What a day, right? I assume that many of you have been following the lives of 17 and 18 year old kids today, which on any other day would be absolutely strange... And as our friends at BHGP say, "Caring is Creepy." Still, one of the things we like to do at OTE is try and give everyone a spot to gloat taunt discuss current B1G football events with other fans. Let's go ahead and consider this your official, "OTE Nighttime NLOI Recap Open Thread." You know, because nothing's more ridiculous than going home after work and discussing the muscular builds of teenagers on the internet, right?
The way I see it, as a conference, the B1G got worked by the national rankings outside of both Ohio State and Michigan finishing in the Top 10. I do not subscribe to the major rankings websites because a) let's be honest, it really is weird to obsess about teenagers who may or may not be on the playing field ever, and b) I'm cheap... Here are the rankings I could find (subject to change by the time this thing publishes) (no whining):
Note: All numbers are from the interweb. Links are Rivals, Scout, and 24/7.
| Rivals (overall) | Rivals B1G | Scout (overall) | Scout B1G | 24/7 (overall) | 24/7 B1G | Composite | B1G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio State | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Michigan | 6 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 5.7 | 2 |
| Nebraska | 24 | 3 | 49 | 7 | 27 | 3 | 33.3 | 3 |
| Michigan State | 40 | 5 | 36 | 3 | 37 | 4 | 37.7 | 4 |
| Iowa | 41 | 6 | 41 | 4 | 38 | 5 | 40 | 5 |
| Penn State | 50 | 7 | 47 | 6 | 39 | 6 | 45.3 | 6 |
| Purdue | 34 | 4 | 51 | 8 | 54 | 7 | 46.3 | 7 |
| Northwestern | 9 | 45 | 5 | 60 | 10 | 52.5 | 8 | |
| Indiana | 11 | 52 | 9 | 59 | 9 | 55.5 | 9 | |
| Minnesota | 12 | 65 | 11 | 58 | 8 | 61.5 | 10 | |
| Wisconsin | 8 | 61 | 10 | 65 | 11 | 63 | 11 | |
| Illinois | 10 | 67 | 12 | 69 | 12 | 68 | 12 |
Rivals did not rank Northwestern, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Illinois in their top 50, and from what I could find out, I cannot access those without paying money. Again, if you really want to know what they are, you probably are a fan of said team and could inform me in the comments. I did find Rival's overall conference rankings and they seem to just drop Wisconsin and move everyone up a bit. Surprisingly, they also seem to be the only group that does not see Illinois as the worst class of all.
In the squishy middle, you have Nebraska, MSU, Iowa, PSU, Purdue, and Northwestern all kind of being the same team. While the composite overall rankings vary over 20 positions, those teams all seem to kind of get ranked around the same area. Interestingly, outside of OSU and Michigan, there are no consensus conference ranks among the three major outlets. That seemed a bit odd to me, but I'm sure a lot has to do with quantity versus quality. Anyhow, that's all the analysis you get from me today. On to the comments for more conversations and feel free to let us all know what you think of your team's success. Happy NLOI Day!!!