Illinois over Maryland
Minnesota over North Carolina

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Fire Phil Emery

Iowa will be doubled up by Wake.

I don't know. Wake is pretty awful too.

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Fire Phil Emery

Minn over NC? Why do you say that?

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Uh, because it just happened about an hour ago? I'm not stepping out on a ledge there.

(These are games that have already happened. I'm counting these.)

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Fire Phil Emery

Oh well. For some reason I thought these games started tomorrow.

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Oh, the official challenge isn't for another two weeks. But these have happened, and the teams are reasonably matched. So I'm cheating and counting them. FU, Vitale!

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Fire Phil Emery

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Here are the official matches.

Virginia @ Minnesota
North Carolina @ Illinois
Ohio State @ Florida State
Michigan @ Clemson
Georgia Tech @ Northwestern
Iowa @ Wake Forest
Michigan State @ Duke
Purdue @ Virginia Tech
North Carolina State @ Wisconsin
Indiana @ Boston College
Maryland @ Penn State

Minnesota, OSU, and Wisconsin should have easy wins for the Big Ten. Clemson over Michigan looks safe, and Maryland can probably take care of Penn State on the road. So 3-2 Big Ten in the "obvious games".

I think Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, and Indiana have the edge in their games, so if you win 3/4, that's six wins and the Big Ten should win. MSU at Duke is probably lean Duke, and Iowa at Wake Forest is two pretty bad teams, but if you steal one of those, the Big Ten could end up with seven or eight wins. Plus the two I gave them tonight, of course.

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Fire Phil Emery

Wisconsin over Boston College

3-0

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Fire Phil Emery

Minny kicks this off tonight. Should be an interesting stretch of games.
Would be nice to see the Big Ten walk away with an overall victory. I'll
be interested to see how the Illini do against UNC at home tomorrow night
and of course Duke vs. Michigan St will likely be a good one.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

How are the matchups set in this thing? Is it just a matter of the two conference AD's getting together and exchanging proposals or is a more standings-based type of thing?

There are some really good ones (Duke/MSU, UNC/Ill) but some really "lopsided" ones as well (OSU/FSU comes to mind).

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No idea how this is worked out but I would agree, there are usually at least 3 really top
notch matchups and then some real stinkers. Maybe teams are rotated to play someone
different each year but I don't even think that is the case because Illinois has played UNC
in this just a few years ago I thought.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I think the two conferences get together and try to make matchups that make the most sense, competitively, and then release the matchups early in the Summer.

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You know me like that.

That's what I thought, just wasn't sure. I understand the reality of having "stinker" games because the weaker teams in each conference face each other - but that makes complete sense at the same time. Like I said, I think a few of these games will be fantastic - I hope I get to watch them. I just thought the OSU/FSU one seemed really mismatched.

edit - at least it is "mismatched' in the right direction.

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It's part competitive balance, but they also try to avoid a team playing multiple home or away games in the challenge, and they also try to change the matchups from year to year. That limits the possible selections. On the whole they do a pretty decent job, but sometimes you'll get some weird ones.

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Fire Phil Emery

How do you guys think the MAC/MAAC H.O.R.S.E. Championship will end up?

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Whichever conference is on the road will lose and be really mad about it.

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You know me like that.

See? We're a team! I set them up on a tee for you and you foul tip it! We're magic!

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Virginia @ Minnesota W
North Carolina @ Illinois W
Ohio State @ Florida State W
Michigan @ Clemson L
Georgia Tech @ Northwestern W
Iowa @ Wake Forest L
Michigan State @ Duke L
Purdue @ Virginia Tech W
North Carolina State @ Wisconsin W
Indiana @ Boston College W
Maryland @ Penn State L

I'll give Duke the edge being at home. I'll take the Big Tenlve for 7 wins.

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You know me like that.

I'd agree with most of these, but Purdue is gonna have a tough go at Va. Tech. That's an "L" to me.

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After day one...

ACC 1
Big Ten 0

Yeah, that was a little surprising to see the Gophers go down after their
strong start. I'll be tuning in for the Illini tonight. Interested to see this
stud freshman Harrison Barnes on the UNC squad.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Yeah, stupid Minnesota. That loss is going to hurt.

Michigan or Penn State is going to have to step-up and make up for that. Illinois needs to take care of business.

I've never actually tracked them to see how accurate they are, but the Wall Street Journal computer models show the Illini winning tonight 76-66. Sounds good to me. I'll go with it.

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You know me like that.

Damn you, Minnesota!!

You've made me root for Iowa!

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You know me like that.

They tried. They might be better than a 7 win team.

I have the FSU-OSU game on and they broke in at one point to show some highlights from the Iowa game...the score of the last highlight had Iowa up by 17 or so towards the end of the first half but the game was tied five or six minutes into the second half.

How does that even happen?

Now tied at 2 games each heading into UNC/ILL and UM/Clemson.

NW and OSU picking up wins for the Big Ten.

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To hear these ESPN guys, Illinois is lucky to be within 15 of these guys.

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You know me like that.

How are those lights doing?

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."