POST WEEK SIX BOWL PROJECTIONS: OLD FIGHT

At some point, you just have to start believing that Ohio State and or Michigan State isn’t going to escape the season with only one loss. For the second week in a row and fourth time this season, Ohio State looked less than impressive against inferior competition. How can a team look bad when they ultimately beat their opponent by 20+ points, you ask? Well, you probably shouldn’t be tied with a team that is actually coached by a walking corpse in the third quarter. Ever.

When Maryland isn’t the butt of the Big Ten’s jokes, Rutgers is (thus, Buttgers). And it was Rutgers who took Michigan State to the wire and ceded a heartbreaking touchdown in the final few minutes to give Michigan State the lead. Rutgers would have an unlikely chance to tie the game up unless they spike the ball on 4th down, which no one would ever do:

Rutgers' interim HC claims he called for game-ending fourth down spike http://t.co/YLFuJPX44z http://t.co/4loJuLJBvH

— SB✯Nation CFB (@SBNationCFB) October 11, 2015

Welp. Ohio State and Michigan State continue to be undefeated and top 10 teams. But what happens when they stop playing teams that aren’t habitual bedshitters?

TCU didn’t look much better against Zombie Bill Snyder and needed to storm back from a 35-17 deficit at halftime to beat Kansas State 52-45. Baylor slaughtered Kansas and continues to crush overmatched competition, something no other team in the top 5 has done. It’s true that they’ve yet to play a team with a defensive pulse (no, really, look at the national ranks of the defenses they’ve played) but they have yet to let another team put them in a position to question their legitimacy. They also had the fattest fat guy touchdown I have ever seen:

Utah beat Cal. Cal shouldn’t have even been ranked in the first place. Sorry, not sorry.

Florida’s QB was suspended for PED use so you can go ahead and count them out. At least, you can count them out until they do something wacky like beat LSU this Saturday. Alabama struggled against Arkansas, but at least this happened:

Bret Bielema appears to instigate a penalty on an Alabama player, flops and celebrates. http://t.co/S4xrEkN7wj pic.twitter.com/TkB2ufUUNb

— SB✯Nation CFB (@SBNationCFB) October 12, 2015

It’s hard to legitimately suggest this man be Iowa’s next head coach when he continues to be the biggest pile of shit in college football.

The ACC is basically Florida State and Clemson. Clemson is better.

There was only G5 team ranked in the AP last week. Now there are three and two are receiving the 26th and 27th most votes.

Sitting down and looking the remaining Big Ten schedule you have to face some hard truths about Nebraska and Minnesota. The Cornhuskers are currently 2-4 and a road trip to Minneapolis looms. If they win, they’d still have Purdue and Rutgers on the schedule and would only need an upset win to make it to 6-6. I think they beat Minnesota because (sigh) holy shit Mike Riley needs to win a game and it just can’t go on like this. They’ll also upset a team along the way (cough Northwestern cough) and barely make it to a bowl.

If Minnesota should win, Nebraska’s bowl chances are shot and the Golden Gophers will have to scrape their way into a bowl game by beating Illinois. And beating Illinois isn’t even a sure thing. I’m just giving them the benefit of the doubt because the game is in Minneapolis. Remember when Minnesota was going to be a contender in the West? Yeah, no. The greatest football played in the Jerry Kill era was Minnesota winning 8 games. This is your life, Goldy.

What if Michigan beats Michigan State, Michigan State beats Ohio State and Ohio State beats Michigan? Does it go to Michigan State because they have the better overall record and the tiebreaker over Brutus? I thought I didn’t have to worry about tiebreakers anymore after we got a championship game.

The Rules:

• Four teams are chosen for the College Football Playoff.
• Six bowls rotate for the semifinals: Rose, Sugar, Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, and Peach.
• The bowls hosting the semifinals this year are the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl.
• As the Rose Bowl is not hosting a semi-final, it will select the Big Ten Champion. However, if the Big Ten Champion is a playoff team, the Rose Bowl will select a Big Ten replacement.
• The highest ranked champion from the Group of Five mid-majors (AAC, C-USA, MAC, MWC, Sun Belt) is guaranteed a spot in the non-playoff bowls if they fail to make the playoff.
• The Big Ten has a six-year contract with the eight non-playoff bowl games (aside from the Pinstripe, which is an eight-year contract). Per the terms of that contract, the bowls are to select at least five different Big Ten schools over six years.
• The non-playoff bowl games are informally broken down into three tiers. Tier 1: Holiday, Citrus and Outback. Tier 2: Pinstripe, Music City/TaxSlayer and Foster Farms. Tier 3: Quick Lane and Heart of Dallas/Armed Forces.
• Over a six-year agreement, signed in 2013, the Big Ten and ACC must appear in three Music City and three TaxSlayer Bowls.
• Over a six-year agreement, signed in 2013, the Big Ten and Big 12 must appear in three Heart of Dallas and three Armed Forces Bowls. In 2015 the Big 10 will play in the Armed Forces Bowl.