The first two weeks of the college football season raised an unusual but not unreasonable question: Was Ohio State going to be less than its usual dominant self in 2021? In the season opener at Minnesota, the Buckeye defense was uncharacteristically leaky. The Gophers’ expected points added (EPA) per play was 0.08, then the fifth-highest […]
On the first full weekend of this college football season, with fans in the Camp Randall stands for the first time since 2019, Penn State and Wisconsin played the kind of game their conference does best — a 16-10 defensive struggle. Neither team scored in the first half, and only three drives crossed midfield in […]
Michigan football fans are not conditioned in their modern state to feel anything good. The sport so many of them live and die with has burned them too often over the past 20 years for many Wolverines fans to feel truly excited as the calendar flips from month to month in the fall. This September […]
The crown jewel of the Big Ten Conference college football slate was scheduled for Halloween: Ohio State vs. Penn State. Marketing-wise, it would be difficult to eclipse a whiteout primetime matchup in Happy Valley. After all, this was a meeting that in recent years set records for ratings and attendance, deciding divisions and trips to […]
In the weeks leading up to this strange, limited-capacity season of college football, oddsmakers salivated over the prospect of something akin to a control study for home-field advantage. What role does geography play if crowds are reduced by 75 percent, or if there are no crowds at all? “I think home-field advantage for everyone may […]