My preseason B1G West Rankings

StanziUSA

Well-Known Member
1- Northwestern. (7-9 wins) returning champs.
>personally a big fan of Hunter Johnson who should be a better version of Clayton Thorsen. To compliment a sneaky good running back in Bowser.
>Pat Fitzgerald will give them a chance.
- One injury away from scary wildcats to being cute kittens. (Hunter Johnson)

2- Iowa(8-10 wins)
> I think Stanley is the best QB in the B1G his stats say so, other than an average completion percentage. Iowa has the most experience at the QB position in the B1G and that’s huge. Can’t hide a QB.
>They have a roster full of players that I think range from slightly above average B1G players and 1st team B1G players. That tells me Iowa’s got great depth which no other team in the West has.
>Kirk ferentz. Don’t need to say more.
-only questions I have is TE but it’s iowa so oh well we’ll be fine and how will the cash position be as they won’t have an experienced guy in a possible NFL starter in Hooker.

3- Purdue(7-9wins)
>Return a decent QB with experience, if healthy he’s pretty good.
>One of the big tens most electric offenses.
>JB is a great coach along with having Moore who is a dark horse Heisman candidate if on a team like Clemson or even OSU.
-Defense is serviceable at best. Offense might be good enough to make up for it.

4- Nebraska(5-7wins)
>could be 1,2,or3 but their dudes spent their offseason with the weed it looks like.
>Have a potentially great offense.
>They have a good coach.
-They are soft. They are an injury to uncle Rico at QB away from being a 2-4 win team because they are soft in the trenches.

5-Minnesota(6-8wins)
Not very high on Minnesota.
>Uncertainty at QB
>Lack of depth on interior Dline
-could be decent if their QB shows out. Otherwise I think they’ll be average. Again.

6-Wisconsin BADgers(6-8wins)
>Via Twitter their players look more concerned with what Alex Hornibrook says about the wideouts at FSU being better than the ones at WI. Which is probably true.
>honestly screw this team, I know they have had a good run but they have the worst fan base I’ve been around. The only reason their fans like to win is so they can talk shit. The moment their teams suck they jump ship.
>My best version of Colin Cowterd: Paul Chryst is the biggest FAKE ID of a college football HC.
-If Illinois wasn’t the equivalent of a division two team Wisconsin would be 7.
>Johnathan Taylor is good. Yea I said that gross sh*^.

7-Illinois (3-5wins)
>They should swap with northern Illinois until they figure their sh** out as NIU would compete in the B1G better.
>2019:BYE BYE Lovie:(

Honestly let’s hope for the best but expect the worst for Illinois. Haven’t been able to look at Illinois the same since AJE outscored their offense by himself.
 
So, you have NW winning 7-9 games, ahead of Iowa winning 8-10 games?

Iowa has the tougher cross-over schedule of the two, so I'm not sure I get that one.
 
So, you have NW winning 7-9 games, ahead of Iowa winning 8-10 games?

Iowa has the tougher cross-over schedule of the two, so I'm not sure I get that one.
Iowa and NU both won 8 games last year. One went to the west title the other didn’t. So yea Northwestern is #1 until they are dethroned. Do I think they are better in Iowa hell no. But it’s proven that you can win the west with 4 losses. I put win ranges due to how hard the west is to guess this year. Long story short I think Any of the teams that have 8 wins given the competitive nature of the west, should have a shot at the west title. Having Iowa at 8-10 is because I could see Iowa having a crazy magic type 10 win season against this schedule as much as I could see an 8 win season again. Does this help? Totally get the confusion. But I have a method to it.
 
UPDATE: MINN. QB Zack Annexstad is out indefinitely. More questions at the QB for the fighting flecks
 
Football. Sometimes the football team is at least decently successful.
Football is a shit show to predict. The years when “all the pieces are there” are tire fires and the ones where no one expects a winning record (2015 for example) are gems. There are few things in this world more schizophrenic and inexplicable than Iowa football when comparing expectations to results.

This is a year that everyone seems to expect lots of success. Just sayin’...
 
Football is a shit show to predict. The years when “all the pieces are there” are tire fires and the ones where no one expects a winning record (2015 for example) are gems. There are few things in this world more schizophrenic and inexplicable than Iowa football when comparing expectations to results.

This is a year that everyone seems to expect lots of success. Just sayin’...
The ranges are just different. Football almost never falls below average, and also seems more likely from year-to-year to overperform expectations. The best we can hope for from basketball is a decent regular season before a spectacular failure down the stretch and into the Big Ten tournament, followed by possibly winning a Round of 64 game, or a trip to the NIT. When was the last time we walked away from an Iowa basketball season with something to be proud of, or something to reminisce on? Those seasons come more often, though haphazardly, with football. That's what makes football harder to predict. We actually get a result we can be happy with some years, but it's anyone's guess when those years will come. I can confidently predict a disappointing baseketball season with at least 80% accuracy.
 
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Why is everyone sleeping on Wisconsin? There’s no way they end up 6th in the West. They have a stud Freshman QB that could end up starting.
 
The ranges are just different. Football almost never falls below average, and also seems more likely from year-to-year to overperform expectations. The best we can hope for from basketball is a decent regular season before a spectacular failure down the stretch and into the Big Ten tournament, followed by possibly winning a Round of 64 game, or a trip to the NIT. When was the last time we walked away from an Iowa basketball season with something to be proud of, or something to reminisce on? Those seasons come more often, though haphazardly, with football. That's what makes football harder to predict. We actually get a result we can be happy with some years, but it's anyone's guess when those years will come. I can confidently predict a disappointing baseketball season with at least 80% accuracy.
I don’t disagree entirely, but my point was about expectations vs. actual results rather than what their average performance is.

Generally the years we have lots of success are those when no one expects or predicts it, and when people say “this is the year” we fizzle. There is some homerism affecting the latter for sure, but not entirely.

I guess what I’m getting at is especially with this team, predictions of performance based on a given roster of kids have always been b.s.
You can make a prediction that Clemson or Georgia is going to win 11 games and be pretty confident, same with Illinois only winning 2. But it’s a fools errand to crystal ball a team and coach who’s floated a little more a game over .500 for the last two decades.
 
1- Northwestern. (7-9 wins) returning champs..

Stanzi, I don't agree with your prediction but god bless you for saying "returning champs" and not "defending champs".

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They got destroyed by the Gophers late season on their own field. But yeah, boogy man. Run scared.

Wrong. The game is in Madison. Iowa fears no one but you better give them respect or you will get your ass handed to you. Wisconsin is Iowa's biggest game of the season, every year.
 

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