I know a bunch of folks (me included) are kinda excited about the prospect (however remote it may or may not be) of joining the B10. But, on reflection, just how exciting should it be? I was trying to think of how exciting a home football game would be against each of the B10 schools and how that stacked up against what we have now. So, I decided to rank the 22 teams (11 from B12, 11 from B10) based on how exciting a home game would be. (For the purposes of this, I'm keeping the OU game in Dallas - don't know if that matters or not): 1) OU 2) Michigan 3) tOSU 4) ATM 5) Penn State 6) Nebraska 7) Texas Tech 8) Okie State 9) Wisconsin 10) Minnesota 11) Colorado 12) Iowa 13) Michigan State 14) Kansas State 15) Illinois 16) Northwestern 17) Mizzou 18) Purdue 19) Kansas 20) Baylor 21) Indiana 22) Iowa State (Note: I tried to take out the novelty of playing in the B10 to make it more comparable with the B12. For example, playing Iowa for the first time may be intruiging, but I would expect that excitement would decay quickly. I have 2 big caveats to my list: 1) After the top 12-13 teams, the rest could be put in a bag (except Iowa State, which I think is clearly in last). None of those games would (in an average year) be super exciting games. (Obviously, there are years when Mizzou is a great game or NW might generate some excitement, but in general they aren't that great), 2) I could easily see moving some of the top 10 games up/down. For example, perhaps I'd put Tech above Nebraska or Colorago above Minnesota. The interesting thing, to me, is that the games against the B10 teams are scattered throughout the list rather than taking up a disproportionate share of the upper half. It was a bit unexpected to me. Before making the list, I kinda assumed that the B10 games would be mostly at the top. Thoughts? ______________________________________________
I think that's a pretty fair list, and in fact, once you get past No. 7, I stop having any feeling whatsoever. Except in years when one of those teams is unusually very good, I feel no excitement toward those teams. The only thing I'd say is that I get more excited about playing Nebraska than I would (I think) about playing Penn State and Ohio State. Nebraska has been down a bit but they still carry some football majesty with them.
The 1st 6 I'd say fine, even if you shuffle them, after that for sure Iowa & Wisky over o$u & Tech, then MichSt, why would Colorado be above about 15...
For the near future, I have Penn State above AnM. But as you said, after the novelty wears off, things change. Great list to provoke some thought on these games.
