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B1G teams highlight USA Today Playoff Projection
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As expected, the postseason projects well for the B1G.
In USA Today’s weekly playoff projection, Ohio State and Michigan State are still the top two teams in the field. This time, the Buckeyes received eight first-place votes and had 39 points while the Spartans had two first-place votes and were a distant second with 22 points.
Those, however, weren’t the only B1G schools to crack the field.
No. 16 Northwestern got a lone fourth-place vote to sneak into the 11th and final spot of the field. The Wildcats, which rank third in the country in scoring defense, climbed in both polls each week of the regular season. They haven’t been to a bowl game since 2012.
Ole Miss and Utah, which beat Michigan to open the season, were the other two teams to make the playoff projection.
Here’s how the voting shook out:
Its 13-person panel is based on the College Football Playoff selection committee’s model and includes Timanus, former FBS coaches Tommy Bowden, Rich Brooks and Jim Grobe, former FBS athletic directors Bill Byrne and Jim Livengood, Michigan State men’s basketball coach and football aficionado Tom Izzo, WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross and USA TodaySports college sports staff members Nicole Auerbach, Paul Myerberg, George Schroeder, Daniel Uthman and Dan Wolken.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.