B1G East race

Submitted by BuckeyeChuck on

At the beginning of the season the predominate expectation was that there would be a 3-team battle for the B1G East Division title between Michigan, PSU, & OSU. That means that there are 3 quasi-division title games. One, of course, on Nov. 25, the other two involving PSU when they play Michigan & OSU in consecutive weeks, today being the first of those 3 quasi-division title games. How PSU performs tonight and next week will go a long way in determining where they finish in the division standings.

With MSU's surprising play thus far, are they going to emerge to make it a 4-team race? I don't think any one of us is yet convinced that they are for real as a division contender. But we do have to acknowledge that they don't yet have a conference loss, which keeps them in the race whether or not we want to admit it. Sparty could lose to Indiana and they could lose @ Northwestern. But they're also capable of winning both of those games and if they do win them they will be 5-0 when they host PSU.

If MSU does stay in the race, the 4 teams have a combined 6 games against one another. Only 1 of those 6 games has been played. We're entereing an exciting portion of the schedule because, beginning with today's games, each of the next 4 Saturdays feature a matchup between 2 of those 4 teams. PSU plays Michigan, OSU, & MSU in consecutive weeks and then OSU plays MSU. Two weeks later is Nov. 25. Also, the week prior to The Game, as you know, is Michigan's game @ Wisconsin.

Therefore, each of the next 6 Saturdays feature a game that will play a major role in the outcome of the East Division race:

Oct 21: Michigan @ PSU

Oct 28: PSU @ OSU

Nov 4: PSU @ MSU

Nov 11: MSU @ OSU

Nov 18: Michigan @ Wisconsin

Nov 25: The Game

BUCKLE UP! This should be an exciting ride!

M-Dog

October 21st, 2017 at 12:51 PM ^

The Big Ten East is the best, most exciting division in all of college football and it's not even close.

B1G!  B1G!  B1G!

I still hate you guys though.

 

SpikeFan2016

October 21st, 2017 at 1:03 PM ^

Considering MSU is 3-0 in the Big Ten, I'd say they are a contender. 

More than we are at this point. The Spartans aren't losing to Maryland or Rutgers, and they probably won't lose to Indiana or Northwestern either. They're likely to be 7-2 or better in the conference.

MSU-OSU once again will likely be more important to the Big Ten race than The Game. 

DrMantisToboggan

October 21st, 2017 at 1:09 PM ^

They tried really hard to lose to Minnesota last week. Indiana and Maryland are both better than Minnesota. I think you have to take it week by week with MSU. They don't have much talent, especially on O. They're well coached. That's a recipe for a lot of close games that could go either way at the end. That could mean 7-2 in conference or it could mean 5-4.

SpikeFan2016

October 21st, 2017 at 1:15 PM ^

I agree that can lose to a team like Indiana. But the chances of that happening, in my opinion, are at least as good as the chances they beat Penn State in East Lansing. 

Odds cancel out. 7-2 is my expectation for MSU at this point. Maybe 6-3, exceedingly unlikely they'd do worse than that. And 8-1 is also possible. 

 

They also beat Iowa and Michigan and both of those teams are better than Northwestern, Indiana and Maryland, so your logic has to go both ways. 

DrMantisToboggan

October 21st, 2017 at 2:18 PM ^

I agree that the logic would go both ways, but I guess what I’m getting at (and you alluded to) is that I don’t think this is an MSU team that you can expect consistency or logical outcomes from. We are certainly a better team than Minny but they played MSU to a closer score than we did. Like you said, I think this is an MSU game that could win 8 games in conference, but I also think they could win only 4. It really seems like a week to week team.

Squash34

October 21st, 2017 at 1:57 PM ^

College football is about matchups and Indy matches up very well with what msu does. Particularly regarding Indy's offense verse MSU defense. Msu has done well with OSU because OSU largely wants to power run right at them, which plays right into msu defensive philosophy. Teams that can spread them out and use the vertical passing game have hurt MSU, and Indy has a pretty good vertical passing game.
Not to say Indy will win, but they have a good shot to do so.

HAIL-YEA

October 21st, 2017 at 1:10 PM ^

you have a cooler to poop in or a sister to impregnate or something?

I don't consider Michigan in that race right now. If we get a win tonight than ok, we are in the race but as it stands right now I don't think so.

evenyoubrutus

October 21st, 2017 at 1:11 PM ^

Calm down folks. It's pretty unusual to find a Buckeye fan who isn't a total scumbag, bottom feeding loser with an IQ less than 60. This one probably has all his teeth too. Maybe we shouldn't run him off?

LSAClassOf2000

October 21st, 2017 at 2:03 PM ^

So would I, and I think the OP's point - or part of it - was that Penn State has this grinding stretch ahead of it starting tonight with us. Even if we don't ultimately win, we drain them a bit, and then they get play a physcial game against OSU and MSU in consecutive weeks too. I am sure they slip somewhere in the next couple weeks, maybe tonight even if we are fortunate somehow. 

ThadMattasagoblin

October 21st, 2017 at 1:57 PM ^

MSU is not terrible but they had a close game with Iowa where Iowa turned it over twice in scoring position and we turned it over 5 times with a monsoon. They beat Minny by 3. They'll come back to the pack and win 8 or so games like us.

Perkis-Size Me

October 21st, 2017 at 2:30 PM ^

Barring a huge turnaround against PSU tonight, this is only a three game race.



MSU may not get by PSU or OSU, but it won’t surprise me to see them go 7-2 in conference.