Big Ten VB Scores and Standings (9/28)

[Alum-Ni]

Washington def. Illinois (25-15, 30-28, 25-17)
#11 Oregon def. Indiana (26-24, 27-25, 21-25, 25-21)
Cockeye def. Maryland (27-25, 21-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-13)
#10 Purdue def. #16 Minnesota (26-24, 23-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-10)
#7 Wisconsin def. Northwestern (25-16, 25-16, 25-15)

Standings
1. Cockeye (8-6, 2-0)
1. Oregon (10-1, 2-0)
1. Washington (12-0, 2-0)
4. Nebraska (11-1, 1-0)
4. Michigan (11-1, 1-0)
4. Penn State (11-1, 1-0)
4. USC (9-2, 1-0)
8. Minnesota (8-4, 1-1)
8. Northwestern (3-7, 1-1)
8. Purdue (10-3, 1-1)
8. Wisconsin (7-4, 1-1)
12. Michigan State (7-5, 0-1)
12. Ohio State (7-4, 0-1)
12. Rutgers (5-7, 0-1)
12. UCLA (6-4, 0-1)
16. Illinois (8-4, 0-2)
16. Indiana (7-5, 0-2)
16. Maryland (9-4, 0-2)

Matches for Sunday, September 29
Michigan State at #4 Penn State
Ohio State at UCLA
Rutgers at Michigan
#20t USC at #2 Nebraska (6:30 PM - BTN)

 

[Stan Raymond]

Cockeye still at the top, that's surprising.

 

[LoudHogRider]

Cockeye still at the top, that's surprising.

They've historically been abysmal at VB, and I'm here for it.

This is going to been an even TOUGHER conference to win with the new kids on the block. Whew!

 

[Stan Raymond]

They've historically been abysmal at VB, and I'm here for it.

This is going to been an even TOUGHER conference to win with the new kids on the block. Whew!

I don't think it makes it much tougher. Adding those 4 games to our schedule has taken some tough and some easier games off our schedule.

This season we play the 4 new teams and Wisconsin, Illinois, and Cockeye twice. Last season we played Minnesota, Michigan St, Penn State, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Michigan and Rutgers twice.

I guess it's a bit tougher, harder to win an 18 team conference vs a 14 team conference. Not as easy to make up a bad game as you only play most teams once. If we lose to Minnesota, it give them effectively a 2 game lead on us with the head to head tiebreaker, that's tougher to get back as there isn't a second game with them to make it up. But schedule wise I don't think it's much tougher than prior years.

Honestly it is better to have a loss to a bad team than to a good team for tiebreaker issues. One thing I've never liked about head to head tiebreakers. Hypothetically if Penn State beats Nebraska but loses to Cockeye, and say we both go 19-1 in conference, Penn State wins the conference autobid, even though losing to Penn State at State College is a much better loss than losing to Cockeye at home. Guess it doesn't really matter as both teams would get tournament bids and be co-champions.