Two weeks later...
Hasn't been the best fortnight for Oklahoma, good times if you're a Cowboys fan though. Texas is the clear Big Twelve front-runner now.
Alabama did beat LSU, but it would always be better to see a game end without an injury to a key player (LSU's Daniels). LSU's offense might have been unstoppable otherwise.
I agree on 12 teams being too many for the playoffs, and it being a shame that the PAC-12 is down to the PAC-2. Stanford on the Atlantic Coast, what has the world come to? Personally, I agree with Connor Stalions, the right number of teams for the playoffs is 8. You can have a bad game early, or lose a game because your opponent advance-scouted your signs, and still have a chance to avenge it, but it's not every Power 5 team with two or fewer losses.
Speaking of which, the game I'm most interested in this week is Penn State versus Michigan. Penn State's new QB seemed to finally find his comfort zone against Maryland, and it will be curious to see Michigan play an opponent who is good without the advantage of knowing which play they're calling. The only team to beat them last year was TCU, who
changed their signals before the game and gave dummy signals to throw off Michigan. Everyone else was playing with an arm tied behind their back. Now that Penn State presumably has all-new signals for the game that Michigan won't know, and a good team, they might have a fighting chance.
I'm not sad about the demise of divisions in the Big Ten though. Unlike the SEC, the Big Ten's divisions have been lopsided for most of a decade, since Wisconsin was last really good. The top three have been PSU, OSU, and Michigan for years (and MSU for a couple years in the mid-2010s), and they're all in the East. Along with Rutgers and Indiana, who have generally been terrible, though Rutgers is having a good year, and Maryland, who's been only slightly better on average. Literally ten years in a row a team that's currently in the East has won the Big Ten Championship game. Some years Wisconsin has put up a decent challenge, but I'd rather just have the top two teams than have a 12-0 team play an 8-4 team instead of an 11-1 or 10-2 team because the divisions are uneven.
If Nebraska were still 1999 Nebraska, I could see divisions being fun. I'm still hoping to see Iowa in the last division-based Big Ten Championship with their stout defense, even though give their results versus Penn State I know it's unlikely to be competitive. But I don't think anyone else would be either. Wisconsin looked only slightly better against Ohio State. Minnesota was blown out by Michigan, by enough that they can't just blame their signs being stolen, lost to Illinois, and should have lost to Iowa. So why not have the best punter and punt returner in the conference play in the championship game?
In the end I think whether to have divisions depends on the conference. At least as long as Georgia remains good, the SEC could keep divisions even being a bit west-heavy, and have a competitive championship.
