If Michigan beats Northwestern, does that help Iowa in the standings?
- Thread starter icu81222
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Losing to Michigan, along with the Butt kicking the Cats took from Iowa last year would make them mighty growly for the Hawks next week. But I am rooting for a Michigan win. .
In my opinion, it would be better for the Hawks if Northwestern beats Michigan. They would go up in the polls and get a lot of press. If we then beat them the next week, it makes our win that much stronger.
Agree with one hawk. I want to hand NW their first loss.
People, it's really simple: we want Michigan to win.
I want NW to win, but I want Michigan to beat the ever-living hell out of them.
Nah he actually looked pretty much like how a beaten man would look. Standing emotionless on the sideline, taking it all in and realizing that all that rah rah bull sh** about how much you hate Iowa didn't help your team win the game. And the best part is that he gets over it and goes right back to the same formula the next season. In fact I guarantee this year he's gonna generate a small earthquake in Evanston hyping up the game with Iowa because of how we're both in the thick of the divisional race at this point in the season.
If NW is doing well when we play them there next week, I expect lots of fist pumps and other wild swinging motions of the arms. Should be fun. In fact that was my favorite part about the last two years we played them, was how little Fat Pat got to over-celebrate big plays....because we didn't give them many at all.
Michigan easily. If we give them their second loss, they're out pretty much. If they lose then beat us, we're still ok as they have to go to Madison still.
Yep. Wisconsin is now one of our greatest allies.....as long as they do the work when we need them to (and take care of business on our own end of course).
That is what my head says so we have a cushion .
My heart wants to hand JNW their loss when both teams are top 20. Would spring iowa close or into top 10. Likely in top 10
This. I don't know why this is even a debate. If we happen to go into NW and lose, then at the end of the year NW needs two Big Ten losses for us to make the championship game. Michigan would be the first and I expect there will be a second.
If I could predict the future, and Iowa were to run the table, then I want NW to win .... however, I cannot predict the future, and want Iowa to have the best shot at the Big10 West title so going for Michigan.
Would NW be more motivated to beat Iowa if they lost to M? I doubt that would give them any extra motivation ...
Would NW be more motivated to beat Iowa if they lost to M? I doubt that would give them any extra motivation ...
The only reason you would want Michigan to win is if you want Iowa to win the B1G West and go to the B1G title game. Michigan beating Northwestern makes that scenario more likely.
you are correct, it's not debatable, but apparently some people in this thread don't know too much about football.
This shouldn't even be a discussion point. We want the East to win ALL East/West match ups except when they play Iowa. Unless you want someone other than Iowa to win the West.
for those that seem to have a difficult time grasping this, just read this post and move on with your life.
I'm rooting against Northwestern on principal. If there's no clear need to root for the Wildcats, then I'm not going to.
The only reason you would not want Michigan to win is if you are harboring the idea that Iowa is currently playing for a spot in the playoffs this year. We are actually playing for a spot in the B1G title game. NW losing dramatically increases the likelihood of going to the CCG and really doesn't affect a playoff run if we beat them as you expect.
That only helps, if we beat NW, but in the event that we lose to NW, then another loss by NW is needed.
Assuming Michigan beats NW and NW beats up, then both NW and Iowa win out, NW would be the division champion via the tie breaker.
If we take care of business, the Mich vs NW game does not matter either way.
If we are thinking about a best bowl scenario I think we want NW to win. We have to beat NW regardless, and if we are tied with NW at the end of the year and we beat them we will have the tie breaker for B10CG. For bowls we don't want to be just 1 game ahead of Michigan. If we are 10-2 and they are 9-3 can't they still be selected ahead of us? Any bowl would prefer the Harbough show to KF 3.0.
Right, plus even if NW loses, they will still be ranked in the top 25, so going in there and winning would still look good.
Until the Hawks lose why wouldn't everyone be thinking of a playoff spot?
Some people are planning on the Hawks losing 2 or even 3 games. If that is the case...Michigan beating NW doesn't really matter. But if you think the Hawks can go 12-0, which there is no reason to think they can't (outside of injuries and a return to previous coaching styles) you want every Hawk opponent to have the best possible record. That would mean you want NW undefeated when the Hawks play them.
Not debatable? Iowa's schedule sucks. I think it is debatable in the fact that Northwestern is one of two ranked team on the Hawks schedule. Do we really want all the west teams to lose so we have more of a cushion if we also lose? I don't. I want all the West teams to win and then have Iowa beat them. If we have any far off dreams of somehow making a playoff (I know very dreamy), we need all the help we can get in bolstering up our SOS. So while a Northwestern loss helps the dream of Big Ten championship game, it doesn't bolster the real dream of playoff. #DreamBigger
Exactly. So do we want to discuss scenarios of sliding in the backdoor of a Big Ten Championship game or do we want to hold onto the playoff dreams until we first get a loss?
No, people are talking about a safety net of one game, in case Iowa drops a game later on in the season, by having NW with two losses. I think most on this board would be ok with Iowa just making the big 10 championship, it's really not that hard.
Apparently, for some, it is. You ALWAYS cheer against the team in the West....ALWAYS.
If we go undefeated and win the B10 Championship game over tOSU, Michigan, or MSU we will be in the playoff whether NWstrn wins or loses tomorrow. However, that is one HUGE, HUGE IF.
Plus, another huge IF, but IF NW loses to UM and Iowa, then wins the rest of their games, they'll be in the top 20 at the end of the year, and this would still look like a great win. It doesn't matter whether they are ranked 13 or 23, when we play them.
And you don't even want to acknowledge that we are playing first for a division title? The benefits of them losing to Michigan are huge, putting us in a position to virtually eliminate them when we play them vs. them virtually eliminating us from the division race. There is no reason to desire the 'all or nothing' situation as it provides few advantages.
Do we not want to go to a CCG game? It's not easy to get there no matter how invincible we feel right now. This is a particularly good year to get there since something weird seems to be going on with MSU and OSU.
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If we finish 13-0 we will be in the playoff no matter what our SOS is. Our only possible path to the playoff without being undefeated is to finish 11-1 and then beat very highly ranked East champ in CCG. If we finish 11-1 and our only loss is to 11-1 Northwestern then they go to CCG. But if we're 11-1 with only loss to 10-2 Wildcats we go to CCG. Go Blue this weekend! It's pretty obvious. Also, it would be fun to play Ruddock in Indy
