B1G Reveal. SHOUT! Mid Term B1G Grades Are Out and Puddles is Flying High.

[Jon Joseph]

 

Mother Nature willing, I hope to be here every week with a B1G Reveal, keeping an eye on the B1G title race and 2024-25 Playoff race.

 

The Athletic ($ wall) has given all 18 B1G football teams a mid-term grade. All quotes from The Athletic; all times Pacific; Rankings from Week 8 AP Poll; Strength of Schedule Rankings from College Football Network.

 

Puddles is one of the two best B1G students. A+ for the Ducks and Holy Hoosiers! A+ for Indiana. (In Football? Take that, Bobby Knight!)

 

Midway through the season? Doesn't it seem like yesterday that Brian Kelly was pounding a table, USC (C- ) was a Playoff lock, and the Ducks O-line couldn't block? 

 

B1G conference contenders are shown in Bold.  Also shown are a team's grade. Quotes are from The Athletic (TA), and future Strength of Schedule (SOS) is calculated by College Football Nation. 

 

A+ No. 2 OREGON  6-0/3-0 - SOS 52 (Preseason 25!) -27.5 at F Graded Purdue - Friday 5 PM FOX - All times Pacific. Toughest games left. Illinois; at Michigan; at Wisconsin. "No team has a better resume."

 

A+ NO. 16 Indiana - 6-0/3-0 - SOS - 29. 1st time since 1967, that the Hoosiers are 6-0. No. 11 Playoff seed in TA's Week 8 Mock Playoff field. Saturday vs B+ 5-1/2-1 Nebraska, SOS 12, Indiana -7. B1Ggest test of the season for Indiana and mid-term Coach of the Year Curt Cignetti. Toughest games left. Michigan, at Ohio State.

 

A No. 3 Penn State - 6-0/3-0 - SOS 47. PSU completed its sweep of LA with a 33-30 OT win in the Coli vs. USC. IDLE. Next Up - At B- Wisconsin 4/2/2-1 SOS 10. Badgers QB Braedyn Locke - 599 passing yards in 52-16 and 40-7 wins over Purdue and at C+ Rutgers; Wisconsin also put up 309 rush yards in New Jersey. "Wisconsin appears to be ascending at the right time." This Saturday, the Badgers -7.5 play at C Northwestern. 

 

A No. 22 Illinois 5-1/2-1 vs No. 24 Michigan 4-2/ 2-1. Illinois +1.5. Illini SOS 30. Michigan SOS 7. This game celebrates the 'Red Grange/Galloping Ghost Game' played in 1924 and also celebrates Memorial Stadium's 100th birthday. Grange accounted for 6 TDs, 4 in the 1st 12 minutes including returning the opening kickoff for a TD in the Illini's upset of the Wolverines. Saturday 12:30 CBS.

 

A- No. 4 Ohio State - 5-1/ 2-1 - SOS - 26 - IDLE. Next Up, Nebraska. "More talent than any team left on the schedule." (DUH )

 

B - Iowa - 4-2/2-1 - SOS 69 - Last in the B1G! Hawkeyes -6.5 Saturday at C+ Michigan State. "Advantageous 2nd half schedule." This is an understatement. Iowa has a decent chance of finishing 10-2/ 8-1 with a shot at the B1G champ game. 

 

B1G Contenders SOS Ranking - Higher = Easier.

 

69 Iowa; 52 DUCKS; 47 Penn State; 30 Illinois; 29 Indiana; 26 Ohio State; 12 Nebraska; 10 Wisconsin; and 7 Michigan. This does not take into consideration Oregon playing eight conference games without a break.

 

WEEK 8 - Other Games with a Playoff Impact.

 

No. 5 Georgia +2.5 /SOS 18 at No. 1 Texas - SOS 8 - Like Ohio State vs. Oregon this SEC game (one of the top 2 of the preseason 2024 SEC games, with the other featuring Georgia at Alabama) held serve. 

 

UGA QB Carson Beck completes 79% of his passes 'Tween the Hedges,' and 56% on the road. But to date, Georgia has played a more difficult schedule than the Longhorns. 

 

No. 7 Alabama -3/ SOS 41 at No. 11. Tennessee - SOS 48. 2022 - Vols 52 - Crimson Tide 49 - Only Tennessee win in the last 17 games. Should Bama be a road favorite? 

 

Other SOS Of Interest to Oregon fans.

 

ACC - Clemson 68/ Miami 57/ SMU 56/ Pitt 25

 

Notre Dame - 60 Improved by Army and Navy being in the Top 25. 

 

B12 - 21 ASU (GO DILLY!)/ 55 BYU/ 46 Iowa State/ 49 K State/ 37 Texas Tech (OR State 66 )

 

With a win over Ohio State, Oregon has a B1G Mulligan. 8-1 Oregon with wins over Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, 8-1 Ohio State, 8-1 Penn State, with the L vs tOSU, 8-1 Indiana with the L to tOSU, and an 8-1 Iowa with the loss to Ohio State, would see OBD playing a rematch against the Buckeyes in Indianapolis on 12/7/24, and a 1st round Playoff bye with a win and a home 1st round game with a loss. Which is Nice. 

 

GO DUCKS - BLAST THE BOILERS!

 

[The Kamikaze Kid]

Great stuff JJ!

[Jon Joseph]

A few B1G add-ons if I may. 

 

Indiana - 1887 - 137 years of football. Three, Tres, Trois BOWL GAMES! In 137 years.

 

Playoff Add-On. 

 

You go to 16 teams in 2026, no preferred seeding and what do you get?

 

16. Indiana at 1.Texas

9. Iowa State at 8. LSU

 

13. BYU at 4. Ohio State

12. Notre Dame at 5. Georgia

..............................................................

 

15. Boise State at 2. OREGON

10. Clemson at 7. Alabama

 

14. A+M at 3. Penn State

11 Tennessee at 6. Miami

 

Simple, eh? But someone, something, or a combination thereof has to come up with the Top 16.

[Nevada Dawg]

Well what did you expect re the Ducks. I just watched Oregon play, by far, the best game I have witnessed since I circled around to begin watching with my Duck buddy about 5-6 years ago. And it was all the better for whom they beat. The Ducks players need to stay away from he fawning press telling them how good they are (Saban's rat poison) and just keep grinding away every week.
 

Even though they will be favored in every league game the rest of the way. they are only now to experience the rigors of cross-country travel, and the Purdue game should prove the easiest of those challenges. November trips to Camp Randall and the Big house should prove far more challenging.

 

So keep on choppin wood my feathered friends and have yourself a season to remember!!

 

[OregonDucks]

On 10/17/2024 at 12:28 AM, Nevada Dawg said:

Even though they will be favored in every league game the rest of the way. they are only now to experience the rigors of cross-country travel, and the Purdue game should prove the easiest of those challenges. November trips to Camp Randall and the Big house should prove far more challenging.

 

I know that Purdue isn't a great football team but they showed some offensive life last weekend and the B1G Network showed that they have the most victories (17), as an unranked team, against top 5 teams, of any FBS team. The last of which was against #5 Michigan State, which Derrick Harmon was a part of.

 

Coach Lanning cannot let the team get complacent. The team has to go into West Lafayette and play a clean game and execute (Ducks vs. Ducks).

 

 

Purdue's 17 wins against top-5 teams as an unranked opponent | Purdue Boilermakers fan forums - BoilerUpload

PURDUE.FORUMS.RIVALS.COM

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I believe I have assembled the whole list. I also found nine other games where an unranked Purdue team beat a top-10 opponent. I consulted a bunch of websites and online databases, but...

 

[Jon Joseph]

 

CBS Sports Revises Its Preseason Playoff and Other Predictions.

 

Ryan Day, Midseason Coach of the Year?

 

 

College football predictions: Second-chance expert picks for 2024 national champion, playoff field, more - CBSSports.com

WWW.CBSSPORTS.COM

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Taking a close, detailed and opinionated look at the top of college football at the halfway point

[Jon Joseph]

 

B1G Factoid: Indiana HC Curt Cignetti was an assistant to Nick Saban at Alabama and Saban's recruiting coordinator. 

 

Cig's 1st HC job was at NAIA IUP. He took a 60% pay cut from what he was making at Bama but he wanted to be an HC like his Dad was at West Virginia. This strategy paid off handsomely. He went from @$775K at James Madison to $4M+ at Indiana. 

 

As Curt said at B1G Media Days: If you don't know me, Google me, I win. The preseason Over/Under win total for 6-win Indiana was 5.5.

 

The Indiana stadium is sold out for this Saturday's game vs. Nebraska.