I am heading out of town tomorrow for a little vacation and wrote this several weeks ago, planning to post for today. Of course the risk I ran with that is the Braxton Miller injury and the development at Northwestern with missing two players in 2014 for different reasons could not be seen. The irony is overwhelming. I’ll post the un-edited original and down below give a few updates.
East
1 – Michigan State, 8-0 (11-1)
2 – Ohio State, 7-1 (11-1)
3 – Michigan, 6-2 (10-2)
4 – Indiana, 4-4 (7-5)
5 – Penn State, 3-5 (7-5)
6 – Maryland, 2-6 (6-6)
7 – Rutgers, 0-8 (2-10)
West
1 – Wisconsin, 8-0 (12-0)
2 – Iowa, 7-1 (11-1)
3 – Nebraska, 5-3 (9-3)
4 – Northwestern, 3-5 (6-6)
5 – Minnesota, 2-6 (5-7)
6 – Illinois, 1-7 (3-9)
7 – Purdue, 0-8 (3-9)
Big Ten Title Game
Michigan State 31 – Wisconsin 28
I like Michigan State’s offense going against a Borland-less Wisconsin defense. MSU also prepared very well for OSU in last year’s title game so whatever recipe Dantonio and his staff used then, should work again. It’s silly but I think that is a big edge for the Spartans.
Bowls
Playoff – Michigan State
Orange – Wisconsin
Capital One – Ohio State
Outback – Iowa
Holiday – Michigan
Motor City / Gator – Nebraska
Kraft Fight Hunger – Indiana
Pinstripe – Maryland
Detroit Bowl – Northwestern
Heisman Candidate
Melvin Gordon, Wisconsin, sixth (but a free trip to NYC)
Awards
COY – Brady Hoke, Michigan
Offensive MVP – Melvin Gordon, Wisconsin
Defensive MVP – Shilque Calhoun, Michigan State
Special MVP – Mike Sadler, Michigan State
Sleepers
COY – Randy Edsall, Maryland
Offensive MVP – Nate Sudfeld, Indiana and Stefon Diggs, Maryland
Defensive MVP – Taiwan Jones, Michigan State and Mike Hull, Penn State
Special MVP – Kenny Bell, Nebraska
Coaches Not Returning
Tim Beckman, Illinois
Coaches Surprisingly Returning
Kyle Flood, Rutgers – Despite lowering win totals, they have been in three straight bowl games and starting from scratch this early in a new league doesn’t seem like a recipe for success.
Post OSU / Northwestern Update:
Well you know what, not to shabby. If I were to make any changes, I would be tempted to flip the OSU-Michigan outcome and the Northwestern-Minnesota tilt. Of these two games, I am more confident of Michigan’s ability to pull out a victory (even with it being the last game of the year) than I am of Minnesota. The fact is Northwestern was a hard-luck team last year without Mark and should have had several games go in their favor. Losing him is tough, but they played all of last year without him. If anything, I would argue losing Christian Jones is a bigger factor but in Northwestern’s spread offense, they should have plenty of capable wideouts on that depth chart. No individual can replace Jones, but they can duplicate his numbers by committee.
As for Michigan flipping the script, the game was tight a year ago and Michigan looks to be a smidge better than they were last year while OSU has a lot of new faces on the OL, running back and now – unfortunately for all football fans – quarterback. We take the Buckeyes being beasts for granted and they will still be a tough out this year, but they have a lot to overcome. Huge win in the Shoe for Hoke’s squad.
East Update
1 – Michigan State, 8-0 (11-1)
2 – Michigan, 7-1 (11-1)
3 – Ohio State, 6-2 (10-2)
4 – Indiana, 4-4 (7-5)
5 – Penn State, 3-5 (7-5)
6 – Maryland, 2-6 (6-6)
7 – Rutgers, 0-8 (2-10)
Bowl Update
Playoff – Michigan State
Orange – Wisconsin
Capital One – Iowa
Outback – Michigan
Holiday – Ohio State
Motor City / Gator – Nebraska
Kraft Fight Hunger – Indiana
Pinstripe – Maryland
Detroit Bowl – Northwestern
This sounds crazy that Iowa would be picked over Michigan in the bowl selection process with the same exact record but there are a few factors. One is Iowa is known for a fantastic traveling fan base (Michigan’s is good too, but Iowa has had bowl bumps in the past because of it). Another is Iowa hasn’t played in the Capital One for a while so it would be a fresh face – interestingly enough the last time Iowa was in the Cap One, the crowd was larger (vs LSU) than it was for Michigan’s last trip (vs home-state Florida). Lastly, Iowa played in the Outback just a season ago. Since both bowls are on New Year’s Day and kickoff is separated by an hour or so the two committees might just do a little back room deal, Cap One gets a little better travel fan base, Outback avoids the same team back-to-back. Outback gets a blue blood team, Cap One gets a little back scratch. You know, back room CEO stuff.
Big Ten and Counting 