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Iowa v. Northwestern

With Michigan idle during the bowl season, I'll take a little closer of a look at the rest of the Big Ten. Let's start today with Iowa v. Northwestern.

Lake the Posts, poster-blog for "hey give us respect, guys!" posting, has yet another issue with not getting what the Cats "deserve." 8-4 Iowa has been selected to the Outback Bowl over the 9-3 Wildcats, who also hold a head-to-head victory on the season. Well, for once there may be a legitimate gripe here. Let's take a look at the resumes:

Resumes
Team#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12
Iowa
24-23 PSU
55-0 Minn
38-16 Wisc
FIU 42-0
IU 45-9Purdue 22-17IaSt 17-5
Maine 46-3
21-20 Pitt
16-13 MSU
22-17 NU
27-24 Ill
Northwestern
Minn 24-17
Iowa 22-17
Ill 27-10
Duke 24-20Purdue 48-26
Mich 21-14
Ohio 16-8
Syr 30-10
SIU 33-7
45-10 OSU
37-20 MSU
21-19 IU

Neither resume is particularly impressive, and they're fairly hard to differentiate at this point (aside form the head-to-head win). Let's break it down further.

Resume Breakdown

Common Opponents
Non-conference
Other
GameMinn
Purdue
IU
Ill
MSU
#1
#2
#3
#4
#1
#2
Iowa
55-0
22-17
45-9
27-24
16-13
42-0 FIU
17-5 IaSt
46-3 Maine
21-20 Pitt
24-23 PSU
38-16 Wisc
Northwestern
24-17
48-26
21-19
27-10
37-20
24-20 Duke
30-10 Syr
16-8 Ohio33-7 SIU
21-14 Mich
45-10 OSU
EdgeIowa
NU
Iowa
NU
Iowa
NU
Push
Iowa
NU
Iowa
Iowa

Northwestern gets the non-conference nod, though it's slightly skewed because they didn't lose a non-conference game, whereas Iowa lost to the only legit opponent either team played. Northwestern's crappy non-con schedule gets a bump of one spot at each position. If you were to sort just by quality of opposition, ignoring win/loss record, Iowa's slate would take Northwestern's behind the woodshed.

Overall, the resumes are very similar, but Iowa's seems to be better on the whole, despite the head-to-head loss and the slightly worse record. The common opponents occupy a high slot on Northwestern's resume, and their wins were either comparable or not as impressive. In loss, Iowa was competitive in every game they played (and let's not even get into how they should have beaten both Michigan State and Pitt), whereas Northwestern was either getting blown out by good teams, or losing to Indiana, of all teams.

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This entry was posted by Tim, on Tuesday, December 09, 2008. You can leave your response.

2 responses to “Iowa v. Northwestern”

  1. Blogger UofMSnowboarder Says:
    12/09/2008 02:43:00 PM  

    While beating Ohio by 8 isn't THAT impressive, is curb stomping a D1-AA that came in 5th in it's conference so much better than an Ohio team that's kept it fairly close with OSU two years running?

  2. Blogger Tim Says:
    12/09/2008 02:48:00 PM  

    Maine actually finished 4 spots AHEAD of Ohio in the final Sagarin ratings. So yeah, I'd say it's a ton better than beating Ohio by 8.

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