re: Penn St won the Big 10. Are they not the best team in the conference?

I think they are probably playing the best these last four weeks.

But it really depends on how you determine best team.

Their record is certainly not the best.

Also, they really live on big plays. IF those do not happen, their Line is not strong enough to slowly drive the field.

Honestly, though, Ohio State has not looked the same since they played Wisconsin. I do not know what happened, but it was a physical game that went to OT --- and I think it took something out of them. Give them time to rest and heal and they probably look like the best BIG team.

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We don't know, there was only one mulligan game allowed , lsu didn't get a do over with an extra week to prep

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Dude, take off your purple tinted glasses. Anyone with half a brain, and who is honest with themselves, knows that Bama would've beat LSU in a best of however many series.

this is a semantic debate. and as such, the truest answer is, Penn St is the best big ten team according to the big ten, and they are not the best big ten team in the country according to the playoff committee.
depends on the definitions and different people have different ones.

for the most part, we all agree that the winner of a game is the team with more points after 60 minutes, but the 60 minute duration is totally arbitrary.

this is why people argue with each other about the "best" team not winning a given game, if the specific nature of the game had a result that was highly unlikely if the game was any amount shorter or any amount longer.

Personally I can't stand the argument. Penn St IS the best team in the big 10, because they did the best job under the definition given by the conference.

if the conference wanted nonconference games to be a part of their determination of champion is, then they have the power to do that. they haven't. and because they haven't, teams will strategize to the result they want.

for example, if a team believes the best way to win a conference championship and be crowned 'best' is to play a crazy tough collection of teams in nonconference and thereby prepare their team for tough competition, and they know that they will not be penalized for losses, then they may make that decision.

another strategy could be to play a bunch of pansy schools and build up confidence and reduce risk of injury. The usefulness of these dispirit strategies is irrelevant. The point is teams should not be punished for using the rules to their advantage.

this is the hypothetical I've used before on this.

Who would you take? Alabama or [team x]
(everyone always takes Alabama)
Ok, well lets say they played and [team x] beat Alabama, but they are playing again, who would you take?
(people still always take Alabama)
Ok, well lets say they played again and team x won again, but they are playing a third time, who are you gonna take?

If you say Alabama a third time, it doesn't mean you know Alabama is the better team in this hypothetical and they are not gonna make the hypothetical mistakes that cost them the hypothetical game in the previous two meetings, it means YOURE A MORON.

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Was LSU in 2011? We all knew they weren't.

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This was true, but LSU wasn't left out. They made the title game as the #1 team. Yes Bama also made it, but they didn't get in over LSU.

I am fine with Ohio State getting in, but it should have been over Washington not PSU.

I will rarely agree with an acorn but I have told people that in a similar scenario with Bama in play, they get in over SEC champ. Same for Clemson if you fixed the same scenario in ACC.

To me, #s 4-10 should be vacated because those are just not top ten teams in my opinion.

Didn't you guys play in the national championship game? I mean attend?

So not decisive

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We don't know, there was only one mulligan game allowed , lsu didn't get a do over with an extra week to prep.

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I promise you Les Miles would have not schemed anything different for his offense with 4 weeks of prep vs 3 weeks.

The man honest to God thought he could go toe to toe with Alabama and beat them using the exact same offensive scheme he used in the first match up.

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Makes no sense on paper but i think ohio st is the best and a close second is mich then penn st. Jmo

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I agree with you old man.