Big weekend in regards to the West race

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MNVCGUY

MNVCGUY

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Division is Iowa's to lose but this weekend will have a big impact on how things play out in the mess that is the Big Ten West.

Wisconsin at Illinois
Minnesota at Iowa
Northwestern at Nebraska

Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Purdue all have crossover games left with one of the big three from the East so penciling those games in as loses....because....I mean we have all seen those teams and the West teams in action this year....

Counting those crossover games as loses the current standings look like this
Iowa - 3-1
Wisconsin - 2-2
Nebraska - 1-2
Northwestern - 1-2
Illinois - 1-2
Minnesota - 1-3
Purdue - 1-4

In my opinion, 6-3 can win the West this year. With that in mind, Minnesota has to win every game other than Ohio State to have a shot and Purdue is likely already out of the race. Wisconsin's outlook got much cloudier with Mordecai going down against Iowa. They are going to need Braelon Allen to hold together because if he goes down their offense is in a lot of trouble.

Iowa has far and away the easiest path to the title but their offense is so bad that they will likely be in tight games every weekend, and while they typically win those close games, it doesn't take much to end up with a loss when you are living on the edge like that week after week.

So getting back to the title of the thread, this is a big weekend for the West. If we can knock off Iowa the race will be wide open, if they beat us we are out of the picture and their odds of winning the division get that much better. Illinois has a great chance of knocking off Wisconsin at home and who knows what to expect from Northwestern vs. Nebraska. The winners of those other two games will be firmly in the mix for the West, while the losers will be on the brink of elimination.

In the end, the winner of the division gets a trip to Indy where they will almost certainly get demolished by whoever wins the East. The West division is definitely going out with a whimper in its final year as all 7 teams leave a lot to be desired and none of them look like a team that could compete with the best teams in the country.
 




Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
I believe MN is 1-2 in the B1G!
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Minnesota is 1-2 but plays Ohio State still
Wisconsin is 2-1 but also plays Ohio State
Purdue is 1-3 but still plays Michigan

And while technically those teams could win those games, given how each has looked this year and how god the East counterparts have looked the odds of an upset are extremely low so I went ahead and put those as expected loses. All other games are basically toss ups that could go either way.
 


The West is a mess. No idea what will happen week to week. MN has to shatter Iowa’s aura this weekend though. That much is certain.
 


While it’s still early-ish in the conf season, it’s about halfway through the overall season and from that it seems crazy to me that ILL, NW, and Neb are still in the West race.

But they absolutely are, if we’re saying we still are.
 

@gopherjay Yep!

While it’s fun to think about the future what-ifs and we do that a lot on here, this Iowa game has so much riding on it for us this year.

Haven’t won in IC since 99.
Fleck 0-6 vs Iowa
Would be a huge step to winning the last chance West title and last chance going to Indy as West representative
 



MplsGopher said:
While it’s still early-ish in the conf season, it’s about halfway through the overall season and from that it seems crazy to me that ILL, NW, and Neb are still in the West race.

But they absolutely are, if we’re saying we still are.
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I mean at this point Iowa is the only team that has the ability to run away with the division. But if they drop a game or two it quickly becomes a cluster of mediocre teams all fighting to be the best of the worst.
 

Nebraska has taken the Heroes Trophy game with Iowa very seriously. The last five have all been very competitive, and they finally got one last year (about the only thing to hang their hat on). Hopefully Rhule will pull another one out, giving Iowa only the Wisc trophy of their three!
 

All of this goes away next season.

And when the division format is gone, what will teams like Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa really be playing for? In the current (division) setup, those teams are in an actual race, albeit a race to win the inferior division.

Starting next season it will be a foregone conclusion that none of those three has much of a chance for a title.
 

RememberMurray said:
All of this goes away next season.

And when the division format is gone, what will teams like Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa really be playing for? In the current (division) setup, those teams are in an actual race, albeit a race to win the inferior division.

Starting next season it will be a foregone conclusion that none of those three has much of a chance for a title.
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Those 3 schools will definitely be playing for bragging rights and better bowl destinations but yeah I agree they won't be serious contenders for the top 2 spots unless a lot of things line up. Even then doubtful.

Now once the B1G adds more teams I do expect a smaller division format to return and then we could see another situation in which the 3 are in the same division with a few other teams. Maybe then the format will work better for them?
 



Xerxes_ said:
Those 3 schools will definitely be playing for bragging rights and better bowl destinations but yeah I agree they won't be serious contenders for the top 2 spots unless a lot of things line up. Even then doubtful.

Now once the B1G adds more teams I do expect a smaller division format to return and then we could see another situation in which the 3 are in the same division with a few other teams. Maybe then the format will work better for them?
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That would be great, if it happens.

And if it does, certain people here will complain (constantly) about how much weaker the Gophers' division is.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I mean at this point Iowa is the only team that has the ability to run away with the division. But if they drop a game or two it quickly becomes a cluster of mediocre teams all fighting to be the best of the worst.
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On the other hand, in the East, the top teams, Michigan, PSU and OSU are finally going to be tested in conference play. Does anyone really think that the head to head wars between these three teams will actually live up to the hype? Will the gaps between these teams widen?

And Maryland was getting a lot of press and high praise as an offensive machine . Rutgers? Indiana? MSU? After the top 3 war it out, will any of them be at risk to exposure at the hands of any of the “lesser” teams in the East or West once a bubble has burst for a vulnerable dreams burst giant?

Will Michigan remain standing when they have to face both PSU & OSU? Or will the maize & blue be exposed? The same for OSU after PSU & Michigan? (The Bucknuts escaped on the last play at a Notre Dame match up that doesn’t appear nearly as impressive as it did before the season started). And, who, other than Iowa has PSU destroyed?

Maybe the games will be close, hard fought games between these three blue blood teams, but maybe not so much.

I think there will be surprises that will even make the West situation darn unpredictable. Sure, the three giants of the East are real monsters…but none of those three teams have faced a team that is equally loaded with as many recruits/transfers. Are any of those three capable of winning the East outright, without any tie-breakers?

I am humbly satisfied with being a Gopher fan. There will be some blue-blood fans of the blue- blood 3 of the Eastern division of the Big1G who will have to bow their blue-blood egos and heads at the end of their blue-blood 2023 seasons.

Beat the stinking Hawkeyes,Gopher.
 
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