Is Minnesota still the biggest threat to Wisconsin in the West?

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per John:

Oddsmakers believe the Wisconsin Badgers will win the Big Ten West again. Are the Minnesota Golden Gophers their biggest challenger in the division, though?

This should be one of the better college football seasons in the Big Ten in a long time.

As many as seven teams have at least an outside shot of getting to Indianapolis. If you’re counting, that’s half of the Power 5 conference’s member institutions. While it’s the usual suspects in the Big Ten East with the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Michigan Wolverines in that order, there are four teams to keep an eye on in the Big Ten West.


While the Wisconsin Badgers are the presumptive favorite to win the division again, rival programs like the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Nebraska Cornhuskers have slivers of hope of reaching Lucas Oil Stadium. One would think Minnesota would be the most formidable challenger to Wisconsin, but what will Iowa and Nebraska have to say about that?

fansided.com

Is Minnesota still the biggest threat to Wisconsin in the West?

Oddsmakers believe the Wisconsin Badgers will win the Big Ten West again. Are the Minnesota Golden Gophers their biggest challenger in the division, though?
fansided.com fansided.com

Go Gophers!!
 

Ohio State 2/5
Penn State, Wisconsin 7/1
Michigan, Minnesota 16/1
Nebraska 30/1
Iowa 50/1
Indiana 80/1
Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue 100/1
Illinois, Maryland 300/1
Rutgers 1,000/1
Click to expand...


How is it Iowa has lower odds than Nebraska?
 



A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
How is it Iowa has lower odds than Nebraska?
Click to expand...
That is a good question. Both have similar East crossover games as well with Iowa having a slightly tougher schedule due to Michigan State > Rutgers.




IowaNebraska
@ Ohio State@ Ohio State
@ Penn StatePenn State
Michigan State@ Rutgers
 


Iowa is going to have yet another 3rd or 4th place finish.

I never understand the Iowa love or trying to be Iowa.
 

How in the hell is Nebraska mentioned as a contender? Look at those crossover games and 2 of them are most likely a loss and they still have to play the West. Unless they think those 4 teams are all going to beat each other and 3-4 losses will win the division? I don’t get the hype on a 3 conference win and 5 win overall team. I mean they most certainly will be better. I certainly could see 7 or 8 wins due to their easy non-convergence schedule but I don’t think they are contenders yet. For the record I love the Nebby fans and I still think Frost is the right guy but I don’t see them winning it this year.
 

I think they are still 1 year away from having the complete team to un-seat the Badgers as West favorites. High end talent, but hate to say it, "young" at certain positions like defense. Not saying they can't beat the idiots to the east (proved it 2 years ago), but the year after year of damn good recruiting is just starting to show rewards and unproven at all position groups. I hope I worded that right. Not saying all position groups are unproven, just not all groups are proven. 1 more year, I think the Gophs are the favorite in the West.

This upcoming year, yes, The U is the biggest threat. I've chosen to forget about Whyowa, and the red Starter Jacket crowd.
 

Nebraska has an outside shot???

G-D ... when will these assholes figure out that Nebraska football is done?? Stop trying to force it. You're going to be wrong every year going forward.

Worst mistake in the history of the Big Ten. And I still say that I support their removal from the league.
 



I don't understand the Nebraska hype either.

The last five years they've gone 5-7, 4-8, 4-8, 9-4 and 6-7.

Doesn't exactly indicate a major threat to Wisconsin or anybody else in the Big 10 for that matter.

But they've been a historical blue-blood, so they get their ink regardless.

Still, there is absolutely nothing there recently to suggest they should be in the "favorites" discussion.
 

They did some winning at the end of the 90's and early 2000's. So what??? So did Miami FL. No one is predicting the Hurricanes to contend for the ACC.

Such a pathetic joke, that some people still think Nebraska football is anything special.
 

I think it's between us and Iowa with Nebraska being far behind.

Between us and Iowa I think the teams are close in talent but we're more likely to finish higher because of our schedule. If the schedule doesn't change we have easier crossover games and the head to head game at home.
 

MplsGopher said:
They did some winning at the end of the 90's and early 2000's. So what??? So did Miami FL. No one is predicting the Hurricanes to contend for the ACC.

Such a pathetic joke, that some people still think Nebraska football is anything special.
Click to expand...

I say, let them keep thinking Nebraska is good, does nothing but help us.
 



If I'm not mistaken, in the previous six seasons, three times we ended the season against Wisconsin with a chance to win the BIG West. I think there is only a slight chance that the next team to win the west other than Wisconsin would be someone other than Minnesota. The Gophers are primed to take the next step and I will be shocked if it doesn't happen in one of the next two season.
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
If I'm not mistaken, in the previous six seasons, three times we ended the season against Wisconsin with a chance to win the BIG West. I think there is only a slight chance that the next team to win the west other than Wisconsin would be someone other than Minnesota. The Gophers are primed to take the next step and I will be shocked if it doesn't happen in one of the next two season.
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Iowa and Wisconsin have had some really tough battles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa–Wisconsin_football_rivalry last year the score was 24-22. But Wisconsin has gotten the best of them.

No surprise, the one time in the last seven years that Iowa beat them, was their 2015 season that they were 12-0 ranked #3, then went to the Rose Bowl.

Iowa has had as much trouble getting over the hump vs Wisconsin, as we have.
 


BleedGopher said:
per John:

Oddsmakers believe the Wisconsin Badgers will win the Big Ten West again. Are the Minnesota Golden Gophers their biggest challenger in the division, though?

This should be one of the better college football seasons in the Big Ten in a long time.

As many as seven teams have at least an outside shot of getting to Indianapolis. If you’re counting, that’s half of the Power 5 conference’s member institutions. While it’s the usual suspects in the Big Ten East with the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Michigan Wolverines in that order, there are four teams to keep an eye on in the Big Ten West.


While the Wisconsin Badgers are the presumptive favorite to win the division again, rival programs like the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Nebraska Cornhuskers have slivers of hope of reaching Lucas Oil Stadium. One would think Minnesota would be the most formidable challenger to Wisconsin, but what will Iowa and Nebraska have to say about that?

fansided.com

Is Minnesota still the biggest threat to Wisconsin in the West?

Oddsmakers believe the Wisconsin Badgers will win the Big Ten West again. Are the Minnesota Golden Gophers their biggest challenger in the division, though?
fansided.com fansided.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
John who? Nebraska and the golden boy were favorites last year ... The Big Ten Network practically had Scotty in the Nat championship. What a joke. Anyone can write 'shit' these days as we all well know.
 

The odds are set to induce betters to bet equally. The casinos make their money from the cut they take from each bet..
 

Plato said:
The odds are set to induce betters to bet equally. The casinos make their money from the cut they take from each bet..
Click to expand...

This situation is one of the FEW times I'd agree with that sentiment possibly being true as there's no obvious way to work the system here of say Iowa mysteriously being behind Nebraska.

Having said that when it comes to stuff like point spreads I don't buy into the idea of things being manipulated to induce bets otherwise obviously skewed spreads would be easily taken advantage of.
 


MplsGopher said:
Iowa and Wisconsin have had some really tough battles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa–Wisconsin_football_rivalry last year the score was 24-22. But Wisconsin has gotten the best of them.

No surprise, the one time in the last seven years that Iowa beat them, was their 2015 season that they were 12-0 ranked #3, then went to the Rose Bowl.

Iowa has had as much trouble getting over the hump vs Wisconsin, as we have.
Click to expand...
IA is 7-9 vs WI since 2002.
 



Is Wisconsin the biggest threat to Minnesota winning the West this year?

That's my question.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
This situation is one of the FEW times I'd agree with that sentiment possibly being true as there's no obvious way to work the system here of say Iowa mysteriously being behind Nebraska.

Having said that when it comes to stuff like point spreads I don't buy into the idea of things being manipulated to induce bets otherwise obviously skewed spreads would be easily taken advantage of.
[/QUO
Click to expand...
The point spreads are set initially using computer rankings like Sagarin. They are then changed as the bets come in to get as close to 50/50 as is possible.
Sagarin and others are least accurate at the start of the season because there are less data to compute and that is the best time to spot discreapancies and to bet. As the season goes on it becomes more difficult to find anomalies.But the goal the betting sites is as close to 50/50 as they can.
 

Nebraska has a very mild schedule early on .. they really could be bowl eligible before they lose a game
 

Otis said:
Is Wisconsin the biggest threat to Minnesota winning the West this year?

That's my question.
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The EAST is always the biggest threat to the top West teams winning the division.

I still say only West games should determine the division winner. It's bullshat that playing Rutgers and Maryland gets the same weight as playing Ohio St and Penn St.
 

madeup said:
Nebraska has a very mild schedule early on .. they really could be bowl eligible before they lose a game
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I disagree. I think they're looking square at 3-3, loss to Cincy and loss to either Purdue or Illinois, at home, plus a loss to NW on the road.

Don't know how C Mich will shape up, but SD St will be tough on them, just like they were on us.
 

MplsGopher said:
I disagree. I think they're looking square at 3-3, loss to Cincy and loss to either Purdue or Illinois, at home, plus a loss to NW on the road.

Don't know how C Mich will shape up, but SD St will be tough on them, just like they were on us.
Click to expand...
I dont see nebraska losing to NW. NW will still be bad and Nebraska will turn that "road" game into a home game.
 


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