The B1G-MAC Swap, Week 6: Penn State Is Going To Eat

Conference play is here. Both the B1G and the MAC are now all in on league play, and well, that's good. because now both conference is guaranteed about a 500 percent winning percentage from here on out. Still, the B1G-MAC Swap must go on, and someone from the B1G deserves to be punished this week and join the MAC. Who is it? Well, Jesse Collins from Off Tackle Empire joins us to discuss.

Jesse: So Bryan, we meet again. We finally have a week of conference play in the books, and everything sort of feels right in the world again. I mean, sure, there's a Chernobyl-grade meltdown happening in Ann Arbor after we relegated them to the MAC, but other than that, life is pretty dang good here in the land of the B1G. How about you all? Did you enjoy the weekend? Were there fun meltdowns to behold over there?

B1G! B1G! B1G!

Off Tackle Empire

Follow

Bryan: Week 5 was full of meltdowns, upsets, and good ole' MACtion. Remember that time I sent you all UMass? Well the Minutemen lit up BGSU (still lost, though). CMU let a felon back on the team, and Akron managed to knock off Pitt, so it was a fun week.

Jesse: Speaking of Akron, let's talk about those helmets for a split second. Now, maybe this isn't a new thing, but that was really jarring. This is coming from a fan of Nebraska who watched metallic duct tape shine in the bright lights of Memorial on Saturday. I'm just curious if fans of Akron like the shiny gold thing - much like a racoon loves shiny things - or if this is totally just a HEY LOOK AT ME move. I mean, mad props either way, but those things were crazy.

And what's with this felon thing? Michigan schools... amirite?

Bryan: Akron fans, well most of them anyway, seem to like those helmets. I do not, however. If I wanted to see things dipped in gold I'd stare at Gucci Mane's teeth. I want to watch football, not have my retinas burned from the glare of cheap metallic looks. I'm not really sure if it's a HEY LOOK AT ME MOVE, but it's certainly meant to garner some attention. That's what all these goofy ass uniform innovations are about at the end of the day, right?

Michigan should just disband all of its college football programs. It's a shit show up there.

But let's get back to football. Who are we getting from the B1G this week, and please, please, please don't let it be Michigan.

Jesse: Let's just assume that Michigan is getting a special award when we're finished with these pieces at the end of the season. For all intent and purposes of what we're doing, the Hoke and Brandon show deserve to be relegated to far lower divisions than we are capable of speaking into existence here. Their incompetence, both on the field and off, is a disgrace and I look forward to watching Ann Arbor burn everything to the ground.

That said, even somewhat objectively, can we be all that surprised by that result on Saturday? Sure, losing to Minnesota isn't exactly something that the Wolverines are used to, but it wasn't exactly out of left field either. No, the team that got beat the worst this weekend, and therefore deserves to be sent down the most this week, is our friends from Happy Valley. After all, they lost to a previously relegated team at home and it wasn't even all that close.

So congratulations MAC, you got yourselves a Penn State!

Bryan: At least it's not Michigan. OK, what happened with Penn State? I mean, everyone's allowed a slip-up, I suppose, but good lord, that was disgusting. Is Penn State just not as good as we initially thought, and got by on beating up G5 teams, or did the football gawds just shine their love on the Fighting Fitzgerald's to spite Penn State?

Basically, what the hell did you just give us?

Jesse: I am still trying to figure out Penn State. Sooner or later, the NCAA penalties were going to catch up to them. This is a very talented team without a lot of depth, and that O-Line is a disaster across the board. I believe that Christian Hackenberg is the real deal, and that stable of TEs is NFL caliber, but Hack barely had time to throw the ball. Add to that a non-existant run game by the Lions and you had disaster written all over Saturday.

That said, they had managed to avoid meltdown to that point, and Northwestern still isn't a world beater in my mind, so maybe PSU was a bunch of smoke and mirrors to that point. I just really don't know. I'm sure we'll find out more soon, but for now let's say this is an incomplete team. Rather, it's a team that might just be a few years away again. Coaching changes had to catch up with them sooner or later, too. Man, even typing this makes me wonder how they got to that point undefeated.

All that said, Penn State in the MAC sounds like a disaster for the MAC. This might be the best team we've sent down so far. How do you see the Nittany Lions doing against MACTION?

Bryan: Penn State gonna eat.

That's how I see this playing out. For as bad as the Nittany Lions looked against a bad Northwestern team, they still steamrolled UMass which just nearly knocked off the reigning MAC champs.

Hackenberg would easily be the best quarterback playing in the MAC today. He has better weapons, and against the smaller defensive lines of the MAC, I think Penn State's line would hold up well.

Basically, there are only three teams in the MAC that I think could give Penn State trouble, and even then, I'd probably go with the Fighting Franklins nine out of 10 times: Akron (the Zips played Penn State MUCH closer than that final score showed), NIU and Toledo.

Let's slap Penn state in the East. They've already beat Akron, so let's say they walk into the MAC championship. Neutral field, with a possible trip to Mobile on the line, ain't no way Penn State doesn't win the MAC this year.

Jesse: Penn State, your MAC Champions! James Franklin would be so proud of his team.

And honestly, looking at your assessment, I can't disagree. I think I'm probably being a little harsh on the Nittany Lions and maybe this was a bad game, but that was a really really bad game. They were dominated by a team that had looked dead in the water a couple weeks ago, which is so weird that it happened, but it did.

To see who gets sent to the B1G, check out Off Tackle Empire.