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Big 10 Champs

Should Illinois be at least Co-Champs?


  • Total voters
    43

Jaycg15

Well-Known Member
Jul 17, 2008
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Illinois
Illinois finishes atop the Big 10 standings, yet they don't get a share of the championship.

Half game lead over Michigan.
H2H victory (by 23 with the backups in)
Most wins in conference.

Yet no share.
 
Hang a banner, why not? No one will care in a year, and it’d be nice to throw a middle finger at that dickhead Warren. We have the best record of teams that tried in good faith to play our complete schedule (which we achieved), and we slaughtered Michigan on their floor. Good enough for me! :p
 
16-4 is better than 14-3 in “games back”, but games back isn’t ideal because 19-1 isn’t equal to 18-0. The likelihood of the 18-0 team going 1-1 is objectively lower than 50%, everything else being equal. That scenario screws the 18-0 team for playing less games which may have been out of their control.

Likewise, just using winning % isn’t idea because 1-0 isn’t better than 19-1. That scenario screws over the 19-1 team.


The Big Ten should have decided to have co champs if the win % leader and games back leader weren’t the same.
 
Punishing teams that couldn’t fit in a 20 game schedule because of covid is just as stupid as the decision to just go by win percentage.

It would not punish Michigan to have both be crowned co-champs, which is what I support. I was simply naming other ways to earn that designation.

Big Ten can and should still be able to amend that, as well. Then again, we aren’t the darling that is OSU football, so I’m sure Warren will go shelter in place and ignore questions.
 
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You guys could have fit it in, you just chose not to.

Exactly. Just like they wussed out and wouldn’t play Illinois on their SCHEDULED date, even though the entire team was cleared to play. I don’t want to hear excuses about it being too soon after they came back. UM’s wrestling and women’s BB team both played on the same night that they were supposed to play Illinois.
UM was just scared of getting their ass kicked. In hindsight, it would have looked better to get destroyed on their scheduled date instead of getting destroyed without Illinois’ best player. They could have used Covid as an excuse.
 
If Michigan beat Illinois I’d say it was clearly Michigan. But they got destroyed by a Illini team without their best player. Both teams imo should have banners.

Also Michigan ducked the first matchup vs Illinois, women’s team played that same day. So it wasn’t “Covid protocols of UM”
 
All I know is I’ll be praying for Michigan’s region on Selection Sunday. Assuming they hang on to a 1.
It'll actually be interesting to see what the committee will do with Michigan and Illinois.

If the BTT Finals are, say Ohio State vs Iowa, does the winner of that game get a 1 seed? And who gets the 1 seed then between Illinois and Michigan?

Does Michigan losing down the stretch actually hurt the Big Ten's chances of getting two 1 seeds? Is there even a possibility that Michigan doesn't get a 1 seed, but someone else from the Big Ten does?
 
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Saint Mary's had the 7th best record in league play, but they were awarded with the 4 seed because the WCC used KenPom's algorithm to adjust for the unbalanced schedules. It would be interesting to know how all of the conferences would have played out. Never before have we seen such unbalanced schedules within a conference.

The WCC partnered with Ken Pomeroy to develop a model that uses a proprietary algorithm that best reflects conference games completed and yields an adjusted conference winning percentage for each men’s and women’s basketball team. The adjusted conference winning percentage accounts for the strength of the opponent and the location (home/away) of the game played. The offensive and defensive efficiency metric is not utilized in the algorithm to determine a team’s adjusted conference winning percentage.
 
It'll actually be interesting to see what the committee will do with Michigan and Illinois.

If the BTT Finals are, say Ohio State vs Iowa, does the winner of that game get a 1 seed? And who gets the 1 seed then between Illinois and Michigan?

Does Michigan losing down the stretch actually hurt the Big Ten's chances of getting two 1 seeds? Is there even a possibility that Michigan doesn't get a 1 seed, but someone else from the Big Ten does?
Illinois has locked up the 1 seed. That fantasy scenario is not happening.
 
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It'll actually be interesting to see what the committee will do with Michigan and Illinois.

If the BTT Finals are, say Ohio State vs Iowa, does the winner of that game get a 1 seed? And who gets the 1 seed then between Illinois and Michigan?

Does Michigan losing down the stretch actually hurt the Big Ten's chances of getting two 1 seeds? Is there even a possibility that Michigan doesn't get a 1 seed, but someone else from the Big Ten does?

I think Illinois should be almost locked into a 1 seed. Most quad 1 wins in the nation and they’ve been on a roll lately even without their best player.
 
Saint Mary's had the 7th best record in league play, but they were awarded with the 4 seed because the WCC used KenPom's algorithm to adjust for the unbalanced schedules. It would be interesting to know how all of the conferences would have played out. Never before have we seen such unbalanced schedules within a conference.

The WCC partnered with Ken Pomeroy to develop a model that uses a proprietary algorithm that best reflects conference games completed and yields an adjusted conference winning percentage for each men’s and women’s basketball team. The adjusted conference winning percentage accounts for the strength of the opponent and the location (home/away) of the game played. The offensive and defensive efficiency metric is not utilized in the algorithm to determine a team’s adjusted conference winning percentage.

Maybe it's the conspiracy theorist in me but I think the WCC really wanted a Gonzaga/St. Mary's matchup in the semifinals and used this as a reason to set that up potentially.
 
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Illinois has locked up the 1 seed. That fantasy scenario is not happening.
That's what I'm talking about though.

If Iowa or Ohio State win the Big Ten Tournament (meaning wins over possibly Illinois and Michigan) would they steal a 1 seed from either of those teams?

If Illinois is locked in, then is Michigan locked in as well since they won the conference?
 
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That's what I'm talking about though.

If Iowa or Ohio State win the Big Ten Tournament (meaning wins over possibly Illinois and Michigan) would they steal a 1 seed from either of those teams?

If Illinois is locked in, then is Michigan locked in as well since they won the conference?
It's an interesting scenario and honestly I dont know what will happen if it does.
 
Maybe it's the conspiracy theorist in me but I think the WCC really wanted a Gonzaga/St. Mary's matchup in the semifinals and used this as a reason to set that up potentially.

Hah perhaps. I think this would be like the 78th year in a row where Saint Mary's and Gonzaga faceoff in the conference tournament. This is not a typical Saint Mary's team, though. They provide almost no challenge to the Zags. They have very average athletes, minus maybe Logan Johnson, and they can't shoot.

It stinks for Illinois. Who knows how things may have turned out if they had a Round-robin conference schedule? It's probably a decent silver lining for them knowing that they're relatively safe for maintaining that 1 seed. Winning in Ann Arbor and Columbus? Huge.
 
That's what I'm talking about though.

If Iowa or Ohio State win the Big Ten Tournament (meaning wins over possibly Illinois and Michigan) would they steal a 1 seed from either of those teams?

If Illinois is locked in, then is Michigan locked in as well since they won the conference?
Michigan is locked in. Illinois has the most Q1 wins in the country. If Iowa beats Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan, there’s a chance, but the bracketologists that I’ve heard discuss it don’t think Illinois can be moved down.
 
Maybe it's the conspiracy theorist in me but I think the WCC really wanted a Gonzaga/St. Mary's matchup in the semifinals and used this as a reason to set that up potentially.
Those were some fun games to watch a few years ago with this guy

20130321_jla_aa1_330.0.jpg
 
That's what I'm talking about though.

If Iowa or Ohio State win the Big Ten Tournament (meaning wins over possibly Illinois and Michigan) would they steal a 1 seed from either of those teams?

If Illinois is locked in, then is Michigan locked in as well since they won the conference?

I don't think Ohio State would move up but I could definitely see Iowa moving up in your scenario.
 
Michigan is locked in. Illinois has the most Q1 wins in the country. If Iowa beats Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan, there’s a chance, but the bracketologists that I’ve heard discuss it don’t think Illinois can be moved down.
The committee is not afraid to punish teams that aren't winning down the stretch, and will also sometimes overreact to teams performing well, especially in the conference tournaments.
 
Has a team ever lost four straight and only dropped a few spots in the rankings before?
 
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