Strength and incompetence, often irrationality, and almost certainly idiocy prevail in numbers. A direct correlation exists between the size of a group and the speed in which someone else needs to run in the opposite direction of them.

So it’s always a puzzle why fans of schools in the SEC chant their home conference initials after a beatdown of a team from another Power 5 conference. Conference pride finds no home in the B1G. Michigan is still “That school up north” and who can forget the ingenuity of Hoosier fans for referring to the university in West Lafayette “Pur-don’t.” The subtle digs align with the inter-conference bickering between Alabama and Auburn. Same goes for Ole Miss and Mississippi State, but when push comes to shove, conference pride emits from the SEC.

Hath the B1G no pride?

I get it.

Rutgers, Maryland, and Nebraska. Shelf the conversation of Commissioner Jim Delany borrowing a tactical move from Prince Akeem to determine the conference’s geographical boundaries. Any B1G defenders need to pay close attention to the first inter-conference heavyweight prize fight Saturday night in Happy Valley.

It’s the conference’s only chance to correct the ills of its absence in the College Football Playoff last year. Your hopes are pinned to either Ohio State or Penn State. In any other scenario the conference settles for all the adulation that comes from one of the New Year’s Six games that do not serve as a playoff semifinal.

The notion to boil down an entire conference to one game in late September before Wisconsin plays at The Big House, or Michigan State harrasses Ohio State into a series of ugly turnovers is anticlimactic. But really, what other chance exists outside of the two most dynamic teams in the conference?

Not to say Ohio State is in a must-win scenario. The Buckeyes’ win over TCU at a (cough, cough) neutral site buys them a slight margin of error. If they stay within 10 of Penn State and run the table in the B1G (playing without defensive lineman and two-legged WMD Nick Bosa), the Playoff Committee of Kowtowing to Large Fan Bases would still consider them for entry like they did a one-loss Alabama team last year.

Penn State isn’t blessed with the same sort of forgiveness as Ohio State, but the program has the good fortune of hosting almost all of their tough conference competition. Survive the Buckeyes and the stretch through the rest of the season looks a touch rosier, especially with Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan State at home and only Michigan on the road. Though they don’t have the appeal to survive one loss and still make the playoff, the regular season schedule gives them the better chance to go undefeated.

After the Buckeyes and the Nittany Lions, the next round of B1G representatives lack the same sort of appeal. Wisconsin took top billing on Week 3’s Disappointment Day with the home loss to BYU. Sure the Badgers beat Iowa and credit quarterback Alex Hornibrook, he led the Badgers down the field on the game-winning drive with relative ease, but can you see them beating the East’s representative in the title game? If you can, consult an opthamologist, your issues extend beyond a few squirts of Clear Eyes.

Is there any chance Michigan goes undefeated the rest of the way? Please explain. Same goes for Michigan State. Neither team exhibits the big-play capability necessary when they need a score late.

In no other algorithm or series of fortunate events could a member from the B1G occupy a spot in the College Football Playoff. The hope of a conference hinges on the two teams set to do battle in  Pennsylvania Saturday night.