Well, another week in the B1G, another slate of games.
As always, I checked ESPN's scoreboard to see the entry price (As Low As) for each game. And, as we all know, these values do not reflect the extra taxes or fees of which we're accustom.
Because there's two bye weeks this year two of the 18 B1G teams are off duty this week.
There's TWO $100+ big ticket items this week, and the rest are duds. (Oregon and Washington are off)
First let's assess fan excitement -- who's in a bowl, who's close to a bowl, and Purdue.
| Bowl Bound | 1 win away | 2 wins away | Purdue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oregon | Nebraska | MSU | Purdue |
| Illinois | TCUN | Maryland | |
| Indiana | USC | Northwestern | |
| Iowa | Wisconsin | UCLA | |
| Minnesota | |||
| OSU!!! | |||
| PSU | |||
| Rutgers | |||
| Washington |
(Bold = still fighting for a playoff spot)
With that in mind, every non-Purdue team is still fighting for that game #13. Will that increase fan excitement? Or, if the team isn't 'bold' it'll be a who cares affair this late in the season.
| Home | Away | As Low As | notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maryland | Iowa | $4 | ha! |
| Rutgers | Illinois | $18 | |
| MSU | Purdue | $19 | Friday |
| TCUN | Northwestern | $24 | need a win for a bowl, last chance for both |
| Nebraska | Wisconsin | $28 | Nebraska, gotta go 1/2 for a bowl, 7 year drought on the line |
| Minnesota | PSU | $30 | every game is a playoff eliminator for PSU |
| OSU!!! | Indiana | $100 | who'd of thunk, an actual B1G Semi |
| UCLA | USC | $150 | a real rivalry game, why aren't they doing this next week? |
- $4 division
- Maryland sucks, they're 4-6, fans stopped caring.
- $18-$30 division
- 5 games and only 1 contains a playoff team, and PSU is on the road.
- B1G fans aren't too excited about 'ok' teams -- it's a top-heavy league and these games feature the fodder.
- And, the Friday night game is a dud... anything Purdue related is a dud.
- $100 Game
- #2 OSU (9-1) vs #5 Indiana (10-0) -- NOBODY predicted this before the season. It's BOTH a possible playoff eliminator and definitely a B1G Semi game -- the winner likely goes to face Oregon.
- Big Deal, surprised it's not more, to be honest.
- $150 game -- Pac12 throwback classic
- UCLA @ USC -- CFB may be changing, this rivalry was preserved.
