IU and the Rest of the Season

Indiana has a team too and it is a road game.  This is a difference with Harbaugh and the staff:  they will not let up.

Maybe it will be possible to judge the mood in the stadium.  Is close good enough?  53,000 seats is still a lot, but so is five years and Kevin Wilson’s team has not won a game in the Big Ten this year.  It is their last home game.  They can get creamed by Michigan and finish out with wins over Maryland and Purdue to be bowl eligible.

Apparently Wilson has the same affliction Rich Rod had at Michigan:  an unusually-bad defense.

Michigan is not going to let up.  We’ll see what they have dialed-up in the secondary, like maybe some actual interceptions?

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Michigan’s last quarter of the regular season will be a lot more fun than Indiana’s.  The brain trust that pieced together the Big Ten must have had this in mind.  Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, and Ohio State are going to fight it out over the next three weeks.

Penn State has the easiest schedule with just two games, M at home and MSU in East Lansing, but they already have three losses.

Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State all have very similar schedules remaining—two tough games and one easy one.  Ohio State’s schedule is the toughest, with both Michigan and Michigan State left.  We’ll see how Penn State holds up; they will have a big impact on the division.

(The Big Ten is weird.  Rutgers, Maryland, Indiana, Minnesota, and Purdue cannot compete in the league.  Iowa and Wisconsin do not play the best teams in the East in the regular season.  Northwestern, 38-0 loss to Michigan, Nebraska, and Illinois?)

Assuming Michigan State loses again—a real possibility with Maryland, Ohio State, and Penn State remaining—Michigan controls its own destiny.  Should the Big Ten’s on the field champion go to the national playoff? 

Winning the Big Ten title would be fantastic.