Athlon Sports makes 'outrageous' predictions for B1G in 2017
Most of the folks making realistic predictions have come to pretty similar conclusions when it comes to the B1G: Ohio State wins the East, Wisconsin conquers the West and the Buckeyes claim a conference championship and head to the College Football Playoff.
That’s pretty logical. And it’s probably a pretty safe bet, considering the amount of talent those two programs return. It’s kind of the “yeah, that’s probably how it’ll turn out,” approach.
What if someone wanted to spice things up, though? What if someone wanted to go for some unconventional, even outrageous, predictions? Well, Athlon Sports took care of that.
The site took on a different approach, trying to come up with some of the wildest – yet somewhat plausible – situations that could arise out of the B1G this year. What did they come up with?
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Here are the five outrageous predictions Athlon made:
- Michigan loses four games but beats Ohio State
- Penn State runs the table in the regular season
- Minnesota starts 8-0 and wins the B1G West
- Purdue goes bowling
- Michigan State wins one game and the Dantonio era ends
As crazy as all five of those may sound, only two really seem crazy. Purdue getting to a bowl game and Michigan State winning just one game. But Athlon explained itself on those predictions:
On Michigan State:
That’s right – one game. After opening the season with a win against Bowling Green, I don’t see another team on Sparty’s schedule that doesn’t have more talent until you get to Rutgers. And by the time that game comes around, the young Scarlet Knights will be an improved team excited for the future. The Spartans will be broken, having fallen from the top of the Big Ten mountain to the very bottom of the Power 5 ranks in only two seasons. Dantonio will be let go, and the Michigan State administration will be tasked with hiring a coach with both the ability and the desire to rebuild a program in the same state and division as Jim Harbaugh. That’s going to be a tough sell.
On Purdue:
Why not? David Blough might be the most underrated quarterback in the country. Markell Jones is a prototypical workhorse running back. The offensive line has a nice mix of experience and potential and the starting tight end and receivers are all seasoned upperclassmen. The defense is led by one of the most experienced linebacking corps in the conference. This team can beat Ohio, Missouri, Rutgers and Illinois every day of the week. That’s four victories. I believe the Boilermakers can split against Iowa, Indiana, Northwestern and Nebraska. Pack your bags, Purdue fans. You’re going to Detroit for the holidays! (That’s not a punishment. Detroit is where the Quick Lane Bowl is played.)
There’s still a pretty big talent gap between Purdue and the rest of the conference. There aren’t many winnable games on the schedule, either.
And as for Michigan State, they may not return to glory, per se, but it’d be hard to believe that the Spartans don’t show some improvement after that dreadful 3-9 campaign a year ago.
We’ll all find out in a few weeks.