kesich made one of the two FG or their guy missed one, Minnesota would be one of the two most pleasant surprises (with USC) of Big Ten week 1.
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I wouldn't go that far. The game, as judged by the betting line, was considered basically a coin flip. We also caught a break by their starting QB having to leave the game but we couldn't capitalize on that.

I do agree with your first paragraph that this wasn't the poorest Week 1 performance in the league although I think Wisconsin managed an adequate performance in the end because of winning by two touchdowns.
 

is there anyone out there who honestly thinks the Gophers looked like a team that is on an even footing with the upper half of the B1G?

there is no way to sugar-coat the situation.

the bookies set the win total for the season at 5.5. right now, that looks pretty darn accurate to me.

If the Gophers do not find a way to make significant improvement, they are heading for a 5-7 season - maybe 6-6 if things go their way. and if they run into injuries, or the offense continues to use the Piltdown Man playbook, 4-8 is a real possibility.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
is there anyone out there who honestly thinks the Gophers looked like a team that is on an even footing with the upper half of the B1G?

there is no way to sugar-coat the situation.

the bookies set the win total for the season at 5.5. right now, that looks pretty darn accurate to me.

If the Gophers do not find a way to make significant improvement, they are heading for a 5-7 season - maybe 6-6 if things go their way. and if they run into injuries, or the offense continues to use the Piltdown Man playbook, 4-8 is a real possibility.
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Wow!

The guy who always, always, always posts variations on "This might happen, OR that might happen, we just don't know yet", Mr. Wait and See himself, is already pulling the pin on 2024.

After one game — a two-point loss to North Carolina.

Remarkable.
 

RememberMurray said:
Wow!

The guy who always, always, always posts variations on "This might happen, OR that might happen, we just don't know yet", Mr. Wait and See himself, is already pulling the pin on 2024.

After one game — a two-point loss to North Carolina.

Remarkable.
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I am NOT pulling the pin. I am giving my honest assessment of what I see on the field.

I am just not as optimistic as you about this team.

in case anyone has forgotten, the Gophers were 5-7 last season.

I'm saying that - based on what I saw in the first game - I see this team as very similar to last year - maybe 5-7, maybe 6-6. if things really went their way, maybe 7-5 tops.

that's not pulling the pin. pulling the pin would be predicting a 3-9 or 4-8 record. I think the Gophers are better than that - just not that much better.
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and for what it's worth. I try not to be a "hot take" person on this board. I do try to be more measured - and people criticize me because I don't throw out hot takes. now, when I make a more definitive statement, you criticize me for that. thanks a lot.

oh, today is also my birthday. thanks for helping make it a good day. (sarcasm)
 

short ornery norwegian said:
is there anyone out there who honestly thinks the Gophers looked like a team that is on an even footing with the upper half of the B1G?

there is no way to sugar-coat the situation.

the bookies set the win total for the season at 5.5. right now, that looks pretty darn accurate to me.

If the Gophers do not find a way to make significant improvement, they are heading for a 5-7 season - maybe 6-6 if things go their way. and if they run into injuries, or the offense continues to use the Piltdown Man playbook, 4-8 is a real possibility.
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Honestly I don't know where the Gophers sit in the Big Ten for this year because most of the teams played horrible opponents and some looked pretty mediocre in doing it.

USC and Penn State both looked really good against quality opponents, which is unfortunate since we play them both. Outside of that we need to see the other teams on our schedule against a quality opponent to really get a sense if they are actually good or not.

We know we almost certainly not be in the top tier of the conference with the power schools. After that though we could probably be anywhere from like 5th/6th - 15th depending on how things shake out with all the teams.
 

The only way that I'll ever have any respect for FB or BB again is if we leave the Big Ten and form an actual college conference. And leave the slime & sleaze behind.

But our administration loves money...while hating FB and men's BB.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Honestly I don't know where the Gophers sit in the Big Ten for this year because most of the teams played horrible opponents and some looked pretty mediocre in doing it.

USC and Penn State both looked really good against quality opponents, which is unfortunate since we play them both. Outside of that we need to see the other teams on our schedule against a quality opponent to really get a sense if they are actually good or not.

We know we almost certainly not be in the top tier of the conference with the power schools. After that though we could probably be anywhere from like 5th/6th - 15th depending on how things shake out with all the teams.
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There it is. The bolded statement.

I'm going to reserve judgement on whether or not the sky is falling. It's just a tad early for me to go that route.

With that, I guess we can cue the "But, but, but fifty years of losing!", #canyoublameusitsminnesotasports posts in three, two, one...
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I am NOT pulling the pin. I am giving my honest assessment of what I see on the field.

I am just not as optimistic as you about this team.

in case anyone has forgotten, the Gophers were 5-7 last season.

I'm saying that - based on what I saw in the first game - I see this team as very similar to last year - maybe 5-7, maybe 6-6. if things really went their way, maybe 7-5 tops.

that's not pulling the pin. pulling the pin would be predicting a 3-9 or 4-8 record. I think the Gophers are better than that - just not that much better.
----
and for what it's worth. I try not to be a "hot take" person on this board. I do try to be more measured - and people criticize me because I don't throw out hot takes. now, when I make a more definitive statement, you criticize me for that. thanks a lot.

oh, today is also my birthday. thanks for helping make it a good day. (sarcasm)
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Sorry, didn't mean to ruin your day. And, happy birthday, by the way.

No, I was just surprised that you wrote a post that is so uncharacteristic of your usual level-headed approach.
 

EasyThere Pilgrim said:
The only way that I'll ever have any respect for FB or BB again is if we leave the Big Ten and form an actual college conference. And leave the slime & sleaze behind.

But our administration loves money...while hating FB and men's BB.
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Cool....so guess you should probably go find something better to do with your time because we are not leaving the Big Ten anytime soon if ever.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I'm saying that - based on what I saw in the first game - I see this team as very similar to last year - maybe 5-7, maybe 6-6. if things really went their way, maybe 7-5 tops.
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I agree that 7-5 probably is their ceiling right now. Of course, a big part of this is their schedule. Most of the conference teams don't have 4 ranked teams on their schedule. It's hard to see us having even a chance of beating PSU, Michigan, and USC so adding the UNC loss gives us four right there without considering any other opponent.

I don't think the first game was nothing but bad news. The defense was pretty decent in the first game against a quality opponent. Our 13 completions went to 8 different players. We never had more than 6 players catch a pass in a game last season. Brosmer had a poor start but he finished with a 128 QB rating. The running game was poor but we didn't have Taylor (our running game was poor in the first game last season too). I don't expect Kesich to have another game that bad for the rest of the season. I'm also confident our offensive line play will improve.
 

I would be curious to know: if the ball had just happened to curl to the right but inside the upright, meaning we, you know, won the game ... would everyone still feel exactly the same about the team and its prospects for this year?

Literally every single play leading up to that moment, would be exactly the same. All the same performances, all the same calls, all the same outcomes. Penalties, positive plays, bad players, etc.

Just that the ball happened to curve slightly less to the right.


Or would having a "1" in the W column completely change things for you?
 

sure, a win is better than a loss. so the reactions would be more tempered. but I think that, for me at least, it would have been an uneasy win. changing the outcome of one play does not negate anything that happened earlier. all of the perceived problems or issues are still there, but they wouldn't sting as much after a win as they do after a loss.

"we didn't look great, but we won" is certainly better than "we didn't look great and we lost."

but given a choice, I'd rather be able to say "we looked good and we won."
 

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