Big 10 on fraud alert?

[Bigorangefaninga]

When UAT pounded Wisconsin, their starting QB (Van Dyke- transfer from Miami) got hurt early in the first quarter... took them several games to regroup. I put zero credence in that game.

Wisky scored 28 and 27 the games before with Van Dyke against Western Michigan and FCS South Dakota. They weren’t going to score much more than the 10 they scored against Bama with Van Dyke and that doesn’t account for the 42 their defense gave up.

 

[StumpTownVol93]

Someone really needs to make a big GIF or JPEG to post that says it.

 

[barney]

When UAT pounded Wisconsin, their starting QB (Van Dyke- transfer from Miami) got hurt early in the first quarter... took them several games to regroup. I put zero credence in that game.

did he play in the Oregon game?

 

[tvolsfan]

The yearly reminder that there is no 'transitive property of college football' needs to be reiterated.

Some people insist on starting threads that seem designed to be bumped when things go bad.

 

[adam.vol]

I find it mind numbing that anyone on our side would feel overconfident against this team of thoroughbreds from Columbus. Fan bases have all types, and we got ours too.

Apparently Alabama had the most talented team this year. We beat them, so I don’t know what’s to make anyone wet their pants over this Big 10 school.

 

[GoDucks349]

The knock on Big 10 teams when compared to the SEC is not about out of conference games, it's about the quality of depth of the conferences themselves. There are very few 'easy' road games in the SEC - this year, Miss. St. and Kentucky might have been the only ones, as even Auburn can be a handful at Jordan-Hare. Hell, Vandy became a tough out this season.

The Big 10 has 8-10 awful teams and a few others in the mediocre range. CFP teams like Penn State and Indiana beat up on awful schedules this season while losing to the only decent teams they played. You would and should have blown Penn State off the field, but your defense actually made Drew Allar look like a competent QB. That defense might do you in before long.

The funny thing is that Oregon, a Pac-12 team, is the standard bearer for that conference. But the national media's touting of the Big 10 and the asinine "strength of record" (which I never even heard of before it became a rallying cry this year to prop up schools that played joke schedules) is the thing that has made this playoff into a farce and more of a made-for-TV beauty pageant than an actual championship test of the best 12 teams in the country.

Oregon is legit, as is Ohio State due to the incredible talent level. Beyond that, a few pretenders and a lot of dreck. If Indiana gets their ass kicked at ND and Penn State doesn't roll to the final four with the draw they were gifted in this silly bracket, it would expose the conference as the fraud that it is.

Here's part of the problem, OOC games have become automatic wins against lesser opponents. These types of OOC schedules do nothing to show how conference stack up against each other. All they do is make sure everyone is "bowl eligible. I use to love "back in the day" when all the PAC teams ALWAYS played a BIG team every year.

And you are right, with the league expansions, some teams are going to get easier schedules. Next year, Oregon doesn't play Ohio St, Purdue, UCLA, Michigan or Michigan St. Oregon does put up some serious frequent flyer miles with road games at Penn St, Northwestern, Rutgers and Iowa.

Tennesse doesn't play Texas, Texas A&M, Auburn, South Carolina, Missouri or LSU in 2025. My real point is that with these large conferences it's a lot more difficult to "declare" a conference champion when you don't play everyone in your conference. And how do you know how good some team is when they have a schedule that doesn't play the toughest teams in the conference.

Finally, if teams are playing soft OOC you have to rely on conference games for comparison and then it just comes down to conference chest pumping which doesn't settle anything either. So we have expanded imperfect playoffs.

 

[Godfatha]

Here's part of the problem, OOC games have become automatic wins against lesser opponents. These types of OOC schedules do nothing to show how conference stack up against each other. All they do is make sure everyone is "bowl eligible. I use to love "back in the day" when all the PAC teams ALWAYS played a BIG team every year.

And you are right, with the league expansions, some teams are going to get easier schedules. Next year, Oregon doesn't play Ohio St, Purdue, UCLA, Michigan or Michigan St. Oregon does put up some serious frequent flyer miles with road games at Penn St, Northwestern, Rutgers and Iowa.

Tennesse doesn't play Texas, Texas A&M, Auburn, South Carolina, Missouri or LSU in 2025. My real point is that with these large conferences it's a lot more difficult to "declare" a conference champion when you don't play everyone in your conference. And how do you know how good some team is when they have a schedule that doesn't play the toughest teams in the conference.

Finally, if teams are playing soft OOC you have to rely on conference games for comparison and then it just comes down to conference chest pumping which doesn't settle anything either. So we have expanded imperfect playoffs.

There is some screwy scheduling going on within the conferences. I do think the B1G needs to jettison some teams. There are a bunch of bad programs, never have beens and never will bes in that conference, who seem to exist only for their TV markets and to puff up the top 4 or 5 teams win totals.

I hate playing four or five scrub schools. It used to be we would only see 1 or 2 of those games, now we seem to have four of them. I understand why, and that the parameters set forth for making the playoffs does not discourage it, but it makes 1/3 of the team's season really boring.

 

[Chad F]

The SEC could just as easily have that warning pinned to them. Georgia is banged up and probably won’t be at full strength. Texas hasn’t played a really difficult schedule overall and are prone to “Jekyll and Hyde” performances. And, well, the M.O. on Tennessee is that they can’t win these big games in hostile road environments.

I am hopeful that the Vols are ready to flip the script. The other two can get bent.

 

[ArmchairQB]

Here's part of the problem, OOC games have become automatic wins against lesser opponents. These types of OOC schedules do nothing to show how conference stack up against each other. All they do is make sure everyone is "bowl eligible. I use to love "back in the day" when all the PAC teams ALWAYS played a BIG team every year.

And you are right, with the league expansions, some teams are going to get easier schedules. Next year, Oregon doesn't play Ohio St, Purdue, UCLA, Michigan or Michigan St. Oregon does put up some serious frequent flyer miles with road games at Penn St, Northwestern, Rutgers and Iowa.

Tennesse doesn't play Texas, Texas A&M, Auburn, South Carolina, Missouri or LSU in 2025. My real point is that with these large conferences it's a lot more difficult to "declare" a conference champion when you don't play everyone in your conference. And how do you know how good some team is when they have a schedule that doesn't play the toughest teams in the conference.

Finally, if teams are playing soft OOC you have to rely on conference games for comparison and then it just comes down to conference chest pumping which doesn't settle anything either. So we have expanded imperfect playoffs.

Expanded imperfect playoffs are exactly what we have. Alabama's AD threw a hissy fit and questioned whether they should ever schedule anyone with a pulse for an OOC game if all you need to do is get a lot of wins and do well in conference. He's really not wrong though. See: SMU. There's no real incentive to prove you're the best team with your body of work. You just have to pass the smell test for 12 games and then hope you can put together a streak at the end. Just like basketball.

Also, Oregon and Tennessee are pretty comparable in terms of strength of schedule. You guys had a better OOC slate than we did, although I don't think we can really be faulted for NC State's performance this year. If I had to guess we scheduled them because they were supposed to be solid if not spectacular, and they've typically been an 8-9 win team for the last decade or so. I can't stand buy games though and the only legit reason I can think for scheduling one is to financially support the athletic department of an in-state school like Chattanooga or Martin or MTSU or something. I won't lose sleep if I never see another Kent State or UTEP game. We've historically scheduled some great home and homes: UCLA, Notre Dame, Miami, Cal, Oregon, Oklahoma (before that was a conference game)... I'd love to get back to that rather than these neutral site things we've been scheduling lately.

 

[sami]

Here's part of the problem, OOC games have become automatic wins against lesser opponents. These types of OOC schedules do nothing to show how conference stack up against each other. All they do is make sure everyone is "bowl eligible. I use to love "back in the day" when all the PAC teams ALWAYS played a BIG team every year.

And you are right, with the league expansions, some teams are going to get easier schedules. Next year, Oregon doesn't play Ohio St, Purdue, UCLA, Michigan or Michigan St. Oregon does put up some serious frequent flyer miles with road games at Penn St, Northwestern, Rutgers and Iowa.

Tennesse doesn't play Texas, Texas A&M, Auburn, South Carolina, Missouri or LSU in 2025. My real point is that with these large conferences it's a lot more difficult to "declare" a conference champion when you don't play everyone in your conference. And how do you know how good some team is when they have a schedule that doesn't play the toughest teams in the conference.

Finally, if teams are playing soft OOC you have to rely on conference games for comparison and then it just comes down to conference chest pumping which doesn't settle anything either. So we have expanded imperfect playoffs.

But we will be playing at Alabama, at Florida, Georgia here, and what is sure to be an improved Oklahoma here. I completely agree with you on the conferences, which have become unwieldy messes, but at least the SEC has kept a semblance of regional flavor, although I would be happy to lose Missouri, A&M, Texas, and Oklahoma, as there is nothing "southeast" about any of them. But they add strength to an already strong league.

The joke of the Big 10 is that a Pac-12 team is the standard bearer, and aside from you and OSU it is a couple of paper tigers and a lot of mediocrity. Look at your schedule - aside from the travel, where are the compelling matchups? Maybe Penn State away, but given their record against anyone with a pulse, you should be a road favorite.

I've always been against the creampuff OOC games, but after seeing how they are basing the CFP selections with the "strength of record" sham, I'm ready for a 6-game SEC schedule and 6 creampuffs. Either that, or let us play one of those Big 10 schedules - same difference.

Kidding, but only partially.

 

[LegionnaireOfTheMiserable]

Ohio state is 2-13 against the SEC in post season play. 1 of those 2 wins got vacated. None of that matters on Saturday but I found the stat to be hopeful since we are 7 pt underdogs.

They are undefeated at home against SEC teams though.

 

[GoDucks349]

Expanded imperfect playoffs are exactly what we have. Alabama's AD threw a hissy fit and questioned whether they should ever schedule anyone with a pulse for an OOC game if all you need to do is get a lot of wins and do well in conference. He's really not wrong though. See: SMU. There's no real incentive to prove you're the best team with your body of work. You just have to pass the smell test for 12 games and then hope you can put together a streak at the end. Just like basketball.

Also, Oregon and Tennessee are pretty comparable in terms of strength of schedule. You guys had a better OOC slate than we did, although I don't think we can really be faulted for NC State's performance this year. If I had to guess we scheduled them because they were supposed to be solid if not spectacular, and they've typically been an 8-9 win team for the last decade or so. I can't stand buy games though and the only legit reason I can think for scheduling one is to financially support the athletic department of an in-state school like Chattanooga or Martin or MTSU or something. I won't lose sleep if I never see another Kent State or UTEP game. We've historically scheduled some great home and homes: UCLA, Notre Dame, Miami, Cal, Oregon, Oklahoma (before that was a conference game)... I'd love to get back to that rather than these neutral site things we've been scheduling lately.

And the bolded part of your post is exactly why I've enjoyed Volnation. Florida bairly crosses county lines for OOC games and they justify it by saying we play fsu and miami. Not that those aren't typically good programs, it's just that they never play national games.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

The SEC could just as easily have that warning pinned to them. Georgia is banged up and probably won’t be at full strength. Texas hasn’t played a really difficult schedule overall and are prone to “Jekyll and Hyde” performances. And, well, the M.O. on Tennessee is that they can’t win these big games in hostile road environments.

I am hopeful that the Vols are ready to flip the script. The other two can get bent.

As long as the “Football Playoff Committee “ refuses to consider strength of schedule, the playoffs will continue to be a joke.

 

[Frozevol]

A lot of overconfidence on our side as well. Ohio state is very, very talented. They could have the best roster in this entire playoff. That said this will be one of the best teams as far as LOS talent that they’ve played. I think Day is only a mediocre coach. We could win, hell we could win by a wide margin if we’re on. But our offense has been herky, jerky on and off all year; you’ll have a drive where they just dominate then turn over the ball inside the red zone or we’ll just go cold as ice for a few series. Ohio state is too damn good a team to start slow or have those offensive lulls against.

I think either of these teams can win this whole playoff but it’s a damn hard road for either of them.

I agree we need a game where we don’t disappear for several series then remember we are in a football game. My Christmas wish is we show some new stuff to keep them guessing.

 

[adam.vol]

Also, Oregon and Tennessee are pretty comparable in terms of strength of schedule.

Oregon was like #60 in strength of schedule prior to their conference championship game. It wasn’t even close.

 

[ArmchairQB]

Oregon was like #60 in strength of schedule prior to their conference championship game. It wasn’t even close.

And our strength of schedule would be lower too if we didn’t factor Georgia or Alabama into it, but we do because we played them. Oregon’s SoS factoring in the B1G championship game turned out to be loosely equivalent to our SoS.

 

[adam.vol]

And our strength of schedule would be lower too if we didn’t factor Georgia or Alabama into it, but we do because we played them. Oregon’s SoS factoring in the B1G championship game turned out to be loosely equivalent to our SoS.

Yeah, but that game doesn’t count because the loser doesn’t get punished for the loss. If you add Texas to our SOS, we’d be in the top 10.

 

[camp_steveo]

Oregon beat Idaho by *7 points*, Boise by 3, Ohio State by 1, Wisconsin by 3. Alabama pounded Wisconsin by 32 points at Wisconsin.

Ohio State of course lost to Michigan at home. Texas beat Michigan by 19 at Michigan.

Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon haven't played in a good out-of-conference game this year. Ohio State has undeniable talent, but how battle tested are they in big out of conference games?

All this to say, I think its a big mistake to write off Tennessee on our side of the bracket given how untested the cream of the Big 10 crop is.

The Vols played in some hard fought battles against some tough teams this season. More than the Buckeyes.

That fact is indisputable.

 

[Bleeding.Orange]

I really think so! We will find out forsure on saturday!

 

[barney]

Here's part of the problem, OOC games have become automatic wins against lesser opponents. These types of OOC schedules do nothing to show how conference stack up against each other. All they do is make sure everyone is "bowl eligible. I use to love "back in the day" when all the PAC teams ALWAYS played a BIG team every year.

And you are right, with the league expansions, some teams are going to get easier schedules. Next year, Oregon doesn't play Ohio St, Purdue, UCLA, Michigan or Michigan St. Oregon does put up some serious frequent flyer miles with road games at Penn St, Northwestern, Rutgers and Iowa.

Tennesse doesn't play Texas, Texas A&M, Auburn, South Carolina, Missouri or LSU in 2025. My real point is that with these large conferences it's a lot more difficult to "declare" a conference champion when you don't play everyone in your conference. And how do you know how good some team is when they have a schedule that doesn't play the toughest teams in the conference.

Finally, if teams are playing soft OOC you have to rely on conference games for comparison and then it just comes down to conference chest pumping which doesn't settle anything either. So we have expanded imperfect playoffs.

I hate the expanded conference so much and it sucks that we are playing the same schedule two years in a row. The sec is just giving texas a free ride.

 

[GoDucks349]

I hate the expanded conference so much and it sucks that we are playing the same schedule two years in a row. The sec is just giving texas a free ride.

That is strange, the same conference schedule 2 years in a row. Do you know if that the same for other SEC teams?

 

[barney]

That is strange, the same conference schedule 2 years in a row. Do you know if that the same for other SEC teams?

yes its the same for everyone. They aren't rotating until they decide how many conference games they want to have.

 

[GoDucks349]

yes its the same for everyone. They aren't rotating until they decide how many conference games they want to have.

Personally, I think that's pretty dumb. When you have a conference large enough that you can't play all the other teams in the conference, you need to rotate schedules so that everyone plays everyone else at least once every two years. I thing the B1G is doing a pretty good job in this area.

 

[Woodlawn VOL]

Notre Dame is dominating the trenches. They are stronger and faster than Indiana. No doubt about that.

 

[temptn]

Notre Dame is dominating the trenches. They are stronger and faster than Indiana. No doubt about that.

.
I said this earlier, Notre Dame is actually pretty good and Indiana is really bad. In the CFP and did not beat a ranked team this year, and going to lose tonight.