I don’t have anything completed for today’s post, but I don’t want to allow too much time to pass between posts. Part of my research for New Yesterdays, and the upcoming sequel, Changed Tomorrows has necessarily involved researching the Native Americans who were indigenous to this area. The Green Corn Ceremony has always fascinated me. Today, I will copy and paste an article taken from…
The official RTARL 2017 college football preview issue, vol. 8: B1G
I’m much more interested in this Leadbelly movie than I am in the B1G. I need to find a copy of this and watch it right away.
If you missed the previous entries in this series go here: preview of previews, CUSA, Sun Belt, FBS Independents, MAC, MWC, AAC, Big XII.
The B1G is great because it has four teams in the top 11 in the country by almost every preview ranking and yet the conference overall kind of blows. That’s why Clemson beat the ever living fuck out of Ohio State last year.
LEGENDS DIVISION
OHIO STATE
They lost half an NFL team’s worth of talent last year but they keep killing it in recruiting and they have another half of an NFL team’s talent to replace the guys that left. Urban Meyer ran away from Nick Saban and it’s paid off handsomely for him. This is the only team in the B1G that seems like a safe bet to win 10+ games. Somehow the weakest spot on their roster is the 4th year starter at QB.
MICHIGAN
Penn State probably has more talent since Michigan lost a lot of guys that I’m not sure they can easily replace but Jim Harbaugh >>>> Penn State.
PENN STATE
Saquon Barkley can be great, the roster can be talented and they can still lose a bunch of games. Hopefully they lose a bunch of games because James Franklin is a piece of shit rape enabler who took over a program famous for enabling rape and the reckoning never really came for Happy Valley, a city of people who prize their rape enabling football program far more than they give a shit about the social costs of systematized rape acceptance.
MICHIGAN STATE
Somebody has to finish fourth. Even if the bottom completely fell out of the Michigan State football program they still make more sense as a fourth place finisher than the dreck that’s beneath them.
INDIANA
They’ve got good linebackers. That might actually be enough to finish ahead of Michigan State but you have to account for their awful popcorn candy striper looking uniforms and knock them down accordingly.
MARYLAND
Maryland might be the team I least want to ever watch in all of college football.
RUTGERS
The oldest football program in the world hasn’t been a true power since before the invention of the forward pass and hasn’t won a national title since, I believe, there were only two teams in existence. No reason to think any of that changes this year.
LEADERS DIVISION
WISCONSIN
Wisconsin is just the default favorite in this division for now. They lost a bunch of guys but they have 6 automatic wins against the other denizens of the Big Ten West, a strong contender for the worst division in the sport for at least one more year.
IOWA
You know what you’re getting: a surprising run to respectability marred by a terrible couple of weeks at the end and another extension for Kirk Ferentz. Akrum Wadley is the star this year and I guess he’ll rack up stats and get a bunch of bullshit hype from Northwestern grads in the sports media more in love with a little guy piling up numbers than they are concerned with whether a given player is actually good.
NEBRASKA
Mike Riley is slowly building a recruiting juggernaut but the fruits of that effort won’t ripen this year. 2019 is the realistic ETA for Nebraska as Big Ten contender but there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
PURDUE
Break on through to the bowl season! Maybe. Jeff Brohm, XFL legend and apostle of both Howard Schnellenberger and Bobby Petrino, takes over as the head man and he could scheme his way to 6 or 7 wins even with this talent blackhole. Western Kentucky was the least fun ultra-productive offense in the country the last few years which makes Brohm a perfect fit in the B1G.
NORTHWESTERN
People are talking about this as possibly the most talented Northwestern team of all time. And they’re still a consensus middle of the pack in a bad division team. What a program.
MINNESOTA
PJ Fleck actually inherits some useful pieces on offense but I don’t trust him to have anything resembling a good defense this year.
ILLINOIS
I listened to somebody talking about NFL coaches moving to the college game the other day and about how rarely it works out. They mentioned Lovie Smith as an instance of it working out. That’s awful. Illinois seems to have a few guys every year who made a drastic miscalculation when they signed with Illinois and I’m sure this year’s 3-win team will be more of the same.
CHAMPION: Ohio State
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Saquon Barkley, RB, Penn State
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Tyquan Lewis, DE, Ohio State
WATCHABILITY ADVICE: B1G football is pretty bad and even if you can trick yourself into believing that competitive games are inherently worthwhile. Most of the games in the B1G that you’ll see will actually end up being blowouts. I guess you could watch Illinois play Northwestern for some reason but I don’t even hate you that much.
