Tyler Stearns |
Indiana and Ohio State is the marquee matchup for this weekend of CFB - tell that to someone three years ago. And also tell them that Indiana is coming in with a better record. Now, of course, take that with a grain of salt. They haven't played any major competition, and their best wins are Washington and Michigan, two teams who have significantly fallen off from last year. Nonetheless, if you ask any Hoosier fan, they will all tell you they are extremely excited about this team. And that's because Coach Curt Cignetti has instilled a winning mentality into the program. He has rebuilt the culture and brought over some great transfer portal players - notably Kurtis Rourke from Ohio. But again, they haven't been battle-tested. On the other hand, Ohio State has. They have beaten Penn State on the road and showed that their defense can win them football games. Now they did lose, though that came against the best team in the country in Oregon in Eugene. And Ohio State has the talent and the coaching to warrant being a 12.5-point favorite versus Indiana.
This season has been great for B1G fans. Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, and Indiana are all ranked in the top five, and barring any major developments, will all make the CFP. And what separates them from the SEC is that they have an undefeated team. In the SEC, each team has at least two losses (aside from Texas which has one). Many ESPN pundits have come out and said that this is because the teams are beating up on each other, but that just isn't the case. Tennessee lost to Arkansas, a game they should have won, and Ole Miss lost to Kentucky, a game they should have won (and they probably should have beaten LSU too). Alabama likely should have beaten Vanderbilt as well. So we are looking at a conference with one team that has two legit losses in Georgia, and they have two signature wins in Texas and Tennessee. Texas has the best record in the conference, but the only team they played that was any form of competition to them was Georgia, who they lost to by 15. So with all this being said, the SEC is overrated this year, and teams in that conference are losing 'gimme' games. And in the B1G, they aren't. Penn State has only lost to Ohio State (and only seven for that matter), Oregon hasn't lost, Ohio State lost by one to Oregon on the road, and Indiana also hasn't lost. Of course, talent on the field matters, and the SEC likely has better talent than Indiana and perhaps Penn State, but their records are just worse. So what this weekend can tell us for the B1G is whether or not Indiana is worthy of a playoff spot. And what it can tell us for the SEC is if they can win their 'gimme' games and get some of their teams ranked higher.
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