College Football Playoff Hope-O-Meter (Cautiously Delusional: Minnesota)

[BleedGopher]

per Coleman:

Cautiously Delusional: Minnesota

It was a tough weekend for the under-the-radar undefeateds (more on that in a minute), but one separated themselves from the pack: The fightin’ Gophers of Minnesota. The Big Ten powerhouse no one is talking about made creamed corn out of Nebraska on Saturday, and gets Rutgers and Maryland next. Chances are they’ll be 8-0 and still tied for the lead in the Big Ten West before getting Penn State and Wisconsin at home (sandwiching tricky road trips to Iowa and Northwestern) to end the season. Playing a nice vintage of Minnesota football—game-management QB play, a strong run game and solid defense led in part by Antoine Winfield Jr.—there’s a non-zero chance that Minnesota could emerge as a one-loss Big Ten West champ. Do that and pull off an upset in the Big Ten Championship, and things could be Golden for the Gophers.

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/college-football-playoff-hope-o-meter-where-dreams-come-to-die

Go Gophers!!

 

[fmlizard]

That's an interesting discussion. Would 1-loss Minnesota make the CFP? The answer is 100% Yes with no losses, and 100% No with two. But 1 would be interesting.

The loss could not be the B1G Championship. It could be one of their big games, or an upset loss to someone like Northwestern. It would be super close for the CFP if Minnesota was 12-1 and won the league with wins over Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio State but a loss to Penn State, for instance.

 

[hello-world]

This discussion should be tabled until they play PSU.
If they win that game then they will likely be a top 10 team, until then, Minnesota should be focused on shutting down Rutgers and Maryland.
History has not been kind to over-performing Gopher teams.

 

[GVBadger]

That's an interesting discussion. Would 1-loss Minnesota make the CFP? The answer is 100% Yes with no losses, and 100% No with two. But 1 would be interesting.

The loss could not be the B1G Championship. It could be one of their big games, or an upset loss to someone like Northwestern. It would be super close for the CFP if Minnesota was 12-1 and won the league with wins over Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio State but a loss to Penn State, for instance.

Based on precedent, the answer would be extremely unlikely.

 

[noamfromm]

Based on precedent, the answer would be extremely unlikely.

If the loss is Iowa, and we beat OSU, PSU and Wisky there is a non-zero chance we make the playoff.

But I'm going to stick with my fear we lose to Rutgers

 

[Texas-Gopher]

If the loss is Iowa, and we beat OSU, PSU and Wisky there is a non-zero chance we make the playoff.

But I'm going to stick with my fear we lose to Rutgers

+1

Hard to believe any gopher fan that lived through the games in our past none of us want to talk about would even go there.