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The Sky Is NOT Falling in the Big Ten

+12 HS
Buckeyeinsc's picture
November 28, 2018 at 12:00pm
58 Comments

There is a national perception that the Big Ten is not good or is having a bad year. Most of this is propagated by our very own fan base and conference base.

There have been a least several dozen comments on this very site since last night about how Ohio State does not deserve a shot at the playoffs because they "slow walked" their way through the conference even though there are only 3 games in which we didn't win by more than a touchdown: Penn State (whiteout), Maryland (senior day / last home game), and Nebraska (no excuse). Yes, we lost to Purdue. Get over it. 

The conference as a whole is not bad though and I would argue that it is really well balanced this year. Typically this analysis is only reserved for the SEC and is perceived as a strength when they beat each other up. However, this logic can be attributed to our conference this year. Now for the facts using the SEC as our sample for comparison and only including games against POWER 5 CONFERENCES:

The Big Ten is 7-5 in P5 OOC games, the second best record behind the SEC at 9-3.

The SEC however played most of its games against the ACC in which it went 5-2 the same conference the Big Ten went 3-1 against. Not to take away from the SEC's record but clearly there is a bit of padding there to inflate the record. The 5-2 record comes from wins against GT, FSU, Louisville (twice), and Miami. Only Miami and GT have winning records at 7-5. 

The Big Ten won games against Pitt, Virginia, and BC. All three teams have winning records and Pitt won its division. Based on this evidence it is clear that the quality of wins was better for the Big Ten. 

Big Ten notable OOC victories: Purdue over BC, Maryland over Texas, Penn State over Pitt, Iowa over Iowa State, Indiana over Virginia, and maybe Ohio State over TCU. 

Record for OOC opponents the Big Ten beat: 45-38

SEC notable OOC victories: LSU over Miami, Auburn over Washington, Georgia over GT, Missouri over Purdue.

Record for OOC opponents the SEC beat: 48-60

 

This doesn't exactly scream down year to me. Especially if you consider the Big Ten plays 9 conference games and no FCS schools compared to the SEC's 8 conference games and sometimes two FCS foes. Otherwise you could deduct a loss or two from each Big 10 team's column and automatically you have what appears to be a stacked conference with multiple winning records and all top 25 ranks.

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