BTN's Tom Dienhart says Gophers may have a shot to win BT West in next 5 years

[BleedGopher]

per a BTN Q&A:

Do you think Minnesota will win a Big Ten title within the next five years? – Peyton Anderson

Jerry Kill is making good progress, but winning a league title in the next five years may be asking too much. Much work remains to be done. The Gophers need better quarterback play. And where are the big-play receivers? The defense also needs more speed and athletic ability. I do think Minnesota may have a shot to win a Big Ten West title in the next five years. But, again, it may be asking too much to climb over Michigan State or Ohio State in the East and win the league. At least for now. The last time Minnesota won the Big Ten was 1967, when it shared the crown with Indiana and Purdue.

http://btn.com/2014/07/07/mailbag-our-expert-answers-your-questions/

Go Gophers!!

 

[MinneStoa]

"They may have a chance, but they may not".

Riveting stuff, Tom.

 

[GophersInIowa]

"They may have a chance, but they may not".

Riveting stuff, Tom.

Now no matter what happens he can say "see I told you so".

 

[Deleted_User]

What limited praise.

 

[e.bigelow]

Now no matter what happens he can say "see I told you so".

Haha. Agreed.

 

[BarnBoy]

We definitely maybe have a shot.

 

[Governor Sibley]

The new conference title format sucks for us.

We need perfect timing and big breaks to win our division as it is.

And then to do it back-to-back in a conference championship game?

Grrr.

 

[eker0016]

The new conference title format sucks for us.

We need perfect timing and big breaks to win our division as it is.

And then to do it back-to-back in a conference championship game?

Grrr.

I look at it the other way. The West is an eminently winnable division, and then we just need to win one game against the best of the East. Anything can happen in a single game. Look at 2016, for example. We have to play against PSU/Maryland/Rutgers from the East, along with the West. Then win one game against OSU/PSU/MSU/UM. That doesn't seem so bad to me.

 

[UpnorthGo4]

I look at it a third way. The Big 10 as we have always known it doesn't exist anymore. Our new conference is the Big 10 West. When the Gophers finish in first place the accomplishment will be much better than when we tied for the the Big 10 conference title in 1967. That's all I will need. Anything more will just be gravy.

 

[dpodoll68]

The new conference title format sucks for us.

We need perfect timing and big breaks to win our division as it is.

And then to do it back-to-back in a conference championship game?

Grrr.

Why is it that so many people don't understand that it's much easier to win a conference with two divisions than the same conference with no divisions?

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

Why is it that so many people don't understand that it's much easier to win a conference with two divisions than the same conference with no divisions?

I don't think it is appreciably different one way or the other. Regardless of which format there is, there will be exactly one champion who will presumably be the best (or at least the best of the teams who is eligible) team in the conference. There are situations we can draw up where a team can arguably have "backed into" the championship. I seem to remember Wisconsin backing in once under each format (a three way tie before the divisions where they did not need to play both of the other teams in the tie, and a division win with the third best record in the division).

I think what people who are lamenting the divisional format are zeroing in on is the tie breaker rules in the pre-division format. If I recall, we held the dubious distinction of the longest Rose Bowl drought, which I believe was the tiebreaker for determining who got to go in the event of a tie. Under those circumstances, all we needed was to end in a first place tie, and people hoped we could get lucky in a year where we dodge the toughest conference opponents and the other top teams beat each other up. The flip-side of that is obviously that in a divisional format, you can have a down year in a division and get a lucky cross-division draw, and that could set you up in a situation where you are one big game away from the title.

 

[BarnBoy]

Why is it that so many people don't understand that it's much easier to win a conference with two divisions than the same conference with no divisions?

Definitely easier to GET to the conference championship.

 

[Killjoy]

Definitely easier to GET to the conference championship.

Exactly! Then you only have to win one game to be the conference champions. A piece of cake.