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The incredibly dumb, and also stupid, Iowa Hawkeyes did it. They really did it! Iowa ended our long national nightmare of having to discuss an undefeated Minnesota and in so doing, gave control of their season back to Wisconsin.
If the Badgers win out, they are B1G West division champs. If they don’t? Well, they have no one to blame but themselves. That’s right where they want to be, I’d imagine. As we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, we should note that the Wisconsin Badgers (8-2 overall, 5-2 B1G) have their final home game of the season against the Purdue Boilermakers (4-6 overall, 3-4 B1G) on Saturday.
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Here are the B1G West standings heading into this weekend.
B1G West Division Standings 11/22/19
| Place | Team | Conference record | Overall record | Streak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Team | Conference record | Overall record | Streak |
| 1 | Minnesota | 6-1 | 9-1 | L1 |
| 2 | Wisconsin | 5-2 | 8-2 | W2 |
| 3 | Iowa | 4-3 | 7-3 | W1 |
| 4 | Illinois | 4-3 | 6-4 | W4 |
| 5 | Purdue | 3-4 | 4-6 | W2 |
| 6 | Nebraska | 2-5 | 4-6 | L4 |
| 7 | Northwestern | 0-7 | 2-8 | W1 |
Obviously it’s exciting to note that the Gophers have a loss, but that loss also allowed Iowa to move into third place in the division since they, you know, gave Minnesota the loss. Northwestern is back in the win column as well! Way to beat UMass, you guys!
Let’s take a look at who we want to win every game in the B1G this weekend.
No. 8 Penn State at No. 2 Ohio State, 11:00 a.m. CT, FOX
I’m not 100% sure how the “Wisconsin going to the Rose Bowl” scenario works best, but I think it’s important that Penn State has a second loss before the conference title games. Wisconsin also doesn’t play PSU this year and got blown out by OSU already, so it’s good for the team that blew you out to stay good. Go Bucks.
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Michigan State at Rutgers, 11:00 a.m. CT, FS1
Nope.
Illinois at No. 17 Iowa, 11:00 a.m. CT, BTN
Technically, Illinois can still win the B1G West! A lot still has to happen, but every week every thing that the Illini has need to happen...has happened. It would be nice for the Badgers if the Hawkeyes stayed ranked in the top-20 so they can point to beating Iowa as a good, quality win. Illinois has already exceeded expectations and Wisconsin losing to bowl eligible Illinois isn’t AS terrible as losing to regular ol’ Illinois, like it looked when it happened. Go Hawks.
No. 10 Minnesota at Northwestern, 11:00 a.m. CT, ABC
There are two schools of thought here. One, Northwestern beating Minnesota in front of what will assuredly be several hundreds of people would be HILARIOUS! Just really, classically funny stuff. The second school of thought is: Wisconsin has to beat Minnesota to go to the B1G Championship game anyways, so why not have the Gophers be as highly ranked as possible?
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While I always want Minnesota to be embarrassed on national television, in this one, particular instance...I don’t. Badgers need to beat the Gophers. Gophers need to be highly ranked. Ski-u-mah.
No. 13 Michigan at Indiana, 2:30 p.m. CT, ESPN
Pick you reasoning: you want Indiana to win for #9WINDIANA purposes OR you want Michigan to win so Wisconsin’s win over them keeps looking better AND there will be maximum disappointment next weekend when Ohio State stuffs them in a locker. Go...someone?
Nebraska at Maryland, 2:30 p.m. CT, BTN
As is the case with all West vs. East match ups lets just cheer for the West team because of divisional pride, which is a totally real thing! Jk, cheer for whichever of these scrub teams you want! Go Terps! Rude of them to win on Scott Frost Day.