I cut your very good post down to just this, so that I could say "I think this way often."
Remember when the Big Ten was 10 teams and you could play everyone once in football and twice in basketball?
Was that about perfect or what?
I'm worried about the early season injuries and that gauntlet from mid-January to mid-February
9 - 3 non-con
15 - 5 conference, conference title
24 - 8 regular season total
I think it is fantastic that the staff isn't waiting until late February to show the team what it takes to play and beat the best. You can't just flip a switch, you have to build.
I'm a little conflicted on this point, since our offense has been so efficient. That seems to suggest that the guys need to practice and play together, as apparently our offense is different than others. The difference comes mostly I think from patience and willingness to work for the best...
Thanks for that comment. I wondered why mine said "no NJ players". My VPN is linked to NJ today. Wouldn't have bothered to figure out the why of "no NJ". Because really, who cares? lol
I think the evidence of how many fans want this will be in the pools. How many pools will ignore those first 12 games and ask you to pick only the 64? I predict that 99 % of pools will ignore the play ins and pools will continue to start on Thursday.