December 2, 2017 v4 p59
The final week of the regular season brings all of the traditional rivalry/trophy games. This is a great way to bring an end to the college football season.
detroitnews
Michigan – The Wolverines jumped out to an early 14-0 lead by the beginning of the second quarter and then became complacent, by the players own admission. I would guess that if you look at the box scores of this season you would find the Michigan had its biggest struggles in that quarter. The youth and lack of skill in key positions, OL and QB, ultimately led to the Wolverines not being able to keep up with Ohio State in the second half.
Michigan State – The Spartans traveled to New Jersey with hopes of finishing strong. After a slow start in the first half, Michigan State was able to dominate in the second half and cruised to an easy 40-7 victory. There’s a lot of youth in East Lansing as well, making the 2018 season one to look forward to all of the football fans in The Mitten.
Ohio State – The Buckeyes traveled to Ann Arbor for “The Game” with the confidence of most people that they were going to win pretty easily. Michigan came out and landed the first punch, and the second. A championship program can withstand multiple punches and continue to win, even if their starting quarterback gets sidelined in the middle of the second half.
Penn State – After a strong start the Nittany Lions seemed to fall off the radar. They won easily in Maryland, the worst team in the B1G East division. Back-to-back losses in the middle of the season doomed the season, but they can still hold their heads high about the way they performed this year.
Big Ten West – Wisconsin completed their first undefeated conference season in program history by defeating an over-matched Minnesota team in the “Battle for the Axe.” Northwestern finished the season strong with a seven game winning streak. Their week two loss at Duke kept them from a double digit victory total.
Notre Dame – With very slim College Football Playoff hopes still alive the Irish traveled to Stanford for their season finale. Unfortunately they showed that they are still a little bit away from being included in the national championship picture. The Irish are much improved over 2016, but a .500 record against their top four opponents won’t get an independent into the playoffs.
SEC – The Iron Bowl is arguably the second biggest rivalry game in college football behind Michigan/Ohio State, and one could argue that over the past few years it has been bigger on the field. Auburn hadn’t beaten Alabama since the “Kick Six” win when they returned a long missed FG at the end of regulation for the victory. Outside of the top three teams in this conference; Auburn, Georgia, and Alabama, the SEC isn’t as good as it was five years ago from top to bottom.
ACC – Miami really made the conference championship games more interesting by dropping their first game of the season at Pitt. Coach Pat Narduzzi is making a habit of getting his team ready to knock off the top teams, surprising Clemson last year. Florida State handled Florida and kept themselves in line to earn a bowl bid in a season that has been decimated by injury and weather.
Pac 12 – The Cougars came into the Apple Cup with a chance to get to the conference championship game, and they proceeded to lay an egg. Stanford took advantage of that loss and beat Notre Dame to get into that spot, surprisingly after a rocky start to the year. The rest of this conference being down, aside from USC, is what puts this conference as the first one on the outside of the College Football Playoffs.
Big 12 – Oklahoma finished the season strong with an easy 59-31 victory over West Virginia. Without the loss at Iowa State, which proved to be a tough place for everyone to play this year, Oklahoma would probably be the number one team heading into the conference championship weekend. The bottom of this conference is worse than the Pac 12, but Oklahoma may be the best team in the country.
Western Michigan – The Broncos really didn’t put up much of a challenge for the Rockets, who are easily the best team in the conference in 2017. After starting quarterback Jon Wassink went out against Eastern Michigan with a shoulder injury, it became tough Western to maintain the same level of play as they had experienced early in the season. A fourth straight appearance in a bowl game will help ease the pains of ending the season where their expectations may have fallen a little short.
wmubroncosdotcom
This weekend brings the conference championship games and the release of the four team playoff pool. There are so many different scenarios of who could be in it can be kind of mind-boggling, and I love it.
The Sporting Dad 