Express Word: 18 of 18, football, recruiting and more

The Weekly Word is GoldandBlack.com’s weekly opinion column, written by Brian Neubert. In today’s edition, we discuss Purdue being picked last in the 18-team Big Ten and much. If not evident already, this is opinion content and the opinions solely of the author.

PURDUE PICKED LAST IN THE NEW 18-TEAM BIG TEN

So, in Year 1 of the Big Dozen And A Half, Purdue came in 18th out of 18 in Big Ten writers’ preseason poll, which ostensibly replaced the league-run poll that went away years back.

I’m not here to tell you who’s right and who’s wrong in this, but I am here to tell you that no one knows a damn thing about anything anymore.

Is Purdue not getting credit for having a veteran quarterback with NFL ability? It’s not. Is Purdue not getting the presumption of improvement in Year 2 of a system? It wouldn’t appear to be. Is Purdue not getting at least something of a pass for getting wracked by injury last season? It wouldn’t appear to be.

Yes, Purdue won only four games last season, with a roster left barren by the prior staff. But among those four wins were a rout of Illinois, a rout of Minnesota and a win over Indiana when its opponent’s player-beloved coach’s neck laid in the guillotine. Those three teams are 12, 13 and 17 in the preseason poll now. Go figure.

But all that stuff I just mentioned, anyone you’d put 18th, they’d have similar talking points, too, right?

These things don’t matter in the grand scheme of things and it’s become low-hanging-fruit messaging to rally around such things. But sometimes that stuff is real. You saw what Fairleigh Dickinson did for Purdue basketball in the long run and in 2017, you saw Jeff Brohm benefit profoundly from a senior class tired of getting its collective head kicked in every week.

You never know, but in the short term, Purdue steps up to a daunting schedule carrying the albatross of being the preseason punchline, for no really good reason. Like, a five-spot gulf between Illinois and Purdue. Really? The reality here, too, is that this poll is a media exercise, and Purdue has a smaller and less myopic press corps than most.

It wouldn’t be as fun, or salacious, but my long-held belief has been that we ought to preseason poll in tiers after the top two or three. A top tier of three, a middle tier of whatever and a lower tier of whatever.

Nobody knows anything anymore.

Are Minnesota’s transfers better than Purdue’s? Are Purdue’s better than Indiana’s? Are Illinois’ better than Rutgers’? That and health are what matters most when splitting hairs in these preseason picks and there’s no predicting either.

If we’re making those calls based on spin or worse yet, high school recruiting rankings, then we truly know nothing.

It is up to Purdue now to show people how little they know.

BIG TEN FOOTBALL COMPROMISING COMPETITIVENESS

Hi, UCLA. Welcome to the Big Ten. Welcome to complete and utter irrelevance in football, if you’d not achieved that already. But here’s a gigantic check for your trouble.

Washington, welcome. Whatever you do, don’t look at what Nebraska has done since joining the Big Ten.

Oregon, welcome aboard. You’re a great program, but don’t worry at all about how Maryland has fared as a coastal, apparel-company plaything running up-tempo offense in the Big Ten. You’re better than them, always will be, but understand, too, that Arizona’s and Colorado’s defenses aren’t on your schedule anymore.

USC, welcome. You are the one with the infrastructure to make a dent in this league, maybe compete for titles. But you’d better be damn near perfect before November, because one of these years, you’re going to have that kind of team and they’re going to take you out of your natural habitat and send you to Iowa City or Madison and the only warmth you’re gonna find is the buzzsaw splitting you in two. That’s beer you smell in the air, not a Cosmopolitan. Yeah, Lincoln Riley, you’re a great offensive mind, but so was Jeff Brohm, and his teams couldn’t score in anything besides absolute-optimal weather.

To all four of you, we’re happy to have you. We are certain you will make more money now than you would have playing on the Home Shopping Network in the Undead Pac-12 had you kept it together. That money can’t buy you a greased path to championships, which used to be the priority.

This is college football now, folks.

Checks are more important than wins. They both matter and should, but checks have killed balance.

Texas, you’re the most entitled, snooty program in America and not all that far removed from Charlie Strong. You are now begging for seven-win seasons by grabbing at money when you already had all the money in the world. You know where else money comes from? Boosters and fans and NIL types. How are they going to feel when you have that good-not-great team or some tough injury luck and you lose to Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma and, heaven forbid, A&M? Oh, and every now and then you might hear the word “no” for the first time in your existence.

Florida State and Clemson, be careful what you wish for here, folks. The SEC and Big Ten aren’t locks to want you and FOX or ESPN may not come to the rescue. Do kids in your recruiting bases want to play at Kansas State? Do your fans and boosters want to see you playing Baylor? Do you want to roll the dice on a Big 12 media rights deal that still won’t match the Big Ten’s or eventually the SEC’s?

This is all so silly and so short-sighted.

RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK

• Football moving to 105 roster spots vs. 85 scholarships may not be a great thing for the rank-and-file of the major conferences, as it would theoretically allow for Ohio State and Michigan, and Georgia and Alabama to enroll 20 more players who otherwise could have wound up initially filtered throughout the second and third tiers of the Big Ten or SEC, which is to say nothing of the ACC and Big 12. “Initially” is the key term here, because players want to play and those who aren’t will more often than not transfer.

We’ll see what the final arrangement looks like, but assuming everyone maxes out their salary threshold, this would seem ominous for all but the richest of the rich, not that parity has ever been more than a punchline in Big Football world.

Beyond that, they’ve got to protect walk-ons here. There’s absolutely no reason football and basketball shouldn’t be able to have practice squads of willing volunteers as they do now, with a cap on how many can dress for competition. If you’re worried about LSU hoarding good players as walk-ons beyond the 105 limit, well, just let nature run its course and see how long it takes for players to realize it’s better to go to schools will let you put your jersey on for games.

• Basketball moving to 15 spots allows for some stock-piling, yes, but no one needs 15 players, so the transfer landscape will sort that out pretty effectively.

I’ll be surprised if Purdue regularly has 15 players salaried, but surprised too if it ever recruits like it can’t, if that makes sense. Those two extra spots are wiggle room more than they’re assets.

Keep in mind that I’m commenting on things for which much remains unknown, but at Purdue, I can promise you that, at least in basketball, salary will be the same across the board. That’s how Matt Painter has mandated NIL.

Last thought here: Normalize the term “salaried” before they come in with whatever wholesome preferred term they come in with. It’s salary.

• Is there any more unsettling feeling than sneezing while driving on a busy interstate?