Boneg Ladder

It was only a matter of time until there was a jumble in the Boneg Ladder.  When MSU lost to Nebraska, that created an MSU-Wis-Neb jumble.  8 hours later, OSU was added to that jumble when they beat Wisconsin.  Because none of the teams in that jumble have lost to any other teams, they sit on the top rung with PSU.

PSU has 5 wins, but the wins have been against 5 of the bottom 6 teams (per Boneg Ladder).  All three of the remaining games are against top rung Boneg Ladder teams.

If someone can upset MSU, it really looks to be a Boneg Championship game with 2 2-loss teams. Unfortunately, MSU's remaining 4 games are against teams on the bottom 4 rungs of the Boneg Ladder.

So, here's this week's Ladder:

PSU     MSU-Wis-Neb-OSU

MI

Purdue

MN     IL

Iowa

Northwestern

IN

Using the Boneg Ladder to predict the games, M will go 2-2 from this point, losing to Neb and OSU.

Using the Boneg Ladder to predict the rest of the league, MSU will not lose again earning the slot as the Michigan division representative in the Bone Championship game.  In the Indiana division, it would be a three way tie between PSU, Wisconsin and OSU, each with 2 losses.  PSU would be eliminated because they would have lost to both Wis and OSU.  That would leave OSU as the division champ due to head-to-head.

Georgia Tech - New Trophy holder

Congratulations to the Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech. Their 31-17 victory over Clemson ended the Tigers 6 week run with college football's greatest trophy.




This is the Yellow Jackets 3rd time winning the trophy. They beat Auburn on October 14, 1944 - you may remember that Auburn did not field a varsity team in 1943 because of the war, so the trophy sat dormant for a season. Tech won twice before losing to Duke in early November.

They waited 20+ years to take the trophy again. defeating Tennessee in October of 1966. They were more successful in their second defense of the trophy, rattling off 5 straight wins before losing to arch-rival Georgia on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Tech has 3 regular season games remaining. Following their bye week, they close out hosting Virginia Tech, traveling to Duke and the annual match-up with Georgia. If they win out, they will likely win the Coastal division in the ACC (not sure of the tie-breaker scenario if 3 teams have 2 losses) and potentially take on Clemson again for the ACC title.

I'm going to predict the trophy will be going back to Blacksburg in 2 weeks.

M vs. Purdue prediction based on historical data

M is 169-48-1 in all games I have attended
M is 141-34-1 in games at Michigan Stadium
M is 28-7 on their homecoming

It's easy when you add it all up

M 21 Purdue 17

M vs Purdue Prediction Based On......nothing

Michigan 33, Purdue 15

Big Ten Ladder

The Ladder is back.  As you may know, each team is on a higher rung than teams they have beaten, and on lower rungs than teams they've lost to.  There have not yet been situations that cause circles/ pileups (a beats b, b beats c, c beats a, for example).  One upset could do that.

There are actually two ways to do the ladder.  One using the undefeated teams on the top rung and lining up teams below.  The other is using the winless teams and lining up the teams above.  I'm going with the first one.

The ladder as of today:

PSU - MSU
Iowa - Purdue - Wisconsin - Michigan
Nebraska
Minnesota - OSU
Illinois
Indiana - Northwestern

Using this as a predictor, M will go 4-1 from here on out (losing to Iowa on the road).  I'd take that.

Uniforms

I don't feel like saying anything about the game, but I do have to comment on the uniforms.

MSUs Nike costumes were a bit offensive in their design, but they were worlds better than M's Faux-Throw road unis.  Seriously, who thought this was a good idea?

And though I like the numbers on the helmets, is there any way to make the color of the numbers the same maize as on the rest of the helmets or on the jerseys?

M vs MSU prediction

Doesn't look like I'm going to East Lansing this weekend ($200 per ticket???) so there will be no prediction based on games I've attended. So let's go with something along the lines of games not attended.

M is 721-261-35 in games I have not attended
M is 52-26-5 in against MSU games I have not attended

Michigan 23
MSU 17

MSU Prediction Based On Paris Metro

msu 28 m 20

Michigan at Midpoint

As jiMpossible pointed out, somehow he has become the more confident one. Back in July I predicted M would finish 8-4, which seemed pretty optimistic.

I had M at 4-2 at this point, with losses against ND and Northwestern. Obviously M pulled out victories in both games. Looking forward. I had M losing to Iowa and Nebraska in the second half. While I wouldn't say M will definitely beat the Hawkeyes, it would seem they should. Nebraska I feel a little more confident against than I did back in July.

That being said, this week will tell quite a bit. I don't think MSU is as good as they were last season, but they are probably the best team M has played since the miracle UTL.

If Hoke can break the first time coaching in the Paul Bunyan game streak, M will definitely be the front funner for the boneg game in Indianapolis. If not they'll need help.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say M will be playing in a BCS game this January.

Optimism

I'm not sure what's happening this year.  There have been two games where I've predicted M to win, and you've predicted a loss.  I've been right both times.

Since when am I the optimistic one?

I haven't made a decision yet, but I'm leaning towards a loss to MSU.

M vs. Northwestern prediciton based Denard's hacked twitter account

12 M
27 N (the N in Denard is not counted)