"Hi, I'm Zurp."
"Hello, Zurp."
"I'm a cultaholic. I love hearing things cults believe and think and say. I believe I'm addicted to it."
(General grumbling from the crowd.)
"But it had been 3 days since I went onto Nittany Lounge, and I was feeling pretty good."
"Good for you, Zurp, maybe you're starting to improve."
"But this morning, I fell off the wagon. But look at what I found!!! It's hilarious!"
https://bwi.forums.rivals.com/threads/good-game-nits.325902/page-3
The thread was started after Ohio State beat Penn State. Some Buckeye fan started a "good game" thread. And they've been cool about it. But, as all cool-tempered threads over there do, this one has turned into "RAWR!!! WE WERE SCREWED!!!" They don't think they were screwed in the game, but just over the years. Screwed because Michigan State has had more success this century than they did.
But Sparty made it...that's the point
My point is "why did Sparty make it?"
During those years, UM was not good. Additionally, PSU was handicapped by undeserved sanctions starting in 2012.
That's why MSU was able to do that.
It's all about context.
(Make sure you reinforce that the sanctions were undeserved.)
4 top 15 wins. 2 top 10 wins. Excellent resume. Even caught an undefeated Iowa (albeit they missed any ranked cross over opponents) in ccg.
Michigan wasn't down. We were, but Iowa was up. Played Oregon OOC and won. Very respectable team that Saban bìtchslapped en route to another title.
I've preached this before but there is an element of randomness is CFB. If you played last week's game 10 times, OSU doesn't win every time (I'd guess they win about half because they got some pretty outlier-ish turnover luck).
So when a good team gets some randomness on their side, they win more games than when a good team gets some bad breaks.
So... luck is the reason Michigan State did well for a couple of years, and the reason Penn State isn't doing very well. I guess if you don't have anyone else to blame, blame your luck.
We took advantage of our opportunity in 2016. It is absurd that OSU made the playoff that year over us.
There it is - "We got screwed in 2016!" And it goes on:
It isn't absurd--their resume was better than us. We lost 2 games to Pitt and Michigan. The issue wasn't Ohio State getting in over us it was Washington getting in over us.
Taking a non-conference champion over the conference champion when the CC defeated the non-champion is absurd.
(if you want to argue OSU should have also gotten in instead of UW, that's possibly an argument)
our fault for losing to Pitt
On a fluke play.
PSU wins that game 9 out of 10 times and if they played later in the season it wouldn't have been close.
Oh no!!! Was Penn State the victim of a fluke play in 2016??? Let's make sure to right the wrong by bitching about it on a message board!
But we didn't win it--which cost us a playoff spot. It was a bad loss regardless of spin.
If we played Ohio State 10 times that year how many do you think we win? Wouldn't most say it was a fluke we beat them?
The OSU game did not come down to a singular play (despite what people think). PSU wins that 4 out of 10 times.
That's the first I've heard that.
So we lose over half...hence Ohio State got in
That's not how that works.
The argument is mostly between LandoComando and PSU2UNC. I'll let you decide which is the goober PSU homer.
New guy gets involved and responds to the claim that they only lost to Pitt that year on a fluke play.
The reason that PSU didn't make the playoffs in 2016 was not so much the "fluke" Pitt loss, but the total thumping they took - 49-10 - from Michigan that year. No 2-loss team has ever made the playoffs and especially one that had that bad of blowout loss
That's fair, but if PSU had one loss on the year and was Big Ten champ, even if that one loss was bad (UM), PSU still would have made the playoff.
I don't think anyone is arguing that point. I think many or most of us would even agree.
If I remember correctly, it was Alabama at 1 and Clemson at 2. And Clemson jumped Ohio State at that point - Ohio State was #2 going into The Game. The final 2 spots were going to go to Ohio State (1 loss - only to Penn State), Penn State (2 losses - to *ichigan by a lot and to Pitt), and Washington (1 loss, but I forget to whom). I think if Penn State beat Pitt, Ohio State probably should have been ranked above Penn State, due to their records against each other. Ohio State with a 3 point win and a 3 point loss. Penn State with a 3 point win and a 39 point loss. So it should have been between Penn State and Washington. Penn State very well may win that argument, in that case.
But... that wasn't the case. Go cry on your message board and then go unclog the toilet that I just clogged for you.
