B1G Standings (Wk 1)

Submitted by markp on October 26th, 2020 at 10:20 AM

While the standings matter every year, this season brings in Champions Week, which will match-up the #1 East vs #1 West, #2 vs #2, and so on.

WEST
Purdue (1-0)
Northwestern (1-0)
Wisconsin (1-0)
Illinois (0-1)
Iowa (0-1)
Nebraska (0-1)
Minnesota (0-1)

EAST
Michigan (1-0)
OSU (1-0)
Indiana (1-0)
Rutgers (1-0)
Maryland (0-1)
PSU (0-1)
MSU (0-1)

Just as everyone predicted, Purdue, Northwestern, Indiana, and Rutgers are among teams tied for first in their divisions. What?!

It's too early to forecast actual matchups, but hoo boy, that was an interesting week one.

Week two pits MICH vs MSU, OSU vs PSU, IND vs RUT

ThePonyConquerer

October 26th, 2020 at 10:31 AM ^

It...

(Edit by rob f: I'm taking the rare step of editing out a post ONLY because it it's clearly a "bait-and-switch" situation. He posted nonsense and then, to avoid scrutiny, edited out his original highly-questionable post and replaced it with one that actually made some sense. 

I'm also looking into whether there's more than one account involved here.)

xtramelanin

October 26th, 2020 at 11:06 AM ^

s/he edited the post.  before it was some bizarre, inappropriate meme.  obviously thought the better of it and took it down, put in something nearly as inappropriate. 

EDIT:  and has now edited it down to an apology.  PQ, i don't know what the deal is but my guess is you are lonely.  time to go get some friends, join a real, in-person group, or sports team, or business venture, or church/temple/etc, or whatever, and get out in the world.  guessing you might have a lot to contribute if you'd let yourself do so. 

Hab

October 26th, 2020 at 4:33 PM ^

The content of his posts made it clear that he intended to use a different account.  His first post, which is reasonable, is still there.  The second post, made very soon after, was critical of the reasonable post, and thus, likely to have been intended to have been made using an alternate troll account.  Basically, a round-about way of garnering sympathy for upvotes.

rob f

October 26th, 2020 at 12:08 PM ^

Pony Conquerer: Warning issued.

 I'll refer you to the full warning further downthread. I meant to post it here but didn't post it as a reply, my mistake.

Brhino

October 26th, 2020 at 10:32 AM ^

I went over to the sparty blog for some schadenfreude.  One of the posters had a pretty good comment: "If you had told me back in February that we'd be going into the Michigan game at the end of October with one loss, one game out of first place, I'd have been ecstatic.  Now, not so much."

PopeLando

October 26th, 2020 at 11:30 AM ^

I know it's only been one game, but Tucker seems remarkably like a Brady Hoke analogue:

 - dubious qualifications

- his contributions in-game seem to be mostly relegated to clapping

- hired by a reportedly-awful Athletic Director

- ridiculously overpaid (to be fair, I'd coach MSU for $30 million... I bet I could manage to lose to Rutgers too)

I don't blame people for taking jobs they aren't qualified for when offered a ridiculous sum of money to do so. I don't blame people for failing upwards, or parlaying, say, an interim head coaching gig into various large contracts. I DO wonder at the people who hire those kinds of people.

bronxblue

October 26th, 2020 at 12:25 PM ^

MSU clearly thought Fickell was coming, and perhaps his agents communicated as much in order to get a better contract at Cincy.  Once that fell through they really didn't have a backup plan, and it showed in how they chased a bunch of guys with dubious credentials and settled on Tucker.

To Tucker's credit, he seems like a decent guy.  He didn't throw his players under the bus like Dantonio did, and it's impossible to judge a hire after a year, even though my guess is he'll ultimately be a bust.  But he absolutely didn't show anything at Colorado to give one the impression that he could lead an upper-tier P5 program to consistent success.

Hail-Storm

October 26th, 2020 at 12:53 PM ^

As someone who has been underpaid many times in my career, I'd gladly accept a gross overpay for a few years.  Wouldn't mind one of those fancy golden parachutes you get too when you mess up so bad they just pay you the money without having to work. Charlie Weis was getting paid by three teams at one point.

goblue76

October 26th, 2020 at 11:32 AM ^

I love seeing MSU lose but their splatter to reality takes away from some of the razzing I can give my friends and neighbors.  I mean I squinted at our Halloween matchup and it reads Rutgers. 

I still feel Mork somehow sold his soul to the devil for that 5 year run they had.  Urban Meyer should have nightmares over that game they lost to Sparty in CBus with Tyler O'Connor as the starter.

PopeLando

October 26th, 2020 at 5:06 PM ^

Not to sober things up, but Dantonio didn't pay the devil with his soul. His football team was allowed to rape their way across campus for YEARS at a time. Assault victims were intimidated and silenced. Players who should have been in jail were suiting up against us (didn't what's-his-face get caught for drunk driving SEVEN times, with six of those coming on a suspended license?). Hard-r spewing racists were reinstated. Physical violence, against each other and others, was encouraged. Any position coach who raised an eyebrow was scapegoated.

No, Mork sacrificed *everyone else* for his victories. Anyone who could do that never had a soul to begin with.

GoBlueOval

October 26th, 2020 at 10:32 AM ^

I recognize OSU has reached Juggernaut status. I have hopes, but I'm not letting them get too high.


HOWEVER, I'm fully aboard the high hopes train for MSU to be playing in the first ever B1G Last Place game at the end of the season! 

lhglrkwg

October 26th, 2020 at 10:43 AM ^

I think that IU-PSU game says a lot more about Penn State than it does Indiana. OSU is probably going to walk on the Fightin' Franklins

The whole West division will be interesting to watch now that Graham Mertz got the 'rona. Is anyone in that division any good? It wouldn't shock me if Minnesota is just kinda bad

jmblue

October 26th, 2020 at 12:00 PM ^

IU really didn't look that great against PSU.  They were outgained by a significant margin.  It had the feel of one of those games where the favorite keeps tripping over its own feet before finally getting it together and winning . . . but PSU decided to keep on tripping to the end.

M_Born M_Believer

October 26th, 2020 at 1:42 PM ^

My impression of the first week is that the West is wide open.  Mertz made a difference for Wisconsin, but with him out for 3 weeks, that blows everything up.  I am pretty sure he wont be the last key player to get COVID (although Im pretty sure that Fields has some secret immune system that will prevent him from getting COVID)

Without Mertz, I could see up to 5 teams (WIS, NW, Iowa, Minny, Purdue) in the west fighting for the top.  The winner will have a 5-3 record and the difference will be which team out of the 5 have the easiest (ie Sparty and Maryland) cross over games to the East.  

RedRum

October 26th, 2020 at 10:49 AM ^

Whisky looks good.

I feel much better about playing PSU, we shall see how they respond to their "loss"

I'm trying to send "stay focused" vibes to UM and to not look past an enemy who would rather beat Michigan then loose every other game by 1000 points.