Iowa Can Still Win The West!

ssckelley

ssckelley

Well-Known Member
Just have to win out and have Illinois lose 2 more games.

11/5 - Michigan State
11/12 - Purdue
11/19 - @Michigan
11/26 - @Northwestern

I can see Illinois losing 2 more games in that schedule. Granted Iowa wouldn't win any tiebreakers with Illinois so don't go making any Big Ten Championship plans on December 3rd but Iowa would still get a trophy for the trophy case!

Extensions for all the coaches!!!

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Think there are 3 way tie scenarios in which Iowa goes to Indy? Not sure that's a preferable outcome, but I was curious about it.
 
SwirlinLingerie said:
Think there are 3 way tie scenarios in which Iowa goes to Indy? Not sure that's a preferable outcome, but I was curious about it.
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I was thinking that too and the obvious team was Purdue, I attempted to go through the Big Ten tiebreaker system and I got a headache. I think Illinois would still win the tiebreaker in a 3 way tie if I'm looking at it correctly, they own head to head over Iowa and would have a better in division record over Purdue. But I don't know for sure, my eyes got glossy at about the 4th tiebreaker.
 
Yes, the tiebreakers are hard to follow. But, if Purdue beats Illinois and Illinois also loses to Michigan, and Iowa wins out, I think Purdue is the odd team out because they would have a worse division record than the other two. After that, who the F knows how to sort out winning percentages against common division opponents. It might actually come down to overall record, and we have an out of conference loss and Illinois does not.

Let's just win out and then we can worry about math again.
 
ssckelley said:
Just have to win out and have Illinois lose 2 more games.

11/5 - Michigan State
11/12 - Purdue
11/19 - @Michigan
11/26 - @Northwestern

I can see Illinois losing 2 more games in that schedule. Granted Iowa wouldn't win any tiebreakers with Illinois so don't go making any Big Ten Championship plans on December 3rd but Iowa would still get a trophy for the trophy case!

Extensions for all the coaches!!!

we-can-eoz98c.jpg
Click to expand...
Don't they have to lose 3 games since they beat us and have the tie breaker over us? Oh, misread, IC what you are saying...we can still share...just no Championship game...unless we win out and they lose 3.
 
HaydenHawk56 said:
Don't they have to lose 3 games since they beat us and have the tie breaker over us? Oh, misread, IC what you are saying...we can still share...just no Championship game...unless we win out and they lose 3.
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I'm not smart enough to figure out how they can get to the championship game other than Illinois losing 3 of it's last 4 games while Iowa wins out. But could you imagine it? My word, Iowa rematched against Michigan or Ohio State? lmao

I think they are getting close to killing divisions anyway but that would almost certainly do the trick. I wouldn't even want to see that.
 
ssckelley said:
I'm not smart enough to figure out how they can get to the championship game other than Illinois losing 3 of it's last 4 games while Iowa wins out. But could you imagine it? My word, Iowa rematched against Michigan or Ohio State? lmao

I think they are getting close to killing divisions anyway but that would almost certainly do the trick. I wouldn't even want to see that.
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Michigan could be a ball game.....if the offense finds something between now and then. But, Iowa is probably losing to Purdue....so probably moot point.
 
ssckelley said:
I'm not smart enough to figure out how they can get to the championship game other than Illinois losing 3 of it's last 4 games while Iowa wins out. But could you imagine it? My word, Iowa rematched against Michigan or Ohio State? lmao

I think they are getting close to killing divisions anyway but that would almost certainly do the trick. I wouldn't even want to see that.
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I would love it, just to see how ticked off everyone else would be about a super-flawed Iowa team making the championship game.

I get the people who want an offensive-philosophy change over all else, and are willing to see Iowa struggle down the stretch to accomplish that goal. But I can never cheer for Iowa to lose. The student-athletes work too hard for me to wish them anything but success. And a Saturday with a win is always better than a Saturday with a loss. I think winning out would be a weird and fun way to wrap this bizarre season.
 
CP87 said:
I would love it, just to see how ticked off everyone else would be about a super-flawed Iowa team making the championship game.

I get the people who want an offensive-philosophy change over all else, and are willing to see Iowa struggle down the stretch to accomplish that goal. But I can never cheer for Iowa to lose. The student-athletes work too hard for me to wish them anything but success. And a Saturday with a win is always better than a Saturday with a loss. I think winning out would be a weird and fun way to wrap this bizarre season.
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I don't think it's necessarily cheering for Iowa to lose vs. cheering for a change of mindset. 100% of the fans wanting the change in offensive philosophy wouldn't even mention losing games if they felt there was any way change would come with winning.

And while I agree that winning out would be "a weird and fun way to wrap up a bizarre season" my concern is that if it happened we'd be in the same exact same situation next year depending on defense and special teams to keep our offense above water. Ideally I'd love for KF to win out and have this mind blowing realization that a strong defense and special teams can coexist with a strong offense and a different philosophy. While the mindset's always been to manage games offensively and avoid turnovers I simply think it's gotten to the point where there's no sense in minimizing turnovers if you can't move the chains.
 
If Iowa wins out and finishes 6-3, then Wisc, Minn, Neb, NW will all have at least 4 losses, so those 4 teams will not be involved in any tie.

If Purdue, Iowa, ILL all finish in a 3-way tie, that means Iowa beat Pur, Pur beat ILL and ILL beat Iowa. The next tiebreaker would be divisional records. Iowa would be 5-1 against the West. ILL would be 5-1 against the west if their other losses are against Mich or MSU and Ind. Purdue would be 4-2 so Purdue drops out. The tiebreaker then reverts to H2H, which ILL won. So ILL's 3rd loss can not be to Mich. They would have to lose to NW instead. Then both ILL and Purdue would be 4-2 against the West. Purdue wins the tiebreaker against ILL due to H2H. The tiebreaker then reverts to H2H tiebreaker between Iowa and Purdue, which Iowa.

And that's how Iowa can win a tiebreaker against ILL.
 
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guffus said:
If Iowa wins out and finishes 6-3, then Wisc, Minn, Neb, NW will all have at least 4 losses, so those 4 teams will not be involved in any tie.

If Purdue, Iowa, ILL all finish in a 3-way tie, that means Iowa beat Pur, Pur beat ILL and ILL beat Iowa. The next tiebreaker would be divisional records. Iowa would be 5-1 against the West. ILL would be 5-1 against the west if their other losses are against Mich or MSU and Ind. Purdue would be 4-2 so Purdue drops out. The tiebreaker then reverts to H2H, which ILL won. So ILL's 3rd loss can not be to Mich. They would have to lose to NW instead. Then both ILL and Purdue would be 4-2 against the West. Purdue wins the tiebreaker against ILL due to H2H. The tiebreaker then reverts to H2H tiebreaker between Iowa and Purdue, which Iowa.

And that's how Iowa can win a tiebreaker against ILL.
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Thats what I was thinking on who would represent the West in the BTC game. But the way the Big Ten works all 3 schools would be named division champs in a 3 way tie.

A TROPHY!!!!!
 
ssckelley said:
Just have to win out and have Illinois lose 2 more games.

11/5 - Michigan State
11/12 - Purdue
11/19 - @Michigan
11/26 - @Northwestern

I can see Illinois losing 2 more games in that schedule. Granted Iowa wouldn't win any tiebreakers with Illinois so don't go making any Big Ten Championship plans on December 3rd but Iowa would still get a trophy for the trophy case!

Extensions for all the coaches!!!

Not Happening
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I like your optimism, but I could see Iowa’s only remaining win being Nebraska, and that is a toss up at best.

Some fans are putting too much stock in beating Northwestern. They are one of the few teams that we can honestly say is worse than Iowa is right now.

The Iowa offense will rear its ugly head again. It is what it is right now, and beating the Wildcats is not something to use to predict future success (at least based on what we have seen so far this season).
 
HawkeyeFever said:
I like your optimism, but I could see Iowa’s only remaining win being Nebraska, and that is a toss up at best.

Some fans are putting too much stock in beating Northwestern. They are one of the few teams that we can honestly say is worse than Iowa is right now.

The Iowa offense will rear its ugly head again. It is what it is right now, and beating the Wildcats is not something to use to predict future success (at least based on what we have seen so far this season).
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That’s where I’m at.
 
Iowa's offense played almost a near perfect game by Iowa standards and still only scored 33 points against NW. It was the first and probably only time this year that Petras did not see any pressure when he was throwing. Once Petras sees some pressure again, he will revert back to the Petras we all know.

Agree that Iowa winning out is not going to happen, but I think Iowa can still win 2 more games and make it to a bowl, in hopefully what is Brian's last year as offensive coordinater and QB coach.
 
Gosh, maybe Iowa's offensive line is actually starting to play better now that KF suddenly realized that Colby was an absolute sieve at RT, and they are starting to slow things down and get it as a group. I mean, in the history of Iowa football, we have never seen Iowa's OL make marked improvement as the year progresses. Nope. Never. And, as noted, when Petras has time and can set his feet, he can throw a decent ball.

NW is not great, but they took PSU to the wire. They have players. They are a Big Ten West team that has always given Iowa fits and they have a coach who emphasizes defense. Iowa's offense methodically kicked their ass.

I am not predicting Iowa wins out, but if they play like they did on Saturday, they will. I would guess they split the bill on these final four games.
 
ssckelley said:
Thats what I was thinking on who would represent the West in the BTC game. But the way the Big Ten works all 3 schools would be named division champs in a 3 way tie.

A TROPHY!!!!!
Click to expand...

Maybe just for this one year, we could get an alternative version of our B1G West Championship trophy:

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