Assuming Alabama and Ole Miss win tonight (no sure bet), you’ve got three three-loss SEC teams all vying for one spot in the dance with nothing they can do to differentiate themselves the rest of the way. Meanwhile the top two SEC teams who have their spots essentially locked down will play an exhibition game with nothing on the line.

I fucking loathe Ohio State but I’m not sure this is true. I think Michigan is just a vastly better academic institution and a way more bookish culture so you’ve got a huge chunk of the student body (and subsequently alums) who just do not give a rats ass what happens with the football team. The Michigan fans who care, they care just as much as Ohio State does.

Also man yeesh what a trainwreck of a university. Read that NYT piece about how far gone they are. A truly insane campus with whackadoodles in charge at every level. Of course not enough to get me to root for the Buckeyes, but whew boy talk about a school that makes itself easy to hate.

So you, me and Justin Fields all agree Ohio cares a lot more about Michigan-Ohio State than Michigan does

This thing is going to be insane because it’s all falling back on the SEC mystique and they have a transitive property nightmare.

All of these teams may be bad but I don’t feel confident a 3 loss Bama team couldn’t run the table.

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From outside looking in, it seems Michigan cares when they’re good and think they can win, whereas Ohio cares all the time.

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Michigan-State vs Michigan a much bigger rivalry, and even that isn't that big of a deal except when shit-talking at family gatherings.

Ohio the entire state lives and dies with the results of the Michigan-Ohio State game.

South Carolina dropped both H2H’s so I can’t imagine they get in even if they are the ones who end their season notching an actual quality win that under normal circumstances would vault them over other three-loss teams in the rankings.

So how do you pick between Ole Miss and Alabama? Or btw if A&M wins tonight that’s another one thrown into the mix with arguably the best resume. And to make matters even more complicated that’s a team that dropped its H2H against South Carolina, so if you give A&M the leg up for its quality win against Texas you rob South Carolina by the same metric you put them behind Ole Miss & Bama.

But seriously nobody else in the country deserves it. They are already reaching with Indiana and both SMU & Miami in the top twelve. Notre Dame is a lock and they lost to NIU. Clemson losing throws the whole thing into total chaos. They might not have been deserving but at least they had the pedigree and resume to keep the controversy to a minimum.

Indiana (assuming a W over Purdue tonight, at this point not a sure-sure thing, maybe 94% certain instead of 99% certain a few weeks ago) and Penn State arguing over who should play Oregon in Big 10 title game:

Do actual MU fans care about MSU? Always seemed like a one way rivalry.

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You have nothing to lose. The commitee is not going to hold a championship result against a team, the precedent would do way more harm than good.

Does OSU still get in?

Oregon, PSU, Indiana are all in line ahead of them. If B1G gets 4, the SEC will big dick its way to 4. And they don’t have 4 worthy teams.

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Isn't there an extra spot now that the universe knows Notre Dame is awful?

You can’t let PSU and Indiana in over them. They get in.

You have to live with the loss to Michigan State everyday at work and with your family. Michigan State alums outnumber Michigan Alums in the state by about 3 to 1.

There's no similar in size or student body representation competing flagship university in-state for Ohio State, so they have to gin up a rivalry with Michigan; but Michigan losing to Michigan State will always be a bigger deal than Michigan losing to Ohio State.

Way bigger deal losing to Michigan State than winning or losing against the borderline southern state to the south whose alums barely exist in the state of Michigan. Losing to Ohio State is only slightly more significant than losing to Alabama. It's some big, dumb football-stupid state to the south. Who cares.

When Harbaugh was losing to Ohio State and Michigan State the bigger loss was to Michigan State. When Harbaugh lost to Michigan State and W'd over tOSU beating Ohio State was nice but did not make up for taking the L against the in-state rival.

Harbaugh finished 5-4 vs Michigan State.

Alabama-Auburn vs Alabama-Georgia is kind of similar. Like Ohio, Georgia the state does not have a 2nd competing flagship public university (Georgia Tech making a bid tho). So Georgia likely takes Georgia-Florida or Georgia-Alabama more serious.

Florida regards losing to Florida State worse than losing to out of state schools.

Alabama loses to Auburn and beating Georgia barely registers for the next year.

It's what you deal with on the daily that matters more than that one Saturday in November game.

Literally nobody except Domers would give a fuck. The NIU loss should have been all she wrote anyways. If the committee needs to find Ohio State a spot (because letting two teams they beat H2H in while leaving the Buckeyes out would invite more problems than it solves) it should easily be ND’s.

Easy there chief

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That just brings it back to the SEC morass.

Which brings it back to a conference argument.

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Lost in all this mayhem is that after about two full decades of being deliberately shut out by the NCAA Boise State, the pariah figure in college football ever since they beat Oklahoma and started complaining, is finally getting their shot.

The 2 schools rivalry extends beyond the football field.

In recent years Michigan seemed more out of sorts about Michigan State's hoops success since the Fab Five days.

Michigan - Michigan State hockey rivalry a little muted because there are so many hockey schools in Michigan besides the big 2 schools: Lake Superior, Northern, Ferris, Michigan Tech.

Michigan State beat Michigan 4 out of 9 times under Harbaugh. Harbaugh did't get above water against Michigan State until his final season at Michigan. Not sure how that's a one-way rivalry.

But the state of Michigan as whole does not give that much of a shite about any one particular sport, the way states like Ohio, Bama, et al do with football.


I've never seen an argument in person between an Ohio State and Michigan fan outside of a Michigan-Ohio State game day. You see Michigan-Michigan State fans arguing all the time, year around, esp during the holidays.


The rivalry that's more one-way is Michigan - Ohio State. Probably why people outside Michigan think it's a bigger rivalry than Michigan Michigan State, cuz Ohio State folks always yammering on about beating Michigan in football. Ohio State fans more than a little insane about beating Michigan, probably the source of the misconception Michigan OSU is a bigger rivalry than Michigan - Michigan State.

Justin Fields, who played in a few of those "rivalry" games, calling it a one-way rivalry matches up with experience from north of the border.

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Got his ass beat on the field and zero control of his team. Get your losing ass off of the field!!

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

They get the spot because of Cub-like Touchdown Jesus. Your dad is a ND fan, your grandad was a ND fan and someday you're hoping to put a helmet on a gravestone and have a good cry.

We get the spot because we get the spot. Box office baby.

And 50 point blowouts.

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For what its worth Indiana gave Purdue its worst loss ever.

Grandpa was hammered that day.

And every day, but hey, we’re Irish.

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This is one of your dumber posts ever and that is saying something!

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

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In some ways, but the Bears don’t beat any NFC North teams

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It’s one of his posts where I want to yell, “ Bartender, I’ll have whatever he’s having!!”

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