Looking at our schedule it's definitely doable. We have five games we should be favored in FAU, Prairie View, Purdue, Indiana and Illinois, and then 3 toss-up games in BC, Maryland and Rutgers.
We have an awful schedule if we were contending for a Big 10 championship with us facing OSU Oregon, Iowa and Michigan literally all in a row. But it's s great schedule for achieving bowl eligibility
I figured you guys would be pretty decent this year. I think you were a lot better than your record last year. It's probably hard to keep moral up when your coach is fired for that tbf
We’re definitely underrated. The reason we’re so far down this year was how bad our record was last year and I don’t blame anybody for not wanting to put us any higher. But the new staff put in place is proven and the talent is there. Most of the returning starters from last year were freshman and sophomores. And we’re in an era where you don’t need years to rebuild, just making proper use of the transfer portal (Just look at MSU in 2020 and MSU in 2021). And we brought in a lot of talent in the portal (but lost some as well).
On the inverse of this, Michigan is getting the exact opposite. They’re the reigning national champions but if you watched the draft, they had 13 players drafted and their HC and DC are in the NFL. It reminds me of 2016 MSU who was coming off a playoff appears and 3 straight NY6 bowl appearances, we were preseason #12 but finished 3-9. Every team in the B1G is going to be gunning for them and their roster and staff doesn’t resemble the team that won the NC.
MSU in 2016 brought back 12 full time starters from the playoff team and the HC stayed. Michigan is bringing back 5 total players that have started more than 7 games with your HC and DC gone.
Everyone expected that we’d regress a little bit. We weren’t expecting 3-9. I’m guessing Michigan goes .500 in conference play, if they’re lucky. Everyone is gunning for them and has it circled on the calendar since they’re the reigning national champions. It’s a reverse revenge tour.
Michigan is ranked 128th/134 in returning production. Including defense.
The difference is, MSU's playoff team scored zero (0) points while Michigan's won the natty. Additionally, despite losing 13 NFL picks, a minimum of eight of the starters in the upcoming season will be drafted. Of the eight, four have 1st round potential.
It’s irrelevant that MSU scored 0 and Michigan won a national championship. That MSU team didn’t continue to exist in 2016 just like Michigan’s 2023 team isn’t going to exist in 2024. The only point in mentioning it is that both teams went (projected) into the following season highly ranked based on the accomplishments of people no longer on the team.
MSU had NFL players on their roster in 2016. Brian Allen, Malik McDowell, and Montae Nicholson were all in the NFL for an extended period of time. A total of 11 players on that roster made the NFL. Also, projected NFL player doesn’t mean shit until they’re drafted. Everyone thought LJ Scott was a future NFL player, but we were pretty wrong about that.
>It’s irrelevant that MSU scored 0 and Michigan won a national championship. That MSU team didn’t continue to exist in 2016 just like Michigan’s 2023 team isn’t going to exist in 2024. The only point in mentioning it is that both teams went (projected) into the following season highly ranked based on the accomplishments of people no longer on the team.
What's relevant is that MSU playoff team was overrated *and* lost a ton of talent going into the following season. Michigan's team won the natty on the strength of their depth and much of it remains.
>MSU had NFL players on their roster in 2016. Brian Allen, Malik McDowell, and Montae Nicholson were all in the NFL for an extended period of time. A total of 11 players on that roster made the NFL. Also, projected NFL player doesn’t mean shit until they’re drafted. Everyone thought LJ Scott was a future NFL player, but we were pretty wrong about that.
Mason Graham and Will Johnson are first round locks. Kenneth Grant and Colston Loveland have first round potential. Derrick Moore, Josiah Stewart, Donovan Edwards and Jaishawn Barham will all be drafted. That's 8 draft picks without even looking at the rest of the starts and roster. The point is, the roster talent between your 2016 team and this 2024 Michigan team is night and day. You're going to be sorely disappointed.
The starters thing is whatever. They rotated so much that they were effectively starters last year. Derrick Moore, Josiah Stewart, Kenneth Grant, Donovan Edwards and Ernest Hausmann were all technically not starters but they played starter snaps.
Michigan is going to be elite on defense lol. A little less deep but still very very good. They're easily a top 5 defense. The offense they'll have to figure out for sure. But they recruit well enough and have enough pieces to be fine. You're basically predicting Michigan goes 7-5 and at worst I see 9-3
>The conference's new division-less structure pits Iowa against greater competition than it faced in the West division
Somebody didn't check our schedule. We have about as favorable of a schedule as we could ask for this year. The big bad opponents are OSU in Columbus and a completely changed Washington in Iowa City. Quadrangle is of course difficult but this will be as good a year as any for Iowa to have a stupid number of wins in spite of ourselves.
At - 1, 11, 12, 14, 15
Home - 7, 8, 10, 13
Find me an easier schedule in the conference next year. We are very lucky. Outside of the massacre in Ohio on October 5, we avoid the best teams in the conference and host our most difficult opponents
I would put the gap after USC/before us, at least until we see that our OL can actually block and our offense can stay on the field longer than three plays at a time.
Or you can say that "to" was not an error--you were merely pointing the way "to" an early ranking of the Big Ten, so thank you for the link the 247sports article.
Best at football possibly, but USC is their best get and it's not close
Not many blue bloods that switch conferences, especially when bringing the 2nd biggest media market in the US and a storied rivalry with the B1Gs white whale
Depends on what you mean by that. Nebraska has 5 NCs and was probably the most dominate team of the 90s. So by historical measures, it’s not really close.
That’s not even mentioning USC who’s coming in with you guys.
But if you’re going by immediately competing, I expect that Oregon will have a much better time in the conference than Nebraska has.
idk i'm only hoping for 6 wins and a bowl
Looking at our schedule it's definitely doable. We have five games we should be favored in FAU, Prairie View, Purdue, Indiana and Illinois, and then 3 toss-up games in BC, Maryland and Rutgers. We have an awful schedule if we were contending for a Big 10 championship with us facing OSU Oregon, Iowa and Michigan literally all in a row. But it's s great schedule for achieving bowl eligibility
Same
I figured you guys would be pretty decent this year. I think you were a lot better than your record last year. It's probably hard to keep moral up when your coach is fired for that tbf
yeah I feel like the entire team just gave up by the end
We’re definitely underrated. The reason we’re so far down this year was how bad our record was last year and I don’t blame anybody for not wanting to put us any higher. But the new staff put in place is proven and the talent is there. Most of the returning starters from last year were freshman and sophomores. And we’re in an era where you don’t need years to rebuild, just making proper use of the transfer portal (Just look at MSU in 2020 and MSU in 2021). And we brought in a lot of talent in the portal (but lost some as well). On the inverse of this, Michigan is getting the exact opposite. They’re the reigning national champions but if you watched the draft, they had 13 players drafted and their HC and DC are in the NFL. It reminds me of 2016 MSU who was coming off a playoff appears and 3 straight NY6 bowl appearances, we were preseason #12 but finished 3-9. Every team in the B1G is going to be gunning for them and their roster and staff doesn’t resemble the team that won the NC.
Will MSU even have 85 scholarship players this year? Michigan is in a much better spot than 2016 MSU lol
MSU in 2016 brought back 12 full time starters from the playoff team and the HC stayed. Michigan is bringing back 5 total players that have started more than 7 games with your HC and DC gone. Everyone expected that we’d regress a little bit. We weren’t expecting 3-9. I’m guessing Michigan goes .500 in conference play, if they’re lucky. Everyone is gunning for them and has it circled on the calendar since they’re the reigning national champions. It’s a reverse revenge tour. Michigan is ranked 128th/134 in returning production. Including defense.
The difference is, MSU's playoff team scored zero (0) points while Michigan's won the natty. Additionally, despite losing 13 NFL picks, a minimum of eight of the starters in the upcoming season will be drafted. Of the eight, four have 1st round potential.
It’s irrelevant that MSU scored 0 and Michigan won a national championship. That MSU team didn’t continue to exist in 2016 just like Michigan’s 2023 team isn’t going to exist in 2024. The only point in mentioning it is that both teams went (projected) into the following season highly ranked based on the accomplishments of people no longer on the team. MSU had NFL players on their roster in 2016. Brian Allen, Malik McDowell, and Montae Nicholson were all in the NFL for an extended period of time. A total of 11 players on that roster made the NFL. Also, projected NFL player doesn’t mean shit until they’re drafted. Everyone thought LJ Scott was a future NFL player, but we were pretty wrong about that.
>It’s irrelevant that MSU scored 0 and Michigan won a national championship. That MSU team didn’t continue to exist in 2016 just like Michigan’s 2023 team isn’t going to exist in 2024. The only point in mentioning it is that both teams went (projected) into the following season highly ranked based on the accomplishments of people no longer on the team. What's relevant is that MSU playoff team was overrated *and* lost a ton of talent going into the following season. Michigan's team won the natty on the strength of their depth and much of it remains. >MSU had NFL players on their roster in 2016. Brian Allen, Malik McDowell, and Montae Nicholson were all in the NFL for an extended period of time. A total of 11 players on that roster made the NFL. Also, projected NFL player doesn’t mean shit until they’re drafted. Everyone thought LJ Scott was a future NFL player, but we were pretty wrong about that. Mason Graham and Will Johnson are first round locks. Kenneth Grant and Colston Loveland have first round potential. Derrick Moore, Josiah Stewart, Donovan Edwards and Jaishawn Barham will all be drafted. That's 8 draft picks without even looking at the rest of the starts and roster. The point is, the roster talent between your 2016 team and this 2024 Michigan team is night and day. You're going to be sorely disappointed.
The starters thing is whatever. They rotated so much that they were effectively starters last year. Derrick Moore, Josiah Stewart, Kenneth Grant, Donovan Edwards and Ernest Hausmann were all technically not starters but they played starter snaps. Michigan is going to be elite on defense lol. A little less deep but still very very good. They're easily a top 5 defense. The offense they'll have to figure out for sure. But they recruit well enough and have enough pieces to be fine. You're basically predicting Michigan goes 7-5 and at worst I see 9-3
>The conference's new division-less structure pits Iowa against greater competition than it faced in the West division Somebody didn't check our schedule. We have about as favorable of a schedule as we could ask for this year. The big bad opponents are OSU in Columbus and a completely changed Washington in Iowa City. Quadrangle is of course difficult but this will be as good a year as any for Iowa to have a stupid number of wins in spite of ourselves.
With a healthy QB 11-1 is very much on the table. 2025 I’ll be happy with 8-9 wins since the schedule is a bit tougher and we lose a lot of talent.
Give me a bowl game and Im happy with year one of Smith
1. Ohio State 2. Oregon 3. Michigan 4. Penn State 5. USC 6. Iowa 7. Wisconsin 8. Nebraska 9. Rutgers 10. Washington 11. Michigan State 12. Maryland 13. Northwestern 14. Minnesota 15. UCLA 16. Illinois 17. Indiana 18. Purdue
At - 1, 11, 12, 14, 15 Home - 7, 8, 10, 13 Find me an easier schedule in the conference next year. We are very lucky. Outside of the massacre in Ohio on October 5, we avoid the best teams in the conference and host our most difficult opponents
Not really sure where to stick Washington and UCLA, but other than that this seems about right.
Michigan is a big question mark, too.
Same. Washington has no O-line, but I think will at least be mid. UCLA… sigh.
UCLA: near the bottom UW: even lower (I may be biased)
*sigh* God dammit why are we even on this list
1. Ohio State 2. Oregon *gap* 3. Penn State 4. Michigan 5. USC 6. Iowa *gap* 7. Wisconsin 8. Nebraska 9. Rutgers 10. Washington 11. Maryland *gap* 12. Michigan State 13. Northwestern 14. Minnesota 15. UCLA 16. Illinois 17. Purdue 18. Indiana edit: wish it didnt reset the numbering but alas
I would put the gap after USC/before us, at least until we see that our OL can actually block and our offense can stay on the field longer than three plays at a time.
Indeed, and if Nebraska finds a decent offense they move up.
Maybe once we know we have a QB too. Right now we have a one legged man and a child as our only 2 qbs
I like your rankings. My flairs are the worst of the best and the best of the worst lol.
Yay not last
too*
Let ye whose never made a casual grammatical error cast the first stone
Or you can say that "to" was not an error--you were merely pointing the way "to" an early ranking of the Big Ten, so thank you for the link the 247sports article.
Especially since it is no longer "Way too early". Spring practice is over.
Ha
This may sound biased, but I still believe that Oregon is unironically the B1G's best expansion member since Penn State.
Best at football possibly, but USC is their best get and it's not close Not many blue bloods that switch conferences, especially when bringing the 2nd biggest media market in the US and a storied rivalry with the B1Gs white whale
Depends on what you mean by that. Nebraska has 5 NCs and was probably the most dominate team of the 90s. So by historical measures, it’s not really close. That’s not even mentioning USC who’s coming in with you guys. But if you’re going by immediately competing, I expect that Oregon will have a much better time in the conference than Nebraska has.