Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays

You know YOU control that right?
My thoughts exactly, which is why blowing the Duke game stinks so much.Based on what I have seen out of our team so far, I truly cannot decide if I like or absolutely hate how our schedule breaks down by week, haha. It almost entirely depends on just how much the defense can improve as the season goes on.
You can make the argument that we might as well get our butt whoopin' in Columbus out of the way in Week Four, and a home game against Purdue is the best reasonable "medicine" we could hope for now that conference play is underway. However, if the POTENTIAL is there for our defense to at least get to the point where it is serviceable, I worry that an absolute embarrassment on Saturday could shatter our confidence.
Either way, if we assume a likely loss at OSU and a (HOPEFULLY likely...) win vs. Purdue to follow, count me as incredibly nervous for us to head to East Lansing with a 3-2 record. With a bye week looming, I feel like that MSU game could be a bit of a make-or-break stand for this football team. If we fall to 3-3 with Oregon coming up, momentum could take an awful turn. However, if we can get to 4-2 with a bye week on the horizon, the path to a decent season at least becomes more visible, ESPECIALLY if we can avoid looking utterly outmatched vs. OSU or Oregon. The thought of Fitz hyping his guys up to deliver a momentum-killing death blow to our team literally makes me want to vomit, so let's not let that happen!
PurdueI took each teams current budget for this year and calculated each team's wins over the past 2 years to find out how much it costs per win. This isn't perfect because this is a one year budget and I'm calculating wins over a 2 year period. My goal wasn't to find out the exact cost per win, but just to compare who's paying the least and most for their wins.
Rank Team Budget 2024 W 2025 W Total $/Win 1 Duke $10.5M 9 9 18 $1.17M 2 Iowa State $12.5M 11 8 19 $1.32M 3 Cincinnati $11.5M 5 7 12 $1.92M 4 Arizona $12.5M 4 9 13 $1.92M 5 Minnesota $15.5M 8 8 16 $1.94M 6 Houston $14.0M 4 10 14 $2.00M 7 Iowa $17.0M 8 9 17 $2.00M 8 SMU $21.0M 11 9 20 $2.10M 9 Kansas State $16.5M 9 6 15 $2.20M 10 Pitt $16.5M 7 8 15 $2.20M 11 Utah $18.0M 5 11 16 $2.25M 12 Arizona State $21.5M 11 8 19 $2.26M 13 BYU $27.0M 11 12 23 $2.35M 14 Illinois $22.5M 10 9 19 $2.37M 15 Wake Forest $16.0M 4 9 13 $2.46M 16 Washington $19.5M 6 9 15 $2.60M 17 Boston College $10.5M 7 1 8 $2.62M 18 Louisville $24.5M 9 9 18 $2.72M 19 Indiana $37.5M 11 16 27 $2.78M 20 TCU $25.0M 9 9 18 $2.78M 21 Virginia $22.5M 5 11 16 $2.81M 22 Colorado $17.5M 9 3 12 $2.92M 23 Syracuse $19.0M 10 3 13 $2.92M 24 Georgia $34.0M 11 12 23 $2.96M 25 UCF $13.5M 4 5 9 $3.00M 26 Baylor $20.0M 8 5 13 $3.08M 27 Kansas $15.5M 5 5 10 $3.10M 28 Penn State $31.0M 13 7 20 $3.10M 29 Cal $21.0M 6 7 13 $3.23M 30 Vanderbilt $27.5M 7 10 17 $3.24M 31 Missouri $29.5M 10 8 18 $3.28M 32 Georgia Tech $26.5M 7 9 16 $3.31M 33 Rutgers $21.5M 7 5 12 $3.58M 34 Notre Dame $43.5M 14 10 24 $3.62M 35 Clemson $31.0M 10 7 17 $3.65M 36 Ole Miss $43.5M 10 13 23 $3.78M 37 NC State $27.5M 6 8 14 $3.93M 38 Ohio State $51.5M 14 12 26 $3.96M 39 Oregon $51.5M 13 13 26 $3.96M 40 Alabama $40.0M 9 11 20 $4.00M 41 West Virginia $20.0M 6 4 10 $4.00M 42 Oklahoma $32.5M 6 10 16 $4.06M 43 Miami $47.5M 10 13 23 $4.13M 44 Texas Tech $41.5M 8 12 20 $4.15M 45 Northwestern $23.5M 4 7 11 $4.27M 46 Michigan $37.5M 8 9 17 $4.41M 47 Texas $51.5M 13 10 23 $4.48M 48 Tennessee $42.0M 10 8 18 $4.67M 49 North Carolina $23.5M 6 4 10 $4.70M 50 USC $38.0M 7 9 16 $4.75M 51 Nebraska $33.5M 7 7 14 $4.79M 52 Texas A&M $47.5M 8 11 19 $5.00M 53 Michigan State $23.0M 5 4 9 $5.11M 54 Stanford $18.0M 3 4 7 $5.14M 55 South Carolina $34.0M 9 4 13 $5.23M 56 Kentucky $24.0M 4 5 9 $5.33M 57 Arkansas $25.5M 7 2 9 $5.67M 58 Oklahoma State $11.5M 3 1 4 $5.75M 59 LSU $47.5M 9 7 16 $5.94M 60 Florida $36.0M 8 4 12 $6.00M 61 Maryland $25.0M 4 4 8 $6.25M 62 Virginia Tech $30.0M 6 3 9 $6.67M 63 Auburn $33.5M 5 5 10 $6.70M 64 UCLA $27.5M 5 3 8 $6.88M 65 Wisconsin $31.0M 5 4 9 $6.89M 66 Florida State $26.0M 2 5 7 $7.43M 67 Mississippi State $29.0M 2 5 7 $8.29M 68 Purdue $16.5M 1 2 3 $11.00M