Northwestern Prediction Based On Grand Central Station

m33 n22

jiMpossible & Bo at the 1990 Rose Bowl from BTN special

Shut outs

When OSU scored with 10 seconds left against the Spartans Saturday I tweeted excitedly:

@mpharmd98

WooHoo Michigan still the last team to shut out OSU! #goblue

Since it was also apparent that M was the last team to shut out Minnesota - I thought it would be interesting to see who was the last to shut out each of the boneg teams.

Team	shutter outer	Score	date
Illinois	OSU	30-0	9/26/2009
Indiana	Michigan	58-0	10/14/2000
Iowa	Illinois	31-0	10/14/2000
Michigan	Iowa	26-0	10/20/1984
MSU	Michigan	14-0	10/21/2000
Minnesota	Michigan	58-0	10/1/2011
Nebraska	Arizona St	19-0	9/21/1996
Northwestern	OSU	20-0	9/27/2003
OSU	Michigan	28-0	11/20/1993
Penn St	Michigan	20-0	10/6/2001
Purdue	OSU	49-0	10/23/2010
Wisconsin	Syracuse	34-0	8/24/1997

Michigan leads as the last shutter outer with 5 (including consecutive weeks); OSU is next with 3 then Illinois and Iowa close out the boneg schools with ASU and Syracuse the only non-conference shutter outers.

If you look only for boneg conference shut outs - Wisconsin was shut out by Iowa 31-0 on 11-16-1996.

Nebraska has not been shut out in a conference game since Oklahoma beat them 27-0 on 11/23/1973. But as far as their current conference is concerned, they have not been shut out by a boneg team since Purdue skunked them 28-0 on 9/27/1958.

My final bits are when Michigan was last shut out in a non-conference game: a 25-0 loss to Independent MSU on 9/29/1951. How about against a team not currently in the boneg ? That gets screwed up as well. M (with Gerald Ford) lost to U of Chicago 27-0 on 10/13/1934. But of course that was a conference game...
You have to go back to M's 10-0 loss to Navy on 10/30/1926 for their last loss against a team unrelated to any version of the boneg .

Minnesota Prediction Based On Sandwich Board

m 38 mn 14

MSU ranked vs. unranked OSU

I saw this on the Twitters

Tony Gerdeman (@GerdOzone)
9/27/11 10:15 PM

It's been 45 years since a ranked Michigan State team and an unranked Ohio State team have met on the football field.

That would be 1966 when 4-0 MSU went to the horseshoe to face 1-2 OSU. The Spartans came away with an 11-8 victory, their closest game of the season until the 10-10 tie in the Game of the Century at the end of the year against Notre Dame.

Of course this almost isn't even true. MSU is ranked 25 in he USA Today coaches poll and is the first team listed in others receiving votes in the AP poll. In the CFRC, MSU is 38 and OSU is 40.

M vs. Minnesota predistion based on historical data

M is 168-47-1 in all games have attended (all data is from games I have attended unless otherwise noted)
M is 140-34-1 in Michigan Stadium
M is 35-7 in when #16 starts as their quarterback
M is 113-34-1 in conference games (43-6-1 in Big 10, 70-28 in Big Ten, 0-0 in B1G)
M is 2-o in the first game with a particular number of conference teams
M is 12-2 against Minnesota
M is 6-0 when ranked #19 (M was last ranked 19 going into the Indiana game played almost exactly 1 year ago)
M is 120-20-1 against unranked opponents
M is 1-1 when facing teams for the 15th time
M is 17-9 in the 5th game I've seen in a season
M is 58-20 in October
M is 22-4 against teams with rodent/weasel mascots

It's easy when you add it all together:

M 45 Minnesota 13

Some Mostly Useless Statistics

M has run only 22 plays while the games have been tied this year.

When trailing by 15 or more points, M averages 77 yards per pass play. (only 2 yards per rushing play)

M's winning streak is tied for 11th longest in the country (up from 16th last week).

While trailing, DRob averages just under 9 yards per carry.  When inside M's 20 yard line, he averages 11 yards per carry.