| By Marc Lawrence — The Big Ten made its 2020 college football debut in Week 8. Before Wisconsin and Illinois kicked off the league’s new season, a Big Ten team had not been part of a competitive football game in well over nine months — all the way back on Jan. 2 when Indiana played in the Gator Bowl. It was the Hoosiers again in the league’s spotlight on Saturday after Indiana stunned Penn State in an overtime thriller when QB Michael Pennix Jr.’s full-body extension narrowly broke the plane for an upset-clinching, two-point conversion in overtime. That upset was just one memorable moment from this weekend’s games. Indiana had lost 42 straight games to top-10 opponents, a streak dating all the way back to 1987. That skid came to end on Saturday as the Hoosiers stunned the Nittany Lions. PSU more than doubled the Hoosiers in total yardage and possessed the ball for over 40 minutes. Yet it was IU who had college football’s No. 8 team on the ropes for most of this contest, in part due to self-inflicted mistakes. Penn State committed three turnovers and 10 penalties for 100 yards in addition to missing three field goals. For a complete review on each of the Big Ten games last week click here. |
| Trending Today |
| ESPN notes that the first College Football Playoff ranking will be released on Nov. 24, almost exactly one month from now. All it takes is one upset – for one-loss Penn State to redeem itself on Halloween with a home win against Ohio State – for an entire conference to be thrown into chaos … even two games into a season. If the Nittany Lions instead start the season 0-2, the Big Ten boils down to the Buckeyes versus the best in the West. And the Pac-12 hasn’t even joined the party yet. To be clear, one-loss teams have not been eliminated from the playoff conversation – but as long as there are undefeated teams remaining, it’s far more difficult for a contender such as Georgia to make a top-four case. Keep that in mind as we move forward. |
| Grinding Out The Profits |
| From this week’s PLAYBOOK TOTALS TIPSHEET FOOTBALL NEWSLETTER: The Chicago Bears are 0-7 UNDER against the NFC West and 0-6 UNDER in games when coming off a road dog win, and 0-6 UNDER IN Game Six of the season. The LA Rams are 0-6 UNDER in Game Seven of the season and 0-4 UNDER against the NFC North. That’s a lot of UDNER ammo, if you know what I mean. |
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