Big Ten Preview - 5 Games to Decide the Title
Mates,
Oldest brother played at Northwestern and forwarded me a fairly short and succinct article about the 5 biggest games out of the 63 total B10 games this year. Michigan is in 3 of the 5 marquee match ups, and there is also an interview with Jake Butt in the video portion.
The link is here: http://www.csnchicago.com/big-ten/big-ten-preview-five-games-will-decid…
The 5 big games include
NW v. Iowa
Mich @. state
Mich @ Iowa
ohio v. state
Mich @ ohio
College football season is really here. You can start to feel it now.
XM
August 30th, 2016 at 10:31 AM ^
I think we should be done with the "Ohio" thing.
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August 30th, 2016 at 10:36 AM ^
Not until we beat them
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August 30th, 2016 at 10:47 AM ^
THE Ohio University? I didn't realize we even play them this year.
August 30th, 2016 at 10:37 AM ^
We should be able to call them whatever the hell we want to
August 30th, 2016 at 10:48 AM ^
Dirtbag scum
August 30th, 2016 at 11:25 AM ^
Doesn't the fact that the equivalent "insult" directed at MSU would result in us calling them "Michigan" demonstrate how stupid the whole "Ohio" thing is? That, and the fact that it was resurrected by Brady Hoke?
August 30th, 2016 at 12:42 PM ^
I hacked your laptop after you posted your comment. Says it all.
August 30th, 2016 at 1:34 PM ^
Yeah. if the Ohio thing wasn't so stupid, the OSU band wouldn't take the trouble to spell out State in Script ohio State, the university wouldn't have been so picky about forcing people to call it THE Ohio State Stadium, and their alma mater's title would probably have been shortened tfrom Carmen Ohio State. But, of course, leaving off the "State" is totally stupid and so none of those things will ever happen.
August 30th, 2016 at 2:19 PM ^
If the defense is "but OSU does it too!," that means it's stupid.
August 30th, 2016 at 3:04 PM ^
do you think is 'stupid'? sparty doesn't call their stadium 'michigan stadium', but ohio does. sparty doesn't spell out 'michigan' with their band, but 'ohio' does.
August 30th, 2016 at 10:44 AM ^
Yes, we should totally refer to them only by their full and proper name: The Ohio State University.
/s
August 30th, 2016 at 12:02 PM ^
If you want to use "The," then by all means, do it. I don't care what they say - it's just Ohio State University or OSU.
August 30th, 2016 at 10:44 AM ^
their stadium, their band spelling, etc. , so they are forever 'ohio' to me.
August 30th, 2016 at 10:56 AM ^
If calling them "Ohio" bothers them, good. Why any Michigan fan would give one single fuck about what we call those sheep fuckers is beyond me.
August 30th, 2016 at 11:03 AM ^
*cooler poopers, couch fornicators
August 30th, 2016 at 11:03 AM ^
*cooler poopers, couch fornicators
August 30th, 2016 at 11:21 AM ^
Van Humpers!
August 30th, 2016 at 11:54 AM ^
Potato aspirants.
August 30th, 2016 at 12:38 PM ^
Pedophiles
August 30th, 2016 at 7:42 PM ^
Personal preference.
August 30th, 2016 at 10:53 AM ^
It's what they call themselves in their favorite cheer where they spell.
It's the name of their stadium.
It's what their band spells during pregame.
Of they don't like it, it's their own fault because that's what they are.
August 30th, 2016 at 7:30 PM ^
Calling them Ohio is stupid.
But they really hate it, so I'm cool with it.
August 30th, 2016 at 11:22 AM ^
They put an X through every M on anything to do with them. So if it ticks them off, we should do it as much as possible.
August 30th, 2016 at 12:03 PM ^
That's different. Calling them Ohio just reminds us of three awful seasons with Hoke as the coach. Much like the legends jerseys, calling OSU Ohio was just a stupid ploy to get attention.
August 30th, 2016 at 12:11 PM ^
The only way to beat your demons is to face them head on, Sydney.
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August 30th, 2016 at 1:42 PM ^
Those of us with more experience know that Hoke didn't introduce the concept of calling them Ohio. Bo sometimes did it, Canham often did it, Ufer sometimes did it.
I understand how newcomers could associate the term with Hoke and so not want to use it themselves, but they really shouldn't assume that we all have the same associations, and so they (= you) should just eschew gettiing triggered by people doing it.
When you whine about it, your complaint is just a stupid ploy to get attention, just like all of your whining,, but we don't complain about your whining... much
August 30th, 2016 at 10:37 AM ^
NW vs.Iowa -- they had to throw in a token game that didn't involve UM or OSU.
August 30th, 2016 at 10:39 AM ^
Chicago Newspaper
August 30th, 2016 at 10:46 AM ^
to some degree. i haven't analyzed other schedules, but maybe there's a wisconsin v. iowa match-up this year and that would be about the only other western conf foe that iowa needs to worry about.
would love to see northwestern win that game. for obvious reasons northwestern has been my second favorite school since oldest brother started there in '73.
August 30th, 2016 at 11:39 AM ^
Sorry, but nah.
You could say Wisconsin vs. Iowa or Iowa vs Nebraska from the West.
Northwestern isn't winning the west. Northwestern was the only team last year that Iowa actually sandblasted/looked like a 12-0 team against.
August 30th, 2016 at 1:15 PM ^
You got downvoted because this blog has always had a strange pro-Northwestern contingent.
August 30th, 2016 at 1:45 PM ^
Nothing particularly "strange" about the blog's pro-Northwestern stance. Northwestern has a number of admirable traits, and their teams are clean and, for the last decade and a half, generally well-coached.
Being biased in favor of admrable things is an attractive feature of this blog.
August 30th, 2016 at 10:40 AM ^
Is nw really the primary competition to iowa in the west? That is a pathetic half of the conference.
August 30th, 2016 at 10:43 AM ^
Nah that game should just be [placeholder for whatever game Iowa ends up losing in the West].
August 30th, 2016 at 10:46 AM ^
Does the West really matter? I mean, I guess Iowa made a game of the Championship last year, but I think any of the top 2-3 teams in the East could spot whoever wins the East 2 touchdowns this year.
August 30th, 2016 at 11:00 AM ^
Iowa made a game of the championship last year because MSU shouldn't have been there and was playing with a less than 100% Connor Cook.
August 30th, 2016 at 12:47 PM ^
Yep, that (Ohio) team however, would've destroyed Iowa if they played like they did vs. Michigan and Notra Lame!
August 30th, 2016 at 1:06 PM ^
The West could be decent this year, but honestly, the best team in that division could be 8-4 this year. Iowa always, ALWAYS craps the bed when they have any kind of preseason expectations. Nebraska had a lot of bad luck last year, but they still have Mike Riley as their coach, so I'm not convinced he'll ever be the guy to bring Nebraska back. Or let's put it this way: he's not the guy that will take down Urban Meyer, Jim Harbaugh, or Mark Dantonio on a regular basis.
Northwestern is just Northwestern. They could make some noise, but the nature/culture of their program will never allow them to compete on a year in, year out basis with the East. Not a knock on them, but Northwestern just doesn't emphasize football enough to ever make them a real threat.
Wisconsin is probably the best team in the division if Clement is healthy, and the talent level is pretty good. But given their brutal schedule, they could still be a good team, but finish the year 7-5. Minnesota will never be a threat until they can pass the ball, and then Purdue and Illinois are just...well...Purdue and Illinois.
So the West COULD be decent, but they will likely lose to whoever wins the East.
August 30th, 2016 at 7:39 PM ^
Sleeper.
August 30th, 2016 at 10:46 AM ^
Iowa - Nebraska probably matters
August 30th, 2016 at 7:41 PM ^
That bowl performance when compared to Iowa's may be an indicator.
August 30th, 2016 at 10:51 AM ^
Normally I'd swap NW-Iowa for Wisc-Iowa, but I think Wisconsin is going to be so beat to hell by the time they get past the first 5-6 games on their schedule, they could very well be out of the divisional race by the start of October.
I think Nebraska-Iowa will be a big decider of who wins the West, if not the biggest one. If Nebraska can learn to finish games this year, they could be a 9-10 win team. Their schedule is fairly manageable (only real difficult games, OSU and Oregon, have no bearing on them getting to Indy), and they probably have the most raw talent of anyone in the West. Iowa might have a bit more, but it's relatively neck and neck.
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August 30th, 2016 at 10:53 AM ^
Their season over/under is 8.5 I think. I played the over.
August 30th, 2016 at 10:59 AM ^
OSU has bearing on their divisional standing. Conference record decides division champs, not just intradivisional record.
August 30th, 2016 at 11:29 AM ^
If any western division team can win all of their western division games they would only need to win one eastern division game to finish 7-2 with a head to head tie breaker.
August 30th, 2016 at 12:14 PM ^
True, and I should've accounted for that. But still, its a limited affect. If Nebraska loses to OSU (which, honestly, they probably will), but takes care of business with its divisional games, then they're still in good shape to get to Indy.
August 30th, 2016 at 10:52 AM ^
So, basically, our schedule determines the championship.