Power Rankings, football
A little bit different than the premise of the bball rankings. This year the Big 10 basically has 3 tiers. The 3 elite teams, the 4 mediocre bowl teams, and the 4 non bowl teams that are not bowl eligible because of their own ineptness.
I'm ranking the top 7 based on this year and the bottom 4 based on both this season and the status of their program and while I am at it I will point out their ineptness.
1. OSU: #1 team gets the #1 spot
2. Michigan: Beat Wisconsin so they go here
3. Wisconsin: because no other team is even in the team photo with these three
4. Penn State: Because they actually play defense
5. Minnesota: Because they flogged everyone down the stretch and are playing better than anyone in the bottom 8 right now
6. Purdue: Because they didnt go 2-6 in the Big 10
7. Iowa: Because they did
8. Illinois: Lost 33-0 to Rutgers and then closed with a loss to Northwestern. Nice work guys. But their defense can hit and Juice can get loose, and Zook can recruit, and this is a team that will play on or after Jan 1 in the next 3 years.
9. Indiana: If they would have beaten Southern Illinois they would be headed for the Motor City Bowl. On second thought, maybe that loss wasnt so bad afterall. On top of that, they shouldn't feel so bad, the basketball team would probably lose to SIU as well. Personally, I think over the next 3-5 years they will have better teams than Illinois and probably Minnesota. But I think the ceiling for Illinois is much higher than Indiana. While I can see Illinoi in the Outback Bowl in 2 years, I really can only see IU climbing to the #5 Bowl spot from the Big 10.
10. Mich State. They pissed away that ND game and lost at home to Illinois when Illinois really stunk. But getting rid of John L. Smth moves them ahead of NU.
11. They got blown out at home by New Hampshire and blew a 35-3 lead over Mich St. That's hard to do. While I want Northwestern to go 0-11 every year and burn down their ugly ass stadium I do want Pat to do well and I think the players deserved better after their coach died during the summer. That being said, an easy choice for #11
posted by TR @ 8:57 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I think you're right on with the possible exception of Minnesota ahead of Purdue. Mason definitely saved his job by turning the Gophers season around and leading them to a bowl game, particularly after Penn St. stealing a home game and then getting walloped the following week at Camp Randall.
Purdue needs to rethink its defensive philospohy if it seeks to bark with the big dogs atop the conference.
Iowa is without doubt the biggest disappointment in the league. A former student of mine helps the team with recruiting and said the team experienced internal problems and basically quit on Ferentz.
Illinois should take a big step next year. They have the players and need only to learn how to win. Think Wisconsin in 1992 when they dropped the final game of the season against NW, costing them a bowl bid. They answered with a 10-1-1 campaign and a Rose Bowl win.
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