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Where the Big 10 sees Washington in the pecking order

WolverineWillie
WolverineWillie Member Posts: 53
in Hardcore Husky Board

I was talking to a couple buddies of mine, who went to Mich St. and Wisconsin respectively and we were discussing how the pecking order will shape out going forward in to the future. Let me preface this by saying that this is not a commentary on Washington as a program in an of itself, I like them dawgs, but of how you all stack up in the BIG10.

First of all this is how I see the conference faring on average going forward:

Ohio St

Oregon

Mich

Penn St

USC

Indiana

Iowa

Washington

Wisconsin

Michigan St.

Illinois

UCLA

Nebraska

Rutgers

Maryland

Minnesota

Purdue

Northwestern

This is the list that we came up with after a lot of deliberating. Basically both UWs are comps to each other both in outlook and typical finish in conference. Both have popped up in stretches but in this new era of college football, both are destined for the middle of the pack but for different reasons. For Wisconsin, they will never attract top end talent due to their NIL situation and their geography. Yes they have home grown talent in the past but those players will be poached long before Wisconsin gets to enjoy the fruits of their labor. For Washington, as far as I can see their NIL and collective is OK, not great. This keeps them in the running for a great player or two in the transfer portal. The issue is that the top tier of our conference is going to add multiple great players to supplement the home grown talent they keep. For Washington, they have history, BUT, that no longer matters once you have the money to buy a team like Oregon, Ohio St, or Michigan. This era is just about the money, period. West coast teams will always struggle in the Big10 because top lineman talent on the west coast will always be poached by big spenders elsewhere. Oregon is the exception because they can win the bidding wars for them. The local linemen in the midwest will mostly opt to stay closer to home. Washington has not shown that they can do this. Without quality linemen, the west coast teams will continue to be pushed around leading to mediocre seasons.

This is where Washington is, a team struggling to find its identity in a world where history and tradition no longer matter in the face to big spending. You can see this in the recent valuation that came out of the proposed private equity deal that is now dead. An independent entity valued Washington this way based on their forward looking factors. So this is independently verified. Both UWs will have to adjust to the new normal as the pecking order is now almost exclusively determined by the player payroll. The problem also is that this leaves UWs out of most playoffs unless they expand past 12 which keeps the cycle down for them. It is not fair and I do miss the history and tradition of the past and I guess now I have appreciate that people like Dave Portnoy are buying my players…..what a trip this is now.

anyway, that is the way I see it.

Take care, and I hope we play again next season, our games are some of the best.

Go Blue!

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