Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / The 7 Biggest Games On The 2024 Big Ten Football Schedule

Transcript

The 7 Biggest Games On The 2024 Big Ten Football Schedule · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

• 0:00
  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Friday, July nineteenth, I'm your host,
• 0:03
  tom Or The Akron game in forty three days. The gaming gets Michigan in
• 0:06
  one hundred and thirty four days. As we were counting down the days to
• 0:10
  Big Ten Media Days next week, we're also going to be counting down today
• 0:14
  the biggest games in the Big Ten this season. We're going to be doing
• 0:17
  that with our buddy, Tony Gerderman of Bucky Huddle dot Com. Tony,
• 0:20
  as I was kind of going through this list, it was like, boy,
• 0:22
  there are some really really big games. But it really as you look
• 0:27
  through the list, I just put together the top seven. I feel like
• 0:29
  there's a pretty good gap between the top seven and you know, the next
• 0:33
  sort of level of games. But it's interesting that virtually all of them,
• 0:38
  there's only a couple of them that do not involve the new teams in the
• 0:43
  Big Ten, And I think that kind of underscores just how big those additions
• 0:47
  are going to be and how much that's really going to change the landscape of
• 0:49
  the Big Ten this year. For sure. Pretties everything up, I think
• 0:56
  quite a bit. When you look at the Big Ten schedule and there's much
• 1:00
  better inventory, more and more interesting things. Maybe it'll be less interesting in
• 1:03
  four years or five years when we've seen this for a couple of years and
• 1:07
  we've seen teams play each other. But right now you look all over the
• 1:11
  place, and it's not necessarily every week, but most weeks there's something new,
• 1:17
  there's something intriguing. And even just getting out of the East plays the
• 1:22
  East, the West plays the West, the same schedule rut. I mean,
• 1:26
  there's some differences in some newness there that makes this overall schedule really intriguing.
• 1:30
  But there are some pretty pretty darn good games to talk about. Tom
• 1:37
  Well, let's start with the fact that the number seven game here, if
• 1:40
  this is the first one we're going to be talking about, because it's sort
• 1:42
  of the last of the sort of top tier of games. Oh by the
• 1:45
  way, it's a rematch of last year's National Championship game, and that's number
• 1:48
  seven on our list. That is Michigan traveling out to Washington on October fifth.
• 1:52
  Now, I think both teams are probably going to be taking a pretty
• 1:56
  significant step back, not expecting either one to be a legitimate National Championship contender
• 2:00
  this year, but still just to have those two teams who played for the
• 2:05
  national title last year and have them be well, there's six games better than
• 2:08
  that this year. Boy, that really kind of puts it all into perspective.
• 2:15
  Yeah, I think maybe the biggest interest in this one will be that
• 2:17
  it is the rematch of the national championship game. I don't expect either of
• 2:21
  these teams to be back in the playoffs necessarily. The loser is certainly not,
• 2:25
  so you better win it. I think what's interesting is when we talk
• 2:30
  about michigan schedule and we will talk about some other the games, I don't
• 2:35
  necessarily view this as a loss, but it is very much a game that
• 2:38
  they could lose. So I think just the fact that there are more of
• 2:43
  those games, more of those toss up games, I think is fun and
• 2:46
  more interesting. And if Michigan has hopes, they better not blow this one.
• 2:51
  Yeah, they have three more on this list, and we're just talking
• 2:53
  Big Ten conference games, so their game against Texas that is not on this
• 2:58
  list. So the other there's some real losable games for Michigan this year.
• 3:01
  They're probably not going to run the table again, but we will see.
• 3:06
  Next up, let's hit another Michigan game Tony number six on our list Classic
• 3:09
  Rose Bowl matchup. This is one that you have seen in Pasadena on Year's
• 3:14
  Day a whole bunch of times over the years. USC playing at Michigan that
• 3:19
  is September twenty first, that's going to be a really good welcome to the
• 3:23
  new Big Ten because that you know you're not you're not in Kansas anymore when
• 3:29
  that's a Big Ten Conference game. Yeah, and the last time these two
• 3:34
  teams played in the regular season was nineteen fifty eight. That was in Michigan.
• 3:38
  So it's been a long time and we view these two teams as kind
• 3:42
  of rivals. They played in the Rose Bowl I think seven times in the
• 3:46
  last fifty five or so years, but they don't you know, it's been
• 3:52
  two thousand and seven since the last time they played. It's been a while,
• 3:55
  and so I think it's going to be fantastic to watch these two uniforms
• 4:00
  on the same field. But this is another one where Michigan better be ready.
• 4:05
  And you know, can USC's defense be better than it has been?
• 4:09
  I think probably yes, will it be? It should, But I want
• 4:14
  to see USC try to handle Michigan's physicality and Michigan try to handle USC's outside
• 4:20
  and inside speed. Yeah, that's going to be a good one. That'll
• 4:25
  be a good sort of first taste of the you know, really big new
• 4:29
  Big Ten. Next up, number five, another USC game. This is
• 4:32
  Penn State going out west to USC. And this feels like this could be
• 4:38
  a real important one for Penn State because they're you know, you've seen them
• 4:42
  projected as potentially a College Football playoff team, but generally you know, the
• 4:46
  third Big Ten team into the playoff maybe and you know, nine seed,
• 4:50
  eight seed, ten seed, somewhere in that range where this is a road
• 4:55
  game, you got to go all the way out west to USC. It's
• 4:58
  one that Penn State should win. But it also feels like this might be,
• 5:02
  you know, outside of the Ohio State game, which is really going
• 5:04
  to be sort of their season defining game, this might be second place for
• 5:09
  them in terms of just how close do they get to a potential Big Ten
• 5:13
  championship game birth and just how close do they get to the top of the
• 5:15
  college football playoff field. Yeah, and I think there's a question about Penn
• 5:21
  State's place in the Big Ten after this expansion, where we knew they were
• 5:28
  striving to get to Ohio State's level, they were at Michigan's level. Michigan
• 5:32
  obviously took things up a notch, but they can't afford to be passed by.
• 5:39
  And I think we all agree, like Oregon is there now, you
• 5:43
  don't want USC to be in that mix with you as well. You want
• 5:46
  to keep the tiers as they are. But this is, like screams,
• 5:51
  a trap game for me. But then Tom, the three games before this
• 5:57
  one for USC, let me ready at Michigan, Homie gets Wisconsin and at
• 6:04
  Minnesota before they play Penn State. Are they going to be healthy enough at
• 6:12
  that point after three weeks of facing the run, I don't know, fifty
• 6:16
  five times and just and then and then you've got Penn State coming to town
• 6:21
  and doing the same thing. This might be a worn down USC defense by
• 6:27
  that point, and frankly a worn down USC offense as well. Yeah,
• 6:31
  And I don't know if the depth is quite there on that roster right now.
• 6:34
  They have not recruited as well as you sort of think of USC recruiting,
• 6:39
  and that's true, especially on the lines there. So that's that's definitely
• 6:43
  something I would I would circle as a potential concern there. They do luck
• 6:47
  out they're going to Minnesota the first weekend of October, when it might be
• 6:50
  a little chilly but will probably not be snowing sideways. But the first USC
• 6:56
  visit to Minnesota in mid November, or first visit to Camp Ran in mid
• 7:00
  November. Boy, that's going to be a route awakening, I'm guessing for
• 7:04
  the for the guys from southern California. Number four now Tony Oregon visiting Michigan
• 7:13
  on November second. This is the same day as the number three game on
• 7:15
  our list. This is going to be a monster weekend of Big Ten football.
• 7:19
  But Oregon going to Michigan outside of the Ohio You know, this is
• 7:24
  Oregon's toughest road game, I would say, of the season, at least
• 7:27
  in conference play. And you know, if they get through Ohio State at
• 7:30
  home a few weeks earlier than this, this is probably the last thing standing
• 7:35
  between them and more or less having a spot in Indianapolis locked up. Yeah.
• 7:42
  Do you remember the last time Oregon came to Michigan. I'm sure you
• 7:46
  do. It was tom The Big Ten network was just a couple of months
• 7:51
  old, maybe a month oil old by that point, actually only maybe a
• 7:56
  week old by that week a week old. Yeah, this was this was
• 7:59
  the week after Apple Chen State, right, and it didn't have thirty nine
• 8:01
  to seven or something like that. Thirty nine seven I believe that was Dennis
• 8:05
  Dixon running all over the place, throwing all over the place against a shell
• 8:09
  shock Michigan defense. This one is again one where we would expect Oregon to
• 8:15
  win, but also this is an opportunity for Michigan to be like, no,
• 8:20
  we are still we are still the Big ten, we are still the
• 8:22
  leaders end best if you will. And so I'm fascinated to see how this
• 8:28
  one goes, because it could go in a number of different different directions,
• 8:31
  like Michigan should take a step back, but if they don't in this one,
• 8:37
  I mean that's going to be a pretty good statement, regardless of what
• 8:39
  else has happened, regardless of what happens against Texas, Like if they can
• 8:43
  do something to Michigan that would be or to Oregon that would be impressive.
• 8:48
  I will say, the week before the Oregon game, Michigan State comes to
• 8:52
  town. Is that anything to be concerned about? Is it anything to be
• 8:58
  concerned about that? That's a fascinating question. I mean, we have seen
• 9:01
  Michigan State poll crazy upsets. This This feels like a Michigan State team that
• 9:05
  is very down this year and probably going to get things on the right track
• 9:09
  under Jonathan Smith, but probably not going to do it just yet. So
• 9:15
  that would normally be a very tough back to back for Michigan. I think
• 9:18
  this year's Michigan State might make that a little less of a challenge, but
• 9:22
  definitely something to keep an eye on. That same day, the same day
• 9:26
  as Oregon at Michigan, Ohio State travels to Penn State. We did find
• 9:31
  out this week officially that is not the white out game for Penn State.
• 9:33
  We have been talking about that for a few months now, since there was
• 9:37
  a report about the trade of weeks between the different broadcasters, and because for
• 9:41
  a bunch of various complicated reasons, and I'm not going to show my math
• 9:45
  here, we were speculating we were pretty sure that meant that the Ohio State
• 9:50
  Penn State game was not going to be a primetime NBC game, and that
• 9:52
  that was going to be that mianut was likely going to be either a big
• 9:56
  neon or a three thirty kickoff. The fact that Penn State announced this week
• 9:58
  that it is not. The white Out game is pretty decent confirmation that that's
• 10:03
  true. So you know, it is either going to be the noon kickout
• 10:05
  on Fox or the three thirty kick on CBS, with the Oregon Michigan game
• 10:09
  being the other one. I'm going to guess they're not going to want to
• 10:13
  put more Oregon in the West Coast audience on a nine a m. Local
• 10:16
  kick time, so I will guess that that will be the big newon kickoff
• 10:20
  game. But that's that's not official yet. That's just sort of reading tea
• 10:24
  leaves. But either way, this is another one Tony where you know,
• 10:28
  Ohio State has a trip out to Oregon earlier than the weekend after after Halloween.
• 10:33
  They go play in Penn State, and that is a place where Ohio
• 10:37
  State has won most of the time. They've only lost there in once in
• 10:41
  the last what ten, twelve, fourteen years something like that, but it
• 10:48
  has generally not been real easy for them there, so that this feels like
• 10:52
  another one that you know, if Penn State wins this, that's probably just
• 10:54
  about locking Penn State into the College Football Playoff uless, something crazy happens,
• 11:00
  and if Ohio State wins, that's probably just about locking Ohio State into the
• 11:03
  College Football Playoff and less something crazy happens. Yeah, I think the last
• 11:05
  time Ohio State lost there was the Fluke in twenty sixteen with the blocked kick.
• 11:09
  Though I'm sure there are plenty of Penn State fans saying Ohio State has
• 11:13
  one plenty of Flukes in that stadium as well, and so you know,
• 11:18
  maybe it's all even out by now. I don't think so. But I
• 11:22
  mean this is one where if the game is at night, like, how
• 11:26
  much does that change? And we've said it won't be, Like how much
• 11:30
  does that change? The line? Is that two and a half points in
• 11:33
  Ohio State's favor, that sort of thing, like how much does that affect
• 11:37
  things? Playing at noon? And it's still a great environment whenever you play
• 11:41
  it. I think it's just different for the players, the visiting team when
• 11:48
  it's at night, and just the waiting, the anticipation. At least here,
• 11:54
  you get to the stadium pretty early. You go play a football game.
• 11:56
  You don't have to worry about anything else. There's no not nearly as
• 11:58
  much build up. You're not thinking about it the entire time. You're just
• 12:03
  ready to go, and you know, Hey, it's just a noon game,
• 12:05
  Like, it's not anything special other than the fact that it's a very
• 12:09
  good opponent, a very tough team to play. You don't make it more
• 12:11
  than you need to make it. And even at a noonkick that has been
• 12:16
  a challenging spot for Ohio State twenty twenty two, they were in a dog
• 12:20
  fight midway through the fourth quarter on a noonkick at Penn State. So you
• 12:26
  know, that does not mean it's going to be an easy It just means
• 12:28
  it's maybe going to be slightly less brutally difficult than it could otherwise be.
• 12:31
  So we will see when that kickoff time ends up being. But I think
• 12:35
  you can safely mark yourself safe from Penn State primetime white out kickoff for at
• 12:41
  least this year. Now, Tony, there's two games left, and I'm
• 12:45
  going to do you the tremendous favor of deciding which one is the biggest game
• 12:48
  on the Big Ten Conference schedule this year, Because you got Ohio State at
• 12:52
  Oregon on October twelfth, you got Michigan at Ohio State on November thirtieth,
• 12:56
  And I know which one. I'm expecting to have the highest rated teams,
• 13:01
  the highest ranked teams in the in the in the matchup, and that's the
• 13:05
  higher stated Oregon. But also it feels like Ohio State and Oregan might play
• 13:09
  two to three times this year. And you know, it feels like the
• 13:15
  more things change, the more they might stay the same. And the season
• 13:18
  defining game for Ohio State is maybe still the season defining game that it has
• 13:22
  been for the last several decades. Yeah, the game with the highest rated
• 13:28
  teams will not be the game with the highest rated ratings. I think the
• 13:33
  next the game on the list is Ohio State at Oregon. It might be
• 13:35
  the biggest game of the season, certainly one of the top two of Georgia
• 13:39
  and Texas, those are like the two biggest biggest games of the year.
• 13:45
  But you beat Oregon, O High State goes and beats Oregon, all people
• 13:48
  are going to be saying, is okay, go beat Michigan. Now prove
• 13:52
  it. It's you know this is you're gonna have to prove it. And
• 13:56
  if you don't, then what good was beat Oregon? That sort of thing.
• 14:01
  So I think the season is judged as a whole by what you do.
• 14:07
  But you got to put that button on it, and that button is
• 14:09
  the Michigan game, and that's the one that people will be waiting for.
• 14:13
  That's the biggest game in the big ten. Hey, Tom, the TV
• 14:16
  execs, they know which game they wanted, which was the biggest game of
• 14:20
  the year. They went with this one. They then traded for the second
• 14:24
  biggest. If they thought it was the biggest, they would have taken it
• 14:30
  first. And I don't know what kind of trade capital you would need to
• 14:33
  then get Michigan and Ohio State after that, So biggest game of the year
• 14:39
  Michigan at Ohio State trading for the Ohio State Michigan game. That feels like
• 14:43
  a herschel Walker trade where it's like, why does an NBC have any broadcast
• 14:46
  game any games anymore for the next seven seasons. It's like, well,
• 14:50
  remember that one time they had the Ohio State Michigan game. Yeah, that's
• 14:52
  and it's definitely not gonna be the case this year. The Ohio State Michigan
• 14:56
  game will be on Fox. We'll find out officially when the Ohio State Oregon
• 14:58
  game will be and where that will be televised. I'm guessing, just guessing
• 15:03
  it's going to be NBC primetime. We will see. That's still TVD officially,
• 15:09
  but again reading the tea leaves and that would be my guess, and
• 15:11
  then noon kickoff for Penn State. But we will find out together as all
• 15:15
  that stuff comes out. Hopefully in the coming weeks they'll start laying out some
• 15:18
  of those other big games so everyone can start planning their falls. But man,
• 15:22
  it is going to be a fall full of really really exciting football games,
• 15:26
  and we hope you can join us at Buckeye Huddle dot com to enjoy
• 15:30
  all of it. Tony, Kevin and I they're covering the team. We'll
• 15:31
  be at all those Ohio State games this fall. If Mark covering recruit and
• 15:35
  got our whole team of ex's and those gurus. They're making you a smarter
• 15:37
  football fan. That's all at bucke huddle dot com and of course also at
• 15:41
  YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle. That'll do it for today. Thank you
• 15:45
  guys all for joining us. Have a great day, have a great weekend.
• 15:48
  We'll be back next week with a full week of content from Indianapolis.
• 15:52
  We can't wait. We'll talk to you then