The Big 10 West was a solid division this year- better than previous years for sure. It was a bit top heavy- it and the SEC East were the only P5 conference divisions with more teams with losing records than .500 or better. In OOC NW beat Stanford, which is one of the better nonconference wins in the country, but this about it. I guess NW win over Duke is next best, but that's about it for the entire division. So only 3 .500 or better teams and not many quality nonconference wins makes it one of the worst divisions. Not SEC East bad, though. SEC East was the clear worst division.

(12-03-2015 05:46 PM)Frog in the Kitchen Sink Wrote:  SEC East was the clear worst division.

The American West might have been better than the SEC East. One through three or four anyway.

(12-03-2015 05:21 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(12-03-2015 04:47 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(12-03-2015 09:45 AM)stever20 Wrote:  I just want to know why the west absolutely deserves to get rewarded with the Rose Bowl....

The West of all 8 divisions in P5, was #7 this year. Only the SEC East was worse. Only 2 divisions in the P5 where there weren't at least 4 teams from the division bowl eligible. Big Ten West had the 3rd worst P5 team in the country this year in Purdue.

Perhaps #7 according to your made-up computer. I don't care what some dumba__ computer says.

B1G West was #3 or #4 toughest division in P5. That includes the XII as a single division.

I give a lot of props to the SEC West. And other divisions are similarly tough.

Using what metrics? The Bison Big Ten West homer metric? Sorry but 3/7 teams were bowl eligible.

No metrics or stats are meaningful for such a comparison.

The only possible way would be to have every team in each division play a cross over, at neutral sites, between like ranked teams. (leaving off bottom ranked teams for mis-matched division size)

That gives roughly the following, in my opinion:

1) SEC West (not by a huge amount, but definitely #1)
2-4) some order of PAC South, B1G East, B1G West
5) PAC North
6-7) some order of XII and SEC East
8-9) ACC divisions

(12-03-2015 05:24 PM)ohio1317 Wrote:  

(12-03-2015 04:46 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(12-03-2015 10:25 AM)ohio1317 Wrote:  

(12-03-2015 09:33 AM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(12-03-2015 09:31 AM)ohio1317 Wrote:  Divisional championships dont matter for this though. Iowa has looked good and bad through the season same as ohio state. If the season were over now, they would deserve to be higher, but they still have a game left. Loose it and the resumes are similar. Being a traditionalist i dislike these ccgs, but no way can you ignore them when every team only played two games vs. The other division teams.

Nope.

The East gets the CFP, then the West deserves the Rose.

This isn't 2 conferences, it is one. Ohio State and Iowa are both Big Ten schools and both should be looked at regardless of division.

I understand the sentiment though. I guess just come from a different perspective. I'm too old school and while I love having outright or co-champs, the divisions just seem to artificial to me. I never want to see any banners for winning a division anywhere in Ohio Stadium. Further I hate divisions in the conference as it encourage people to think of the conferences being almost 2 separate conferences rather than just one.

I very much hope we eventually do away with them and just send the top two teams to the CCG.

Divisions have a very obvious purpose: they allow for round-robin play within the division.

The West very much feels and for all intents and purposes is a separate conference. Ohio St, Indiana, Mich St, Penn St, Rutgers and Maryland mean nothing to Minnesota. We care about Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Northwestern and Purdue. And Michigan.

The West had a fantastic year, one of the toughest divisions in P5. And Iowa is our crown jewel.

The East is already going to be rewarded for being the excellent division that it is. Don't be greedy.

The Rose Bowl is a Big Ten award, not a divisional award. If Iowa is ranked higher, they should go, but the arguments go both ways.

I love Ohio State in the Big Ten, because we play Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and other Midwestern teams regularly. If I thought about the east being it's own separate conference and us having replaced those teams with Maryland and Rutgers (two teams we never played once till last year) then I'd be truly sad and calling the conference dead.

I don't want to view it that way though, so I still see us competing with Iowa, Wisconsin, etc for the best bowls and not in two separate pools.

You lost your chance when you lost to Michigan St. If Iowa wins, then you will have your chance back in comparison to Mich St.

If Iowa loses, the West deserves the Rose bowl.


All you've said is the same thing: it's one conference ... therefore the East should get all the best bowls. That doesn't do much for me.

sorry but Big Ten West is not better than Pac 12 north.
Stanford favored over Iowa
Oregon favored over Northwestern
Washington St/Wisconsin close game
Cal/Washington would be easy favorites over Nebraska/Minnesota
then you have the 6th place Oregon St and 6th Illinois.
only one where Big Ten would be favored would be Illinois/Oregon St.....

Sorry Big Ten west isn't great. And if Iowa loses, they aren't going to the Rose Bowl.

(12-04-2015 02:23 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  You lost your chance when you lost to Michigan St. If Iowa wins, then you will have your chance back in comparison to Mich St.

If Iowa loses, the West deserves the Rose bowl.


All you've said is the same thing: it's one conference ... therefore the East should get all the best bowls. That doesn't do much for me.

I guess there is no right or wrong here, we just have different perspectives. To you winning the division counts for a lot. To me, it is entirely about how they look vs. the conference as a whole.

If you do something similar next year with Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Rutgers, I'd probably root for Wisconsin and Minnesota to be in the better bowls and Rutgers in the worse one. It's not that I dislike Rutgers, but I have followed the old Big Ten teams a lot longer and would rather see them in the Rose Bowl than a newbie. To me, the fact that Rutgers would have won the eastern division would be irrevelent.

(12-04-2015 02:30 PM)stever20 Wrote:  sorry but Big Ten West is not better than Pac 12 north.
Stanford favored over Iowa
Oregon favored over Northwestern
Washington St/Wisconsin close game
Cal/Washington would be easy favorites over Nebraska/Minnesota
then you have the 6th place Oregon St and 6th Illinois.
only one where Big Ten would be favored would be Illinois/Oregon St.....

Sorry Big Ten west isn't great. And if Iowa loses, they aren't going to the Rose Bowl.

Thanks for proving my point: unless you're a B1G West fan, you're clueless about the strength of the division. And you are.

Granted, I did explicitly say that those three divisions are *some order of 2-4*. I specifically didn't rank them. But you blew right past that.


P12N vs BTW would be a great crossover series, at neutral sites.

You know as well as anyone that being favored has literally nothing to do with anything. You're the king of tossing out some arbitrary stat, metric or concept as if it proves your argument.


If Iowa loses, they go to the Rose Bowl.

See, I said it. Now there's a record. It cancels you out.

(12-04-2015 02:40 PM)ohio1317 Wrote:  

(12-04-2015 02:23 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  You lost your chance when you lost to Michigan St. If Iowa wins, then you will have your chance back in comparison to Mich St.

If Iowa loses, the West deserves the Rose bowl.


All you've said is the same thing: it's one conference ... therefore the East should get all the best bowls. That doesn't do much for me.

I guess there is no right or wrong here, we just have different perspectives. To you winning the division counts for a lot. To me, it is entirely about how they look vs. the conference as a whole.

If you do something similar next year with Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Rutgers, I'd probably root for Wisconsin and Minnesota to be in the better bowls and Rutgers in the worse one. It's not that I dislike Rutgers, but I have followed the old Big Ten teams a lot longer and would rather see them in the Rose Bowl than a newbie. To me, the fact that Rutgers would have won the eastern division would be irrevelent.

How can you possibly pretend that vs. the whole is credible when West teams only play two East teams in a season???

Come on.


It is two separate conferences. East is getting a Major game, no matter what. West deserves one.

I won't be backed down from that. No matter what you say.

Well, Baylor went down in flames.

I guess it will be TCU vs Ole Miss in the Sugar bowl, after all. Good. TCU was one of two teams in the XII this year that was actually worth a damn.

Patterson is an outstanding coach and their teams 100% deserves the Sugar bowl, with the injuries they've had this year.

(12-05-2015 04:04 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  Well, Baylor went down in flames.

I guess it will be TCU vs Ole Miss in the Sugar bowl, after all. Good. TCU was one of two teams in the XII this year that was actually worth a damn.

Patterson is an outstanding coach and their teams 100% deserves the Sugar bowl, with the injuries they've had this year.

Actually OK State will go to the sugar bowl.

So we have two teams that will play in the top 6 bowls. Houston will play in either the Fiesta or Peach bowls, and Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl.

(12-05-2015 04:33 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  So we have two teams that will play in the top 6 bowls. Houston will play in either the Fiesta or Peach bowls, and Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl.

Who is "we"?

(12-05-2015 04:15 PM)DogPoundNorth Wrote:  

(12-05-2015 04:04 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  Well, Baylor went down in flames.

I guess it will be TCU vs Ole Miss in the Sugar bowl, after all. Good. TCU was one of two teams in the XII this year that was actually worth a damn.

Patterson is an outstanding coach and their teams 100% deserves the Sugar bowl, with the injuries they've had this year.

Actually OK State will go to the sugar bowl.

Figures. F___kin' XII.

OK St was a pretender, all along. Everyone knew it. Got piss pounded by Oklahoma. Lost to a woeful Baylor team. SHOULD'VE lost to Iowa St. That's when you really knew they were just another crappy XII team.

Got very, very lucky to catch TCU when they did. That was the high point of their season. They've never recovered. Boone must've threw one hell of a party in Stillwater that night. Strippers, blow, etc.

They sure as hell are not a top 25 team.


Hope both XII teams go down. Hard. Embarrassingly.


But hey, just about everything I've wanted to happen this season has gone the opposite way. So there you go. Probably the kiss of death, me saying that. OU natty champs.