B1G "Look" rankings heading into week 3

Otis

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Who looks strong is the only thing being ranked here. Who's got momentum and who is falling short.

Big Ten "Look" rankings: (i.e. teams that look good but may not be the best necessarily)

1. Maryland - WTF? They beat the pants off the only challenge on Clemson's schedule? Or was Syracuse looking ahead to hosting Clemson?

2. Wisconsin - Dominating the lowly is always a good way to look good.

3. Ohio State - Looking good Lewis! But when your wearing Hugo Boss playing against K-Mart specials its easy.

4. Penn State - Dominant, but they got their best rivalry game this week.

5. Michigan State - I'm not getting sucked in by the rare offensive showing from Sparta! We all know they are known for defense.

6. Iowa - Easy Peasy so far. We see how they do against the Cyclones next.

7. Indiana - Hoosier Daddy? Playing well against the cupcakes!

8. Illinois - Yep, Illinois has won impressively so far. Let's see how quickly that disintegrates.

9. MINNESOTA GOLDEN GOPHERS - Survived two hard fought games which were competitively scheduled. No cupcakes till....this weekend. Better pass the eye-test. Or be passed by:

10. Michigan - Oh my! Thoughts of this being the year almost popped against a service team! Not exactly top ten performance.

11. Purdue - Yeah, they lost a game, but nice recovery against a Power 6 team! Can they do it again?

12. Nebraska - How can I possibly have the predicted B1G west Champs 12th? Win a road game Frost! Then you can move up.

13. Northwestern - That initial game against Stanford looks a little less good after the Trojans marched all over the trees.

14. Rutgers - they're Rutgers, of course they are last! Quit shopping at the Salvation Army Store would ya!
 

I don’t get the love for Illinois. Does not compute.

Northwestern’s defense gave up 10 points vs Stanford (and a Stanford defensive TD). The offense looked terrible but new QB. When do we play them..

I’ve also rethought my position on Iowa/Wisconsin. Iowa has played tougher opponents and deserves the #2 spot behind Ohio State (who I’m not sold on just yet). Maryland I’d put at 3 for now pending more games.
 

I don’t get the love for Illinois. Does not compute.

Northwestern’s defense gave up 10 points vs Stanford (and a Stanford defensive TD). The offense looked terrible but new QB. When do we play them..

I’ve also rethought my position on Iowa/Wisconsin. Iowa has played tougher opponents and deserves the #2 spot behind Ohio State (who I’m not sold on just yet). Maryland I’d put at 3 for now pending more games.

These aren't Power Rankings by any means! They are look at the standings and the scores of their games and rank them like you only know what you see on the internet and the scoresheets.

Indiana and Illinois have outscored their admittedly weak opponents by nearly 60 points. So they "Look" better.
 

I kind of like this ranking, has as much value as the power rankings do at the moment but kind of a cool way to look at things. Agree with most of the takes on how teams have looked so far as well.
 

BTN and Fox have to like a competitive Maryland. They’ve led off the show pretty much every night. What’s the size of that media market?
 



Maryland is right in between Baltimore and DC. A good three hours from Philly (but they don't have a decent college team) and a couple hours from Delaware cities.

So they command a pretty decent amount of market without competing against other strong schools like they have to for basketball.
 

A good three hours from Philly (but they don't have a decent college team)

It would be difficult to characterize Temple as anything worse than decent.
 

Minnesota is suffering in these media rankings from exactly what we could have expected right now - a deceptively tricky non-con schedule full of thankless games. Everyone the Gophers are playing OOC won 10+ games, won their league, and/or made the playoffs a year ago. And yet it looks like a team almost choking on their cupcakes until you dig deeper. Should have had UCLA and Tennessee on the slate this season.
 



BTN and Fox have to like a competitive Maryland. They’ve led off the show pretty much every night. What’s the size of that media market?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_television_markets

DC's TV market specifically (includes PG's county Maryland, where UMCP is located) is the 6th largest in the country.
Baltimore's TV market covers most of the rest of the Maryland counties not in DC, and is the 26th largest in the country.

Together they would be the 3rd largest.
 

Maryland is right in between Baltimore and DC. A good three hours from Philly (but they don't have a decent college team) and a couple hours from Delaware cities.

So they command a pretty decent amount of market without competing against other strong schools like they have to for basketball.

Having spent the last four years there, I can confidently say that there are very few Maryland fans in Philly. It's a 1) Eagles, 2) Owls, 3) Nittany Lions town.
 




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