B1G implications for December

Besides the top teams playing against some top talent across the Big Ten a good amount of Big Ten teams played some middle of the road talent and didn't perform the way a fan of the big ten would hope. The reason this is important to note now, because we will all be talking about it in December when we wonder why the RPI for the Big Ten teams is lower than expected. The middle and bottom of the Big Ten have a responsibility to beat teams from other conferences that may not make the tournament so that the Big Ten can stay at the top of NCAA volleyball. Here are a few notable games that went south for some Big Ten teams:

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One of the teams that stands out to me the most right now is Ohio State. They have now been swept twice, once by unranked VCU and a second time against Miami. Both games took place in Miami Florida. Ohio State had quite a few transfers leave their program and are trying to rebuild with what was left. The Buckeyes will have a lot to figure out before the Big Ten season kicks off to hopefully not find themselves at the bottom of the conference. 

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Maryland is also 0-2 losing a 5 setter to Coastal Carolina and in 4 to a strong ACC team, North Carolina. The ACC is a risen conference, so a loss to a top ½ of the ACC team is not necessarily a bad loss and I'm sure the Terrapins learned quite a bit from both games. But again, if they want to push the Big Ten conference ahead they will need to make some adjustments to come away with some pre-season wins.

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Another big loss was the Illini of Illinois losing in 4 to South Dakota State. Although SDSU is really pushing the envelope and becoming a really strong program. This is a loss for the Big Ten that will hurt the RPI of other teams at the beginning of December when tournament seeding is being decided. 

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My last preseason loss that I took note of this past weekend was Washington dropping a 5 setter and losing by 2 points in the 5th to Northern Colorado. Again, another win that the Big Ten conference would hope to have from their pre season top of the conference ranked Washington.

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A couple of matches also went a little close for comfort but these Big Ten teams walked away with the win. Purdue took South Florida to 5 sets, eventually winning. Washington also took Colorado St. to 5 sets on Saturday but eventually walked away with a win. 

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The weekend isn't over. Sunday’s games have not been played, but these were some notable games that didn't go in the Big Ten conference’s favor. So when December rolls around and fans are wondering why the Big Ten teams aren't left with great RPI’s we can remember week 1 of pre season volleyball & all of the teams that aren't winning “must win” matches for the conference.