First B1G top-5 matchup without Michigan or OSU since 1962
October 3rd, 2021 at 2:22 PM ^
This is in reference to the PSU-Iowa game this week
Oh and apparently he meant regular season matchups, so excluding the B1G championship games
October 3rd, 2021 at 2:22 PM ^
The 2015 B1G title game was #5 MSU vs. #4 Iowa. I'm not sure if the title game gets classified as "regular season", but there's a bit of an asterisk to that fact.
October 3rd, 2021 at 2:24 PM ^
I think MSU was #6 in the AP Poll still for that game. That's the default rankings I'm using
October 3rd, 2021 at 2:26 PM ^
Per the source below, they were both Top 5 in the 11/29/2015 AP ranking.
https://www.collegepollarchive.com/football/ap/seasons.cfm?appollid=110…
October 3rd, 2021 at 5:30 PM ^
I'm glad PSU has to play both IA and OSU. At the beginning of the season when WI was the favorite to wind the western division, I was thinking we had it worse playing both WI and PSU.
October 3rd, 2021 at 2:25 PM ^
I'll be watching this matchup. (PSU @IA)
October 3rd, 2021 at 2:28 PM ^
Is there a link???
You probably should note what the game is. Iowa favored. Expensive tickets.
October 3rd, 2021 at 2:44 PM ^
221? Damn. Iowa fans are not going to want to sell their tickets.
October 3rd, 2021 at 3:19 PM ^
Go Hawkeyes
October 3rd, 2021 at 5:14 PM ^
Agreed. Behind Ohio State and Notre Dame it’s a toss up for me whether I hate Penn State or Michigan State more.
October 3rd, 2021 at 5:39 PM ^
Am I correct in assuming you do not live in either Pennsylvania or Michigan?
October 3rd, 2021 at 6:07 PM ^
That’s crazy talk.
October 3rd, 2021 at 3:35 PM ^
Eh... there have certainly been 2 top 5 teams in the BIG at the same time since 62. This is kind of impressive/surprising and also just kind of flukey.
October 3rd, 2021 at 3:57 PM ^
That is true, but they haven’t matched up (and not been us nor OSU) during the regular season for a very long time.
October 3rd, 2021 at 4:01 PM ^
My feeling is that PSU and Iowa's rankings are early-season fool's gold.
October 3rd, 2021 at 4:28 PM ^
Especially Iowa. Their wins over currently unranked Indiana and Iowa State vaulted them high into the polls and they’ve been rising off that inertia ever since.
October 3rd, 2021 at 4:54 PM ^
They’re also kind of scrambling to hand out Top-10 spots by default since many of the early season regulars (ND, Miami, Florida, Clemson, OSU) faltered early.
October 4th, 2021 at 7:07 AM ^
I like that Iowa plays up to their potential-very well. However, I believe that if they were in the B1G East Division they would likely finish either 4th or 5th. Their schedule is most fortuitously weak in this regard-and otherwise as well. I hope PSU curb-stomps them...leaving no doubt that the power of this conference resides in the East Division.
October 3rd, 2021 at 4:31 PM ^
It's really more caused by the way the preseason rankings have turned out to not be very reliable this year. Of the pre-season top 15, 11 teams have already lost games. And that preseason top 15 included teams like USC which has already fired its coach, Miami and Wisconsin with 3 losses already as well as Iowa St and Texas A&M with 2 losses already. Only undefeated top 15 teams left are Bama, Georgia, OU and Cincinnati. OU got punished for all its unconvincing near misses, Cincinnati is not a power 5 team.
Meanwhile power 5 undefeated teams like Michigan, Oklahoma St and Kentucky started outside the top 25 and haven't played enough quality opposition to climb that much yet. Iowa and Penn St started in the top 20 and ironically benefited considerably from playing some of those overrated preseason ranked teams early on. Three of the current undefeated top 5 teams also got to notch Indiana as a big win which could mean either Indiana has the worst schedule in the world or Indiana isn't very good and those three got to use that game to pump up their rating.
But really it's just trivia.
October 3rd, 2021 at 5:28 PM ^
Great breakdown !
October 3rd, 2021 at 5:36 PM ^
Bottom line: preseason rankings are not very useful when the preceding season is played under strange circumstances.
October 3rd, 2021 at 6:03 PM ^
Indiana was Mike Hart.
October 3rd, 2021 at 7:23 PM ^
Part Mike Hart, and part illegal summer practices when the conference was supposed to be shut down.
October 3rd, 2021 at 6:25 PM ^
I suppose both teams are over-ranked but they are both playing sound football. I expect PSU to be in the top 20 and Iowa (with a win over PSU) will remain in the top 10.