2016

[jwlcosu]

Camps are open. Kick-off is just around the corner. Michigan getting all the pre-season love. Buckeye squad is young and unproven, but talented. Much different vibe to this years camp relative to last. The rivalry is on. Glad "The Game" is in C'bus.

Will be a fun year. Harbaugh is a whack job but you gotta love it. "Play, for as long as you can, coach, and then die."

Spartans, by the way, might bite both our asses. Veteran squad, which is Dantonio's calling card, that will will play with a chip on its shoulder, as always. And both games are in EL, so there's that.

Buckle up.

 

[deathroh]

**** you

 

[Spartanmack]

is anyone talking about anyone in the B1G West? Good job Delaney.

 

[Michchamp]

are you suggesting he should go back to the Leaders/Legends arrangement? I thought people preferred common sense geographic divisions over gerrymandered ones, since programs change over time anyway.

 

[byco42]

Can't break up M-MSU-OSU to preserve the annual games. So that creates limitations. Nebraska was supposed to be better than it is.

 

[TheVictors]

Yeah, for all the grief over the addition of Rutgers and Maryland (deserved, as it is), Nebraska joining the BigTen has been a giant thud.

The summer prior to their inaugural football season, every CFB "expert" claimed that the Buggeaters would dominate the conference immediately and become a preeminent BigTen powerhouse..

Quite the opposite has happened.

They're absolutely average in every respect in football and below average in most other sports. Academically the school is not on par with the rest of the BigTen and hasn't done much to elevate the image or reputation of the conference. All the Corn fans and Alumni here don't seem to care, though most would prefer to still be playing Iowa State and Kansas every season.

 

[Spartanmack]

Yeah, for all the grief over the addition of Rutgers and Maryland (deserved, as it is), Nebraska joining the BigTen has been a giant thud.

The summer prior to their inaugural football season, every CFB "expert" claimed that the Buggeaters would dominate the conference immediately and become a preeminent BigTen powerhouse..

Quite the opposite has happened.

They're absolutely average in every respect in football and below average in most other sports. Academically the school is not on par with the rest of the BigTen and hasn't done much to elevate the image or reputation of the conference. All the Corn fans and Alumni here don't seem to care, though most would prefer to still be playing Iowa State and Kansas every season.

I agree, that talk was total nonsense - they weren't even an also ran the last several years in the Tiny 12 - if they weren't in the northern division, they'd never win 4 conference games. People said the same thing about penn state - i was living in Chicago at the time and that's all I heard from ND fans, how PSU, since they were an ND rival, would go to the Rose Bowl virtually every year and uofm or osu would sneak in every once in a while.

 

[tomdalton22]

you could have a similar geographic split, split up uofm and osu - you could give them a protected rivalry or since only uofm and osu fans give a crap about that game, you could just scrap it.

I think you could say the same thing about every rivalry game...only the fans of those teams give a crap about it.

 

[Spartanmack]

you could have a similar geographic split, split up uofm and osu - you could give them a protected rivalry or since only uofm and osu fans give a crap about that game, you could just scrap it. Or put MSU in the west and Purdue in the East and give MSU and uofm a protected rivalry. They could have a north/south division instead of east/west. There are lots of ways to do it and still preserve rivalries and convenience. And teams aren't that cyclical - iowa's booms are flashes in the pan and will continue to be. if history is any indicator, Wisconsin's bust cycle could last 50 years and Nebraska is toast - they can't recruit nationally, they can't even recruit Texas effectively anymore and their base is so small that a lot of the state plays 8 man football in high school. of the depressed programs, Penn State probably has the best chance of recovering. The B1G east will dominate the B1G for long time.

Just look at the map - the east has 3 states, OH, PA and NJ that each probably produce more d1 talent than Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Indiana combined. And each of them produces more talent than either Wisconsin or Illinois. Most really good players in those states would get scooped up by top B1G East teams or other conferences. It's totally one-sided and I don't see it changing.

 

[Spartanmack]

I think you could say the same thing about every rivalry game...only the fans of those teams give a crap about it.

exactly, so to heck with them. Their ADs want to be part of destroying the tradition chasing expansion and the almighty dollar, they shouldn't be excluded from the destruction they reap.

and by the way, michigan needs that game a lot more than you do - without it, recruiting Ohio would probably be a lot tougher for them and there aren't enough good players in michigan to compete with OSU. If you drew up the rosters by state, OSU would crush michigan every year.

 

[Michchamp]

exactly, so to heck with them. Their ADs want to be part of destroying the tradition chasing expansion and the almighty dollar, they shouldn't be excluded from the destruction they reap.

and by the way, michigan needs that game a lot more than you do - without it, recruiting Ohio would probably be a lot tougher for them and there aren't enough good players in michigan to compete with OSU. If you drew up the rosters by state, OSU would crush michigan every year.

your opinion on this is like a steaming pile of elephant dung

 

[Spartanmack]

your opinion on this is like a steaming pile of elephant dung

you know less about college football than you do about economics - which, considering how little you know about economics is barely even possible.

 

[Michchamp]

okay, so if teams "aren't that cyclical" (your words) expect UM & OSU to determine the conference championship most years. so split them up in two divisions and they'll play back-to-back weeks most years. great plan, genius.

or are you excluding your own barely-above-average Spartans from that cyclical equation?

 

[Spartanmack]

okay, so if teams "aren't that cyclical" (your words) expect UM & OSU to determine the conference championship most years. so split them up in two divisions and they'll play back-to-back weeks most years. great plan, genius.

or are you excluding your own barely-above-average Spartans from that cyclical equation?

The point is that there aren't that many consistently good teams in the west - Nebraska and Wisconsin are the 2 "powerhouse" programs and they're both basket cases. Nebraska may never be really competitive again and once Alvarez dies, Wisconsin will be hard pressed to find someone as dirty and effective as him. Even he wasn't THAT effective, he did hire Bret Bielema afterall. so when the other teams don't have somewhat regular meaningful cyclical peaks (Iowa, NW, PU and especially Minn and Ill), the west is completely irrelevant.

So let's look at your plan - have OSU, uofm (if they can get there and maintain) and MSU duke it out for the east title, with PSU possibly becoming a contender as well, then have a meaningless B1G Champ game - now that's a great plan, genius.

So if they don't protect your meaningless rivalry game, as they shouldn't, they won't always have osu/uofm in back-to-back games for the championship. But of course, it makes mountains of sense to have the bets teams in one division and a meaningless conference championship game. Again, genius.

As it is, there are 4 teams in the East that have no shot while in the west, even Minnesota could make it to the B1G Champ game - a total waste of time. It would probably be worse than the nd/bama national championship game.

And those barely above average Spartans have as many 11 win seasons in the last 6 years as the wolverines have in the last 107.

 

[gotime909]

That last line was kind of a mic drop. Wow

 

[Spartan23MSU]

That last line was kind of a mic drop. Wow

Stepping to Mack (no not Bernie) on the Dsportsforum is like.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH54auk02KI

 

[TheVictors]

The number of kids from Ohio on both M and MSU rosters is always overstated. Of course both Desmond and Woodson knew enough to leave and go to MICHIGAN but it's not like MICHIGAN isn't dominating in NJ, bringing kids from Cali ...Wisky, all over.

Harbaugh is shoring up the MI kids and has a National presence as well.

Recruiting for M is not based on playing OSU. ND doesn't play OSU but pull Ohio kids every year too.

 

[MSUMatt28]

The point is that there aren't that many consistently good teams in the west - Nebraska and Wisconsin are the 2 "powerhouse" programs and they're both basket cases. Nebraska may never be really competitive again and once Alvarez dies, Wisconsin will be hard pressed to find someone as dirty and effective as him. Even he wasn't THAT effective, he did hire Bret Bielema afterall. so when the other teams don't have somewhat regular meaningful cyclical peaks (Iowa, NW, PU and especially Minn and Ill), the west is completely irrelevant.

So let's look at your plan - have OSU, uofm (if they can get there and maintain) and MSU duke it out for the east title, with PSU possibly becoming a contender as well, then have a meaningless B1G Champ game - now that's a great plan, genius.

So if they don't protect your meaningless rivalry game, as they shouldn't, they won't always have osu/uofm in back-to-back games for the championship. But of course, it makes mountains of sense to have the bets teams in one division and a meaningless conference championship game. Again, genius.

As it is, there are 4 teams in the East that have no shot while in the west, even Minnesota could make it to the B1G Champ game - a total waste of time. It would probably be worse than the nd/bama national championship game.

And those barely above average Spartans have as many 11 win seasons in the last 6 years as the wolverines have in the last 107.

I still prefer the geographic splits again because of the cyclical nature of many programs that is difficult to predict. Not long ago people said how the SEC should realign because in the East Florida, UT, and Georgia dominated over the West. Now the West is dominant. The Big Ten East has more traditional powers but not often have they all been at their peak at the same time. Wisconsin has been consistently good the past 20 years more than any other program outside of OSU. I do agree that Nebraska being consistently good again would do a lot to ensure more overall balance though.

 

[Spartan23MSU]

The number of kids from Ohio on both M and MSU rosters is always overstated. Of course both Desmond and Woodson knew enough to leave and go to MICHIGAN but it's not like MICHIGAN isn't dominating in NJ, bringing kids from Cali ...Wisky, all over.

Harbaugh is shoring up the MI kids and has a National presence as well.

Recruiting for M is not based on playing OSU. ND doesn't play OSU but pull Ohio kids every year too.

Pretty accurate.

Michigan is always going to be extremely competitive in recruiting and Harbaugh is like the turbo charger for the recruiting system. Hoke and RR pulled a healthy haul of talent but didnt develop those guys, that isnt the case now.

 

[TheVictors]

And those barely above average Spartans have as many 11 win seasons in the last 6 years as the wolverines have in the last 107.

I love this little factoid being pasted all over Facebook recently because state has exactly zero 11-win seasons in its first 125yrs of football. Took until 2010 with an expanded schedule ...started playing football just after slavery ended, before the automobile was invented and didn't have an 11-win season until half way through Obama's first term as President.

And during this same 125yr span, while MSU celebrated three 10-win seasons, MICHIGAN had TWENTY FIVE.



Lol


Oops, dropped my microphone.