Week 8 Who to Cheer for Thread

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bleedsmaroonandgold

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Thought with us have a strong start to the Big 10 season I would share my thoughts on what we should be hoping for in the other B1G games this coming weekend. This is not meant to be a super in-depth analysis, rather a quick guide for someone who might be seeing scores on Saturday but isn't totally up to date on where the races are at in conference. If nothing else, it will give people a chance to correct any misconceptions I have about the structure and tiebreaking format for our conference with the new divisions.

Iowa (2-0) at Maryand (1-1) (11 AM): Maryland. Obviously, any cross-divisional games would help us if the west loses. In this case, an Iowa loss couples with a Gopher win would leave us as the sole undefeated team in our division at a pretty early stage in the year. Furthermore, Iowa losing always makes me smile, and I think the Terps have a good shot at this one with the home field advantage.

MSU (2-0) at Indiana (0-2) (2:30 PM): Indiana. This is a purely east division game, so it has no implications for our chances of winning the west, and neither team is on our schedule so it won't materially affect our strength of schedule. That said, I think a few late scares aside, Sparty is the scariest team in the conference, so in the event we do make it to the title game (obviously a long shot), I'd really appreciate it if MSU could trip up somewhere and not be joining us.

Rutgers (1-0) at OSU (1-0) (2:30 PM): OSU. Again, both eastern teams, but OSU is on our schedule. Therefore, it is in our best interest for OSU to be as strong of a win as possible in the event we stay on a roll and find ourselves in playoff contention at the end of the year (I know I'm really stretching here).

Nebraska (1-1) at Northwestern (2-1) (6:30 PM): Northwestern. Both one loss teams, but with us having already won against Northwestern, we hold the hypothetical tiebreaker. If Nebraska loses this one, it puts us in a position where we could lose to Nebraska but still control our own destiny.

Finally, the most important game for the Gophers this weekend is the one we are playing in, so hopefully the team and coaches are spending less time staring at the schedule than I am and are focused on giving the Boilermakers a pretty big thumping.
 

I agree but the only game that matters is Minnesota having one more point than Purdue on Saturday.

Nebraska and Iowa losing would be sweet! Not denying that!
 

Is the goal winning the Big Ten championship or being part of the 4-team playoff?

If the goal is winning the Big Ten, I'd say the Gophers want the following teams to win: Maryland, Indiana, Rutgers, and Northwestern.

If the goal is having a shot at the CFP, the Gophers should want Iowa, MSU, Ohio State, and Nebraska.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Is the goal winning the Big Ten championship or being part of the 4-team playoff?

If the goal is winning the Big Ten, I'd say the Gophers want the following teams to win: Maryland, Indiana, Rutgers, and Northwestern.

If the goal is having a shot at the CFP, the Gophers should want Iowa, MSU, Ohio State, and Nebraska.
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Wow! SelectionSunday! I consider myself a pretty big optimist when it comes to Gopher teams winning week to week or game to game depending on the sport. But I had not allowed myself to think Final Four. Different perspective for certain. I don't think I'm quite there yet though. haha I'd be happy
to buy some insurance with Iowa and Nebraska losses. I'll work on it...thanks for the heads up.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Thought with us have a strong start to the Big 10 season I would share my thoughts on what we should be hoping for in the other B1G games this coming weekend. This is not meant to be a super in-depth analysis, rather a quick guide for someone who might be seeing scores on Saturday but isn't totally up to date on where the races are at in conference. If nothing else, it will give people a chance to correct any misconceptions I have about the structure and tiebreaking format for our conference with the new divisions.

Iowa (2-0) at Maryand (1-1) (11 AM): Iowa. Obviously, any cross-divisional games would help us if the west loses. In this case, an Iowa loss couples with a Gopher win would leave us as the sole undefeated team in our division at a pretty early stage in the year. Furthermore, Iowa losing always makes me smile, and I think the Terps have a good shot at this one with the home field advantage.

MSU (2-0) at Indiana (0-2) (2:30 PM): Indiana. This is a purely east division game, so it has no implications for our chances of winning the west, and neither team is on our schedule so it won't materially affect our strength of schedule. That said, I think a few late scares aside, Sparty is the scariest team in the conference, so in the event we do make it to the title game (obviously a long shot), I'd really appreciate it if MSU could trip up somewhere and not be joining us.

Rutgers (1-0) at OSU (1-0) (2:30 PM): OSU. Again, both eastern teams, but OSU is on our schedule. Therefore, it is in our best interest for OSU to be as strong of a win as possible in the event we stay on a roll and find ourselves in playoff contention at the end of the year (I know I'm really stretching here).

Nebraska (1-1) at Northwestern (2-1) (6:30 PM): Northwestern. Both one loss teams, but with us having already won against Northwestern, we hold the hypothetical tiebreaker. If Nebraska loses this one, it puts us in a position where we could lose to Nebraska but still control our own destiny.

Finally, the most important game for the Gophers this weekend is the one we are playing in, so hopefully the team and coaches are spending less time staring at the schedule than I am and are focused on giving the Boilermakers a pretty big thumping.
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Unless I am reading this wrong, don't we want Iowa to lose? So our rooting interest would be Maryland?

I am on the fence with the Nebraska/Northwestern matchup. Looking at their respective schedules, this weekend appears on paper to be the one game in which NU may be outmatched. Nebraska still has to play Iowa and Wisconsin and those games will be a toss up.

I think the Gophers should be able to compete effectively in all of their remaining games given how complete the teams have performed the last two games. The games haven't always been pretty, but it never felt like the NU game was slipping out of our hands. So I think the players are up for the challenge of the November Gauntlet.

Personally I don't think anyone in the B1G is going to get a look for the Playoff. Even if we end up with a 1 loss team winning the conference, too many people gush about the SEC. So unless Alvarez campaigns hard for a B1G team not named Wisconsin, the B1G champ will end up #5.

Just beat Purdue and hold our lead in the division. It would be nice to be ahead by a game heading into November.
 


Gopherdrummer said:
Unless I am reading this wrong, don't we want Iowa to lose? So our rooting interest would be Maryland?

I am on the fence with the Nebraska/Northwestern matchup. Looking at their respective schedules, this weekend appears on paper to be the one game in which NU may be outmatched. Nebraska still has to play Iowa and Wisconsin and those games will be a toss up.

I think the Gophers should be able to compete effectively in all of their remaining games given how complete the teams have performed the last two games. The games haven't always been pretty, but it never felt like the NU game was slipping out of our hands. So I think the players are up for the challenge of the November Gauntlet.

Personally I don't think anyone in the B1G is going to get a look for the Playoff. Even if we end up with a 1 loss team winning the conference, too many people gush about the SEC. So unless Alvarez campaigns hard for a B1G team not named Wisconsin, the B1G champ will end up #5.

Just beat Purdue and hold our lead in the division. It would be nice to be ahead by a game heading into November.
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Absolutely right, that was a typo on my part. I think I typed Iowa because when I was drawing it up, I was thinking about Iowa losing rather than Maryland winning. I'll correct it in my original post.
 

Just beat the teams we should handle. And then hope for some "Godwinks" against Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Wisconsin.
 

The way I am approaching every weekend is like this...

Clearly we want the Gophers to win and win by as many points as possible.

Next, I see the Gophers as a team who REALISTICALLY can contend for the West but nothing further. Yeah I may get bashed that I don't see them having a shot at making the playoff etc. but at the same time let's just be real. So with that being said we want Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Iowa to lose any week they have a game.

Next, I am pulling for Mich St. I know they would be a tougher opponent in the Big Championship game but I do want someone from the Big Ten in the 4 team playoff and they are our best shot.

Lastly, I am just pulling for any team outside of the Big that is ranked to lose. This gives us a better chance to creep into the poles as well as help other Big Teams climb higher.
 

There are 5 teams which still have a shot at the BT-W. NW, NU, UW, Iowa, and us. If you do the math, there are 10 games between those 5 teams. NW has already beaten UW, and we beat NW. NU @ NW is the one game in that set this weekend. Who comes out with the least losses in that set is probably going to win the west. So as Bleeds pointed out, we want NW to win on Saturday. You can argue that this is almost an elimination game for these two teams (especially NW). 6-2 will prolly win the west, but it could also come down to head-to-head tiebreakers

It would be nice to know that we can go into Lincoln with a loss to give, but there's a lot of football to be played between now and then. And you need to "hold serve" against the cupcakes and cross divisional teams, too. Iowa losing to UMd would help us, too.
 



60's Guy said:
Wow! SelectionSunday! I consider myself a pretty big optimist when it comes to Gopher teams winning week to week or game to game depending on the sport. But I had not allowed myself to think Final Four. Different perspective for certain. I don't think I'm quite there yet though. haha I'd be happy
to buy some insurance with Iowa and Nebraska losses. I'll work on it...thanks for the heads up.
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Thanks. Just throwing that out there. At this point I think a divisional title probably should be the primary objective for the Gopher program considering where it is right now in its development. That gets them into a 1-shot deal for a Big Ten title and the accompanying New Year's 6 Bowl bid. ... what Gopher fan wouldn't be thrilled with that opportunity in Year 4 of the Kill era? For programs like OSU and MSU, however, they're thinking CFP.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Thanks. Just throwing that out there. For the record, I think a Big Ten title is the primary objective for the Gopher program considering where it is right now in its development. For programs like OSU and MSU, yes, it should be the CFP.
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Agree SS. Also, I would add I like Big Ten title as a goal because it is an objective objective, not like the subjectively picked playoff field. Especially with where public perception is of the Big Ten right now (mostly deserved), one can easily imagine a situation where we might feel like the team "earned" a shot at the playoff but got jobbed by the committee. Alternatively, the procedures for naming the Big 10 champ are objective, in black and white, and determined entirely on the field. There is no claiming you got hosed out of a title, either you did what you needed to or not.
 

Beat Purdue
Go You Northwestern
Maryland, My Maryland
Spartan Fight!
 

SelectionSunday said:
Is the goal winning the Big Ten championship or being part of the 4-team playoff?

If the goal is winning the Big Ten, I'd say the Gophers want the following teams to win: Maryland, Indiana, Rutgers, and Northwestern.

If the goal is having a shot at the CFP, the Gophers should want Iowa, MSU, Ohio State, and Nebraska.
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Goal for now would be to win the B1G West I think. That would be a big deal for the program and the progression of Kill's rebuilding. To me if we can win the West, the CCG and bowl are bonus wins if we can get em.
 



tmvander said:
Lastly, I am just pulling for any team outside of the Big that is ranked to lose. This gives us a better chance to creep into the poles as well as help other Big Teams climb higher.
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Why would we want to "creep into" someone whose name ends in "SKI"?

I agree with you, though, that we want anyone outside the BT to lose. Partially so we can sneak in. Also, if MSU can get into the playoffs it bumps all the other BT teams up a notch in the bowl pecking order. The Spartans really need nd to lose a game. Most of these overrated $EC schools still have to play each other, so that part of it will take care of itself
 

tmvander said:
The way I am approaching every weekend is like this...

Clearly we want the Gophers to win and win by as many points as possible.

Next, I see the Gophers as a team who REALISTICALLY can contend for the West but nothing further. Yeah I may get bashed that I don't see them having a shot at making the playoff etc. but at the same time let's just be real. So with that being said we want Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Iowa to lose any week they have a game.

Next, I am pulling for Mich St. I know they would be a tougher opponent in the Big Championship game but I do want someone from the Big Ten in the 4 team playoff and they are our best shot.

Lastly, I am just pulling for any team outside of the Big that is ranked to lose. This gives us a better chance to creep into the poles as well as help other Big Teams climb higher.
Click to expand...

This sums up my thoughts as well. Nicely done.

Nebraska is the favorite in the West right now IMO, I want them to lose as many games as possible starting this weekend against NW. The reason being, our game @ Nebraska will be much more difficult to win than at home vs Iowa and @ Wisconsin. I just think Nebraska is a much more complete team than the other two. Our most realistic scenario in winning the west involves going 6-2 with losses to Ohio St. and Nebraska yet still winning a tiebreaker against Wisconsin, Iowa, or both.
 






xoxoemilyanne said:
haha Thank you! Trying to do my part from afar!
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If it turns out that I can get your game on tv, I will excitedly await your cheers of GO GOPHERS!!!

And start crowd chant of WHO HATES IOWA???!!

And the answer is WE HATE IOWA!!!

GO TERPS!!!
 

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