Also, I feel it is rarely laid out like this ... but here are our current wins by category, with a quick reminder of how the rules work:
QUAD RULES FOR NET RANKINGS
Quad 1: #1-30 Home, #1-50 Neutral, #1-75 Away
Quad 2: #31-75 Home, #51-100 Neutral, #76-135 Away
Quad 3: #76-170 Home, #101-200 Neutral, #135-240 Away
Quad 4: #161-353 Home, #201-353 Neutral, #241-353 Away
Quad 1: 2-6
vs. #5 UCLA (Las Vegas, NV)
vs. #8 Texas (New York, NY)
Quad 2: 4-1
vs. #41 Ohio State
vs. #45 Michigan State
at #77 Wisconsin
at #96 Nebraska
Quad 3: 4-0
vs. #77 Wisconsin
vs. #96 Nebraska
vs. #98 Syracuse
at #235 Minnesota
Quad 4: 6-0
vs. #259 Kansas City
vs. #335 Alabama A&M
vs. #336 Lindenwood
vs. #342 Bethune-Cookman
vs. #348 Eastern Illinois
vs. #354 Monmouth
A Few Notes...
- Let's get the obvious out of the way ... it REALLY sucks to have played more than well enough to win in Iowa City but still have enough mistakes cost us a two-point, Quad 1 game.
- We REALLY need Wisconsin to stabilize and get into the top 75! Going from a Quad 2 and Quad 3 vs. UW to a Quad 1 and a Quad 2 is invaluable for our resume.
- It would be really nice if at least one of MSU and OSU could randomly get hot (besides our remaining game in Columbus) and sneak into the top 30; neither is THAT far away right now. OSU in Columbus will be a Quad 1 game no matter what, but it would be so nice to get at least one of these into Quad 1 territory for our wins in Champaign ... highly unlikely, though.
- It's hard to believe they are THIS bad, but our road win vs. Minnesota is at risk of actually somehow becoming a QUAD 4 win if they slip down below #240...
Now, as is talked about a lot more, on to the remaining games, broken up in the same way...
Quad 1
at #4 Purdue
vs. #19 Rutgers
at #22 Indiana
at #41 Ohio State
at #58 Penn State
vs. #68 Michigan
Quad 2
vs. #52 Northwestern
Quad 3
Quad 4
vs. #235 Minnesota
Even More Notes...
- Do! Not! Lose! To! Minnesota!! Probably really need to beat both Northwestern and Michigan at home, as well ... while not "bad losses," Michigan could become a Quad 3 game theoretically, and we need to stack up wins.
- This will sound weird to the old-timers or more casual fans, but that Rutgers home game is H-U-G-E and considering it's a 1:00 pm Saturday home game, I REALLY hope the crowd is lit in Champaign! Let's show them what the House of 'Paign has been doing long before anyone outside of Jersey ever gave two thoughts about the RAC!
- While any of those road wins would be huge, I really have Ohio State circled. I am a bit scarred by the PSU and Indiana losses at home, but we looked like the CLEARLY better team against the Buckeyes. A Quad 1 opportunity in Columbus frankly sounds too good to be true.
- With all that said, winning the games "we should" (i.e., the home games and stealing one of the road games) will only get us a decent seed. We will need to both (A) not trip up anywhere where we will be the favorite and (B) steal at least one extra road game, preferably in Bloomington or West Lafayette, to really climb up that seed line. And we can do it ... if we bring a similar effort and intensity as we did in Iowa City and just combine it with fewer mental lapses and silly fouls, we can get red hot going into March.
I feel like I am exceptionally optimistic about this team after Saturday even with a loss ... at least in my eyes, we are starting to develop chemistry and the effort was there. I was genuinely proud of our team. If we play like that in Bloomington and West Lafayette, we are at least going to give ourselves a chance. If we play with that effort and it happens to be a night like Mayer's at Wisconsin or God willing Shannon vs. UCLA, we will win.
I-L-L!
