ESPN: "the Big Ten is back" pronouncements took a hit in the past week of postseason

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BleedGopher

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ESPN: "the Big Ten is back" pronouncements took a hit in the past week of postseason

per ESPN:

The Big Ten still needs someone other than Ohio State to pose a legitimate national title threat. Michigan State looked ready to join the Buckeyes, but stumbled badly.

Ironically, the Big Ten was saved from a losing bowl record by two teams who had no real right to still be playing. Nebraska and Minnesota, who each finished the regular season at 5-7, defied skeptics by winning the Foster Farms and Quick Lane bowls, respectively. Indiana might have helped more if not for a controversial call on the game-ending field goal attempt in overtime against Duke in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Bowl season had some highlights, and despite the blowouts, the Big Ten has come a long way since the New Year's Day massacre of 2011. A few poor showings shouldn't invalidate the strong season turned in by the league, and the future remains bright for several programs.

Still, all those blustery "the Big Ten is back" pronouncements took a hit in the past week of postseason games. Much work remains.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post...l-loss-for-big-ten-but-blowouts-slow-momentum

Go Gophers!!
 

2-year CFP/NY6 numbers

Definitely not a good bowl season for the B1G, but the 2-year CFP/New Year's 6 numbers remain solid. Interesting that in the first two years all of the Power 5 conferences have been represented in the title game except for the Big XII.

New Year's 6/CFP Records
American (1-0)
Mountain West (1-0)
B1G (4-2)
*ACC (2-2) -- Clemson playing in title game
Pac 12 (2-2)
*SEC (2-3) -- Alabama playing in title game
Big XII (1-3)
Notre Dame (0-1)

National Titles
B1G (1)
ACC/SEC (1)

National Runners-Up
Pac 12 (1)
ACC/SEC (1)

An early prediction for 2016 is the B1G will not make the CFP next season. Ohio State and Michigan State will both be talented but suffer significant personnel losses, and Michigan (a CFP possibility) has to play OSU & MSU on the road with a huge question mark at QB. Those three might beat each other up and appear much more capable in 2016 of losing a game or two to someone they shouldn't.
 

For all the SEC hype only Alabama has been a consistent title contender, but hey doesn't stop Kentucky and Vanderbilt fans from pumping there chests with SEC chants on ESPN message boards
 

Tide fans doing themselves a disservice

bemidjigopher said:
For all the SEC hype only Alabama has been a consistent title contender, but hey doesn't stop Kentucky and Vanderbilt fans from pumping there chests with SEC chants on ESPN message boards
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I was bewildered why the Alabama fans were chanting "SEC, SEC, SEC" as they were putting the finishing touches on Sparty. Tide fans are doing themselves a disservice chanting the name of their conference. They should be chanting, "Roll Tide, Roll Tide, Roll Tide" because in a lot of ways they ARE the SEC. Everyone else is just riding their coattails, including the jolly old elf in Arkansas who thrives on 7-6 and 8-5 seasons while pounding his (ample) chest after beating 6-6 Texas (2014) and 6-6 K-State (2015) in low- to mid-tier bowl games.
 



BleedGopher said:
per ESPN:

The Big Ten still needs someone other than Ohio State to pose a legitimate national title threat. Michigan State looked ready to join the Buckeyes, but stumbled badly.
Click to expand...

It's foolish to ignore Michigan. Harbaugh will have them in position to make the playoff within 2 years. He flipped them from 5-7/3-5 in 2014 to 10-3/6-2 (including the improbable loss to MSU) in one year, and has a top 5 recruiting class (per 247 and ESPN) coming in next year. A coach of that caliber bringing in top-tier talent should scare the hell out of the rest of the B1G.
 

They hate us cause they aint us. Replace BIG with any conference and you could write the same story. There always seems to be one maybe two helmet schools in each conference that carry the torch and the rest just ride the coat tails and have flash in the pan type seasons.
 

WindyCityGopher said:
It's foolish to ignore Michigan. Harbaugh will have them in position to make the playoff within 2 years. He flipped them from 5-7/3-5 in 2014 to 10-3/6-2 (including the improbable loss to MSU) in one year, and has a top 5 recruiting class (per 247 and ESPN) coming in next year. A coach of that caliber bringing in top-tier talent should scare the hell out of the rest of the B1G.
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Totally agree. I think we are quickly headed back to a two-headed monster in Ohio State and Michigan with MSU not far behind. I half expect the BIG to step in here at some point in order to figure out a way to get one of those two over to the West so that they can get the potential championship game between Michigan and Ohio State back in play.
 

So much knee jerk reaction to single games. Ohio State still might be the best team in the country, but they played with a NC hangover all year.

People base so much on games where there was a three week gap. Iowa lost their chance on Dec 5th. Standford knew they had no shot at final four. Two completely different mindsets going into Rose Bowl. MSU had a shot to be down 10-7 as the half and then got steamrolled.

Northwestern = Florida
 



MaxyJR1 said:
So much knee jerk reaction to single games. Ohio State still might be the best team in the country, but they played with a NC hangover all year.

People base so much on games where there was a three week gap. Iowa lost their chance on Dec 5th. Standford knew they had no shot at final four. Two completely different mindsets going into Rose Bowl. MSU had a shot to be down 10-7 as the half and then got steamrolled.

Northwestern = Florida
Click to expand...

This.

Ohio State had their chance Nov. 21 at home and they blew it. Notre Dame had two chances (@ Clemson & @ Stanford) and they blew it. Stanford had its chance (hosting Oregon) and they blew it. It's easy to say who the final 4 teams should have been after the bowl games have been played, but that's not the way it works.

And now all of a sudden Michigan State "isn't a national title contender" because it got waxed by Alabama in the 2nd half? Two years ago, if there were a playoff, MSU would have been in it (that was Sparty's best team of these past 3) and they would have been good enough to win it. This year they ran into a focused, talented buzzsaw called Alabama, and that wasn't a good place to be, especially in the 2nd half.

Only 1 team gets to hoist a national championship trophy every season. The notion that 11-, 12-win teams like Iowa, MSU, Oklahoma, and Stanford are viewed by some as failures (most notably mainstream media) because (A) they didn't make the playoff or (B) got beat soundly in the CFP semifinals is just plain silly, but that's the narrative that's out there. It's sad, really.
 

I'll never understand "conference pride." Personally I wish every team in the Big10 was garbage because that would help the Gophers. I want to beat regional rivals...I don't ever expect a national title in football.
 

SelectionSunday said:
An early prediction for 2016 is the B1G will not make the CFP next season. Ohio State and Michigan State will both be talented but suffer significant personnel losses, and Michigan (a CFP possibility) has to play OSU & MSU on the road with a huge question mark at QB. Those three might beat each other up and appear much more capable in 2016 of losing a game or two to someone they shouldn't.
Click to expand...

I can't see a scenario where the B1G Champion does not make the playoff with any less than three losses. There's just too much power concentrated within the league.
 

Goldmember said:
I can't see a scenario where the B1G Champion does not make the playoff with any less than three losses. There's just too much power concentrated within the league.
Click to expand...

A 2-loss Big Ten champion would not have made the playoff this season.
 



There's a reason they play the games or else they'd have the national championship game lead off the season.

Iowa had a special year, but reality hit on New Year's Day. It would be improbable to have tOSU in the championship series and MSU in the Rose Bowl seeing that they are in the same division, but if that's the way it would have played out, the B1G would have likely looked a lot stronger. You would have had tOSU in the Final Four, MSU playing Stanford, Iowa moving down a notch where they would have been more competitive and everyone else that was in the mix likely in a more favorable match-up.
 

50PoundHead said:
There's a reason they play the games or else they'd have the national championship game lead off the season.

Iowa had a special year, but reality hit on New Year's Day. It would be improbable to have tOSU in the championship series and MSU in the Rose Bowl seeing that they are in the same division, but if that's the way it would have played out, the B1G would have likely looked a lot stronger. You would have had tOSU in the Final Four, MSU playing Stanford, Iowa moving down a notch where they would have been more competitive and everyone else that was in the mix likely in a more favorable match-up.
Click to expand...

What is the Rose Bowl selection process if the conference champion makes it into the playoffs? Is it the next highest rated team in the committee rankings?
 

GophersInIowa said:
What is the Rose Bowl selection process if the conference champion makes it into the playoffs? Is it the next highest rated team in the committee rankings?
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That's what I was wondering. Would it be the higher-ranked team or the championship game runner-up?
 

50PoundHead said:
That's what I was wondering. Would it be the higher-ranked team or the championship game runner-up?
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The Rose Bowl Committee makes the pick. They have pretty much said they'll take the highest ranked team by the CFP Committee, but they have the leeway to select someone else. This year they went with the CFP committee (Iowa).
 

SelectionSunday said:
The Rose Bowl Committee makes the pick. They have pretty much said they'll take the highest ranked team by the CFP Committee, but they have the leeway to select someone else. This year they went with the CFP committee (Iowa).
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm curious what would have happened if Iowa got smoked by Michigan St. and Ohio St. ended up being ranked higher than Iowa.
 


No that it matters but there would have been huge backlash against the Rose Bowl committee if they picked OSU over Iowa.
 

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