That was who I was going after,
@Wooly. This would be a good podcast debate. Here's why I have tOSU above PSU
@whiteyc_77 :
YPP is nice, but few offenses have been more explosive than PSU. Only 6 teams are top 10 nationally in 20+, 30+ and 40+ yard plays from scrimmage: Western Kentucky, Louisville, Oklahoma, South Florida, Alabama and...you guessed it - Penn State
That's very cherry-picked. I'd guess total YPP is much more correlated with W/L and quality of offense than explosive plays.
Speaking of YPP, if you look at conference games (removing the gawdawful non-con schedule that Washington had) they clock in at #24 in Defensive YPP. PSU comes in at #9.
Yes, playing in the B1G definitely helped that. Total offenses faced in conference below.
PSU/UW
tOSU
#24/ California
#11
Michigan
#49/ Wazzu
#17
Indiana
#53/ Oregon
#19
Michigan State
#75/ USC
#30
Purdue
#80/ Utah
#58
Maryland
#93/ Arizona
#66
Minnesota
#106/ Arizona State
#81
Iowa
#119/ Oregon State
#105
Rutgers
#128/ Stanford
#101
Offensive YPP against conference foes? Washington is still very, very strong at #5. PSU moves up to #26, at the same YPP as KKKlimpson.
Tennessee is two spots up, but your point stands.
2nd in the nation in TFL and 12th in sacks
This is good, but also #103 in TFL allowed and #51 in sacks allowed.
Interesting you bring up KKKlimpson when it comes to close calls and looking flat out unimpressive. KKKlimpson had 6 games decided by one score (5-1 in those games). anOSU had 5 such games (4-1 in those games). Unimpressive? KKKlimpson had a better record against the spread than anOSU also.
Fair enough. I'm probably biased because I watched more Clemson than Ohio State this year (can't do the lower half of B1G games, it's amazing that the ACC is more entertaining now). The NC State game sticks out in my mind, as that's one they really should have lost with a missed chip shot at the last second.
"i don't want to hear any complaining about washington's ooc schedule, especially" PSU gets dinged for having 2 losses, despite one of those being on the road to the S&P+ (and fringe top 25) #26 team. Why should Washington get a pass for playing a creampuff OOC, while others get dinged for losing at a significantly more difficult OOC opponent on the road?
We're really comparing the motive of the schools to schedule Pitt and Rutgers here. Washington scheduled the Rutgers series in 2014. Rutgers went 8-4 that year with a win at Washington State and had very good success (two 9 win seasons) in the early part of the decade. The Pitt series was scheduled in 2011, and they were about the same as Rutgers: sporadic success but a decent reputation. They aren't getting a "pass" for anything. They didn't know Rutgers was going to be bad, like Penn State had no idea Pitt would be decent. It's not Washington's fault Rutgers was bad. The committee is probably going to stand firm on this platform of you should schedule difficult teams, which I like, but Washington did not schedule 3 FBS schools. To me it's perfectly reasonable for a team with three non-conference games to schedule 2 warm-ups and an FBS opponent.
The schedule should be looked at as a whole. There is a laser focus on the RULES IS RULES OOC thing. Why isn't anyone talking about how Washington, after playing Colorado, will have played every team in the Pac-12 with a winning record? Penn State ducked Nebraska and Northwestern (6-3 and 5-4) and got to play Michigan State, Rutgers, and Purdue who combined for one conference win. Washington only missed 2-7 UCLA in conference play. That is pretty significant in my opinion and makes up for whatever their schedule lacked with Rutgers vs Pitt. Why isn't that being discussed?
Hey, Idaho is 7-4!!!!!!
Fairly certain that most would agree that the B1G East is the toughest division in football this year. See if you can figure out who won the tiebreaker and gets to represent that division in their conference shampship game?
That's the narrative but Maryland, Michigan State, and Rutgers are very bad teams. Indiana lost to Wake OOC and the best team they beat all year was Maryland. It's a three team division. Also Ohio State missed Iowa (who beat Michigan), and Penn State/Michigan missed Nebraska.
Again, if Penn State beat Pitt I'd put them in in a heartbeat over Ohio State. The playoff is for a national championship. Ohio State crushed top ten Oklahoma.
1. Losses: Michigan beat Penn State 49-10 and PSU was outgained 515 (season high in yards for Michigan) to 191 (season low 191 yards for Penn State). A thorough beating. I don't think a team that gets beaten that solidly should be in the playoff (felt the same way about tOSU two years ago). Penn State beat Ohio State in pretty fluky fashion. Outgained 413-276 and had a game-winning field goal returned for a touchdown. It was 21-7 in the fourth quarter. PSU lost an evenly played game with Pitt, but they lost. Ohio State struggled against Northwestern and Michigan State but pulled them out.
2. Penn State lost two games. If they're both one loss teams and Penn State beat Ohio State, I'd definitely have PSU over OSU. Penn State lost twice. Head-to-head only matters for the conference championship system, which I don't recognize as a viable way to determine a champion anyway (and you know I've always been consistent on this). This is the national championship, not the Big Ten Championship.
Or Northwestern, who lost to Illinois State? Minnesota? All very average teams.