BrutusBobcat
Icon and Entertainer
What we need
*WARNING*
This post contains forward looking statements. These may involve the use of optimism, which is controverisal at this point in time.
Okay, now that the shock of being 8th in the Big Ten is starting to wear off, what do we need to do in order to climb up and get someplace other than the Sun Bowl?
Premise #1: OSU wins out. Stop laughing! I am being serious here.
Premise #2: Head-to-head is the only tiebreaker that I'm considering. Teams we don't play I am assuming that we need to beat in the standings.
Premise #3: We only care about what happens to the teams ahead of us. Illinois versus Indiana might be terribly interesting to the folks in Bloomington (or not), but not to us. The relevant teams are: scUM, Minny, Wisky, Purdue, MSU, NW and Iowa.
Premise #4: We can count on NO help from PSU, Indiana or Illinois.
First things first. This weekend we need to beat Iowa, or things get ugly. Since Iowa already has a B10 loss, we move ahead in the standings. That would be seventh for those of you keeping score at home.
Iowa then needs to help us. They would still have games against UW, Minny, and Purdue. Purdue and UW have to visit Iowa City. Ferentz and Co. get at least one of those. If they get both, we send him Christmas cards.
Now, Purdue versus UW. Since both are unbeaten, and we need three UW losses to pass them, GO BOILERS. We'll get our shot at them later on. Purdue then has scUM, NW and Iowa among the relevant teams (and us, of course). The only home game of the three is scUM, the other two are on the road. We need them to lose one of those three, preferably Iowa, then lose to us. That takes care of them.
As far as Wisky goes, that's a tough one. After Purdue, they've got NW, Minny, MSU and Iowa. Again, we want an Iowa win in Iowa City, plus a loss either at home to Minny or NW, or a loss on the road at MSU. If we had a choice, it would be MSU, since they have one loss already AND we play them later on this season.
Other games this weekend:
Michigan at Illinois. Oh, go Illini or whatever, but that's too pollyanna even for me. scUM's future games include trips to Purdue, then MSU and NW at home. Once again, it's go Spartans. We can also root for the Boilermakers as long as Iowa helps us there. All we need is one scUM loss before they head into Columbus.
Minny at MSU. The pattern continues. The Spartans are our friends right now, and we need some Minny losses. This would be a good one to start with. The Gophers also have Wisconsin and Iowa on the slate. Again, we're looking for Hawkeye help.
Northwestern is off. We can hope that their entire offense gets arrested for skinny dipping in Lake Michigan or something. Later on in the season, they play UW, Purdue, and Michigan. We need then to lose two out of three.
That about covers it. The odds of a Rose Bowl are clearly pretty remote. We can, however, move past a lot of these teams and get into a pretty decent spot (2nd or 3rd in the standings) if things fall the right way.
*WARNING*
This post contains forward looking statements. These may involve the use of optimism, which is controverisal at this point in time.
Okay, now that the shock of being 8th in the Big Ten is starting to wear off, what do we need to do in order to climb up and get someplace other than the Sun Bowl?
Premise #1: OSU wins out. Stop laughing! I am being serious here.
Premise #2: Head-to-head is the only tiebreaker that I'm considering. Teams we don't play I am assuming that we need to beat in the standings.
Premise #3: We only care about what happens to the teams ahead of us. Illinois versus Indiana might be terribly interesting to the folks in Bloomington (or not), but not to us. The relevant teams are: scUM, Minny, Wisky, Purdue, MSU, NW and Iowa.
Premise #4: We can count on NO help from PSU, Indiana or Illinois.
First things first. This weekend we need to beat Iowa, or things get ugly. Since Iowa already has a B10 loss, we move ahead in the standings. That would be seventh for those of you keeping score at home.
Iowa then needs to help us. They would still have games against UW, Minny, and Purdue. Purdue and UW have to visit Iowa City. Ferentz and Co. get at least one of those. If they get both, we send him Christmas cards.
Now, Purdue versus UW. Since both are unbeaten, and we need three UW losses to pass them, GO BOILERS. We'll get our shot at them later on. Purdue then has scUM, NW and Iowa among the relevant teams (and us, of course). The only home game of the three is scUM, the other two are on the road. We need them to lose one of those three, preferably Iowa, then lose to us. That takes care of them.
As far as Wisky goes, that's a tough one. After Purdue, they've got NW, Minny, MSU and Iowa. Again, we want an Iowa win in Iowa City, plus a loss either at home to Minny or NW, or a loss on the road at MSU. If we had a choice, it would be MSU, since they have one loss already AND we play them later on this season.
Other games this weekend:
Michigan at Illinois. Oh, go Illini or whatever, but that's too pollyanna even for me. scUM's future games include trips to Purdue, then MSU and NW at home. Once again, it's go Spartans. We can also root for the Boilermakers as long as Iowa helps us there. All we need is one scUM loss before they head into Columbus.
Minny at MSU. The pattern continues. The Spartans are our friends right now, and we need some Minny losses. This would be a good one to start with. The Gophers also have Wisconsin and Iowa on the slate. Again, we're looking for Hawkeye help.
Northwestern is off. We can hope that their entire offense gets arrested for skinny dipping in Lake Michigan or something. Later on in the season, they play UW, Purdue, and Michigan. We need then to lose two out of three.
That about covers it. The odds of a Rose Bowl are clearly pretty remote. We can, however, move past a lot of these teams and get into a pretty decent spot (2nd or 3rd in the standings) if things fall the right way.