Today's Bill Connoly ballot has State in the playoffs
Seems off to me, as there has to be other teams looking better, especially on defense.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:08 AM ^
Weird. When I click on the link TomV is picking Oklahoma.
Andrea Adelson: 1. Georgia, 2. Iowa, 3. Cincinnati, 4. Oklahoma
Kyle Bonagura: 1. Georgia, 2. Iowa, 3. Cincinnati, 4. Oklahoma
Bill Connelly: 1. Georgia, 2. Cincinnati, 3. Iowa, 4. Michigan State
Heather Dinich: 1. Georgia, 2. Iowa, 3. Cincinnati, 4. Oklahoma
David M. Hale: 1. Georgia, 2. Iowa, 3. Cincinnati, 4. Alabama
Chris Low: 1. Georgia, 2. Iowa, 3. Cincinnati, 4. Oklahoma
Harry Lyles Jr.: 1. Georgia, 2. Iowa, 3. Cincinnati, 4. Oklahoma
Ryan McGee: 1. Georgia, 2. Iowa, 3. Cincinnati, 4. Oklahoma
Adam Rittenberg: 1. Georgia, 2. Iowa, 3. Cincinnati, 4. Michigan State
Alex Scarborough: 1. Georgia, 2. Iowa, 3. Cincinnati, 4. Oklahoma
Mark Schlabach: 1. Georgia, 2. Iowa, 3. Oklahoma, 4. Cincinnati
Paolo Uggetti: 1. Georgia, 2. Iowa, 3. Cincinnati, 4. Oklahoma
Tom VanHaaren: 1. Georgia, 2. Iowa, 3. Cincinnati, 4. Oklahoma
Dave Wilson: 1. Georgia, 2. Iowa, 3. Oklahoma, 4. Cincinnati
October 10th, 2021 at 11:27 AM ^
Rittenberg now has State in 4th. Must be a correction.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:12 AM ^
Iowa is butt. Would have 3 losses if they played in the east. They will lose at least once during the regular season (probably to Wisconsin in Madison) and they will lose again in the BIG championship
October 10th, 2021 at 11:13 AM ^
In a year where the college football world was supposed to be turned upside down, where there has been a lot of "new" teams entering the playoff picture, it certainly looks like Alabama, Ohio State, and Oklahoma (3 of the 5 teams, with Clemson and Notre Dame, who always make the playoffs) will end up being part of the college football playoff.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:16 AM ^
i dont give a fuck about where people place any teams, win games. Win them big, win them in the last seconds, win them ugly. Don't care. Turn the steam engine up to 11 and keep this shit rolling
October 10th, 2021 at 11:16 AM ^
Bama not in The playoffs...HA!
Bama, Georgia, OSU and Cinci.
OSU has found their stride, Bama may have lost, but is probably the best team still with Georgia a close second. OSU is feasting on weak B1G teams. Playing State in East Landfill will be a blood bath. Iowa wouldn't last a half against Bama or Georgia.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:22 AM ^
Could be a typo. Just sayin.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:25 AM ^
Outside of Georgia, this is peak weird guys top four.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:29 AM ^
Points and laughs.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:33 AM ^
TomVH too. I don’t get it. OSU has hit its stride. Not sure how State is going to beat them.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:36 AM ^
OSU is going to boat-race Iowa in the Big Ten championship game.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:46 AM ^
It makes me sick to my stomach to write this but no one is beating Ohio State with that offense they have.
October 10th, 2021 at 1:01 PM ^
Sadly I have to agree. Stroud seems to have gotten into a rhythm. 400 yards passing and 5 TDs? Yeeeeesh. Whatever. However I genuinely expected Michigan to pick up right where they left off in 2020, and I’m at least glad I was wrong about that.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:46 AM ^
Lmao who are these clowns putting Iowa as a shoo-in? Iowa is not going to beat the winner of the East. Iowa isn’t even guaranteed to win their own division yet. They still play @Wisconsin and @Nebraska, two very loseable games for them. Nebraska in particular will be difficult for them, as they have a modern offense of the sort that Iowa got thrashed by last night before Sean Clifford injured his arm.
October 10th, 2021 at 1:41 PM ^
Nothing is guaranteed. Georgia isn't guaranteed to win out either. These are projections. Whi is saying anything about guaranteed?
October 10th, 2021 at 7:38 PM ^
Nebraska is 3-4.
Penn St is 5-1, and should be 6-0.
I don't know if I would be as confident in Nebraska as Penn St in beating Iowa.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:54 AM ^
Am I the only one who thinks it ridiculous that every ballot has Cincinnati? Their best win for the season is and will be Notre Dame, which is a good but not great team. Their second best win is Indiana? Maybe that will be knocked down to #3 by the time the season is done.
I get it’s not their fault that they play in a lesser conference, but their other non-conference games were Murray State and Not That Miami. Penn State even with 1 loss still deserves to be above them today.
October 10th, 2021 at 12:53 PM ^
2020 results also factor in here. They went went undefeated in the regular season last year and held a lead on Georgia entering the 4th quarter.
But to date, they have two road wins at Indiana and at Notre Dame which holds up for now. I think the merits of their resume will be more hotly debated as the season moves on, and other teams have opportunities to play in bigger games as their schedules increase in difficulty while Cincinnati's does the opposite. IMO I think it is going to be hard to keep them out of the playoff if they go undefeated given the chaos that has transpired so far this season.
October 10th, 2021 at 1:15 PM ^
Right, but 2020 was more of the same. Undefeated against their not-good conference, plus Army and Austin Peay. It was a weird year last year, and I don’t know what non-conference games got bumped, but they don’t deserve any playoff consideration if they’re going to keep scheduling an FCS team every year. Next year it’s Kennesaw State.
If they stay in the AAC, they should have to schedule four power conference teams for their non-conference schedule every year. Getting credit for beating Notre Dame and a bunch of also-rans is a joke. There are probably 15-20 teams this year who could go undefeated against that schedule. 4 of them are in the Big 10 East alone.
October 10th, 2021 at 7:46 PM ^
I don't like it either. But they don't have a loss. I'm sure these ranking are partly optics. It's like when Florida St got into the playoffs because they were undefeated and TCU didn't because they had 1 loss, a very close loss in a rivalry game with Baylor. Florida St got completely ripped by Oregon because they didn't belong in. Remember that game, when Jamies Winston looked like one of the Keystone Cops?
October 10th, 2021 at 11:59 AM ^
Aren't predictions fun? The college football season is half over and do we really know the end of this movie?
The way things are going this year, more surprises await. As for Sparty, they too have yet to play Penn State and Ohio State. As for Penn State, it depends how soon Clifford can over this injury.
October 10th, 2021 at 12:23 PM ^
That’s crazy talk.
October 10th, 2021 at 1:12 PM ^
MSU has the same caveats we do regarding who they've played. Neither UM or MSU seem to have played a team I'd call "good", a team that more than just above-average or playing well in an area or two. Both teams have had moments that give you pause and moments where they look terrific.
Yet, MSU has absolutely looked better. I wouldn't have UM above MSU and MSU seems to be playing true 21st century football. This is no longer Dantonio-ific football coming from EL. Michigan still pretty much runs a few plays from very obvious, telegraphing sets.
Then it comes down to record and while a one-loss team like Bama or OSU almost certainly beats the brakes off of both UM and MSU today, MSU is undefeated and they aren't.
I'd have them around 5-6 but 4 isn't crazy. They have looked REALLY good this year. Not perfect. Not Death Star but dangerous. They probably have the 2nd best HB in the country, a good QB and solid WRs. The defense has issues but flies around and is playing well up front.
4 isn't crazy. A bit high but not crazy.
October 10th, 2021 at 1:38 PM ^
I believe Michigan has a higher average margin of victory than MSU so I am not sure how MSU has absolutely looked better.
October 10th, 2021 at 3:38 PM ^
MSU has looked better to whom? Not the AP sportswriters or USA Today college coaches, who have them ranked behind us in both polls. Not analytical sites like Sagarin (ranks them 26th, us 6th). You think they have looked better. That opinion appears to not be shared by very many people who earn their livelihoods evaluating college football teams. We’ll see how they match up in East Lansing in a few weeks, but any claim that MSU has “looked better” has little data or expert opinion backing it up right now.
October 10th, 2021 at 7:54 PM ^
The running game of MSU has looked really good. Walker is looking unbelievable. He already has 912 yards. I think the fact they continue to run the ball so well is making voters overlook the glaring flaws on the team, like being ranked 94th in defense.
October 10th, 2021 at 7:47 PM ^
MSU has the same caveats we do regarding who they've played.
Except MSU is #94 in defense, and Michigan is #21.
October 10th, 2021 at 1:46 PM ^
There is literally zero (0) chance that two B1G teams make the Playoff and one of them is not Ohio State. Sorry - doesn't matter how good MSU is (or anybody else for that matter). The only way Iowa is getting into the CFP is by winning the B1G, and there is simply no way the selection committee is going to be swayed to select a Michigan, Michigan State, or Penn State team that did not win its conference. Even OSU would most likely get left out in that scenario, although the brand and reputation would probably make the odds something greater than zero.
The only way I could see two B1G teams getting in, and even this is a real stretch, is for OSU and Michigan to win out convincingly, w/ OSU beating Michigan by one score on 11/27 in a showdown of Top 4 teams, and then destroying an undefeated Iowa team in the B1G Championship. In that scenario you have a 12-1 Ohio State team that is pretty much a lock for the Playoff, and an 11-1 Michigan team w/ wins against MSU and PSU (who may both finish Top 10 or 15) whose only loss is to Playoff-bound OSU. W/ some chaos on the side, I could see those facts producing a two-B1G Playoff, and the odds are still incredibly low.
October 10th, 2021 at 2:07 PM ^
High possibility Cincinnati will be the B1G's bugaboo and leaving a worthy team out. Their schedule is very soft but still have 7 games left so hopefully this works itself out. 1 loss and they fall to 15.
October 10th, 2021 at 8:19 PM ^
He is smoking crack if he thinks 2 big ten teams get in the playoffs or that state wins the big ten.
I know they imported a bunch of good players and it has changed their program but playoffs are a bit of a reach.
would say the same if they had us projected there. They don’t belong in the playoff conversation and neither do we.
we may both be good teams
but not championship teams