College Football, 2020

[grumbler]

The Battle for the Little Brown Jug enters it's 104th iteration tomorrow.  It's a strange season and game, with the odds varying between Minnesota -3 and Michigan -3.  Because of covid, no one knows who will start for the Golden Gophers (as of press time, Michigan still had no one out). 

Michigan has a lot of replacements on both sides of the ball, while Minnesota's offence is mostly back.  Minnesota's defense is mostly new.  Michigan's replacements look a lot better than Minnesota's, but PJ Fleck has proven to be a great coach (11-2 last year). 

I've not been so uncertain about how an opener for Michigan looks to go since Michigan opened against Washington in 2001.  Pretty much anything could happen.

I don't think that the Big Ten will finish the season, though.  Covid rates are rising everywhere.

[Barrister]

Go Golden Gophers!

[grumbler]

Go Golden Gophers!

I do have to say that Minnesota fans are about tied with Iowa fans as the most pleasant fan base of an opposing team i have encountered.  Knowledgeable about the game, realistic in expectations, and never arrogant.  In the first two, they're like Michigan fans.

[Valmy]

Go Golden Gophers!

I do have to say that Minnesota fans are about tied with Iowa fans as the most pleasant fan base of an opposing team i have encountered.  Knowledgeable about the game, realistic in expectations, and never arrogant.  In the first two, they're like Michigan fans.

Funny. As a Big 12 Fan I interact with Iowa State fans a lot and yeah they are probably one of my favorite fanbases in our league. But the way they talk about the Iowa fans, you would think Iowa fans were arrogant delusional jerks of the highest order.

[grumbler]

Andddd Rutgers beats MSU 38-27 for the first of what is going to be many weird outcomes.

[grumbler]

And Penn State goes down to Indiana 35-34.  Told you it would be wild!

[Valmy]

It is weird to see somebody fresh faced and excited for a new season when I have already had my heart ripped out by OU two weeks ago

[Eddie Teach]

Fuck Bama. That is all.

[Valmy]

And Penn State goes down to Indiana 35-34.  Told you it would be wild!

Ok it was 36-35 when IU went for two in the first Overtime. They didn't get it but the refs screwed it up so IU won. Fuck Penn State so that works for me.

But damn I was shocked that Texas refused to go for the win in overtime a few times when it was obvious that the defense was totally spent and couldn't do much to stop OU unless they stopped themselves. Nice to see a football team take the 2 point conversion and go for the win at the right time and have it pay off.

Ehlinger would have run right over OU for the 2 point conversion I still have no idea what Tom Herman was thinking.

[alfred russel]

I don't think that the Big Ten will finish the season, though.  Covid rates are rising everywhere.

No talk of shutting it down here, that I've seen at least. Congrats on holding off the start of your season until cases start going way up. Who could have predicted this would happen later in the fall? Oh yeah, tons of people.

The bigger story impact is going to be that high school football still hasn't resumed in the west coast states, Illinois, New York, and most of New England. If you thought the Pac 12 and northern football sucked ass before, just wait to see what happens if significant portions of their talent pools take a year off. And yes this would fuck over Notre Dame in a big way as well.

[PDH]

Wyoming's starting QB broke his leg on the first series against Nevada.  Even though in the end Wyoming managed to take it to overtime, the Pokes lost.

Covid or not, the essence of the Wyoming Cowboys shines through.

[grumbler]

Worth a read, if you are a Big Ten fan, and especially if you are not: https://mooncrew.substack.com/p/14-big-ten-universities-ranked-by

[grumbler]

Oh, and Big Ten/Pac 12 football restarted when there was a COVID test that could be administered daily and produce results (even if skewed towards false positives) immediately (follow-on tests would confirm, but the first test could detect players before they became infectious).  The moronic belief that somehow they were shamed into doing so by the fact that moronic conferences started to play (and fall ill, and cancel games) is moronic.

When the two conferences announced the delay until the spring, that was because that's when such tests were expected to be available.  When the tests appeared to be coming along faster than expected, the conferences changed the timeline.   In all cases, it was the medical types who controlled both conference's decision-making.  That's not true for the SEC or Big Twelve, whose presidents and ADs made all the decisions.

I'm frankly proud that the B10 and P12 didn't chase the money (and that they follow the medical advice to DQ players for 21 days, to make sure that there are no heart issue, rather than the 14 days of other conferences who don't give a shit about long-term COVID effects on the players).  Major college football has money to burn, and there's no better thing to burn it on than student safety.

[grumbler]

Wyoming's starting QB broke his leg on the first series against Nevada.  Even though in the end Wyoming managed to take it to overtime, the Pokes lost.

Covid or not, the essence of the Wyoming Cowboys shines through.

Wisconsin seems to be following Poke luck, having lost their first, second, and third-string quarterbacks to Covid. 

[Valmy]

PJ Fleck is a certified football genius.

Is that wrong? Am I wrong to think that?