Locally and in general that is honestly what it is. It is the ability to pump up the "rivalries" and get people into it. Making up a bunch of BS trophies for most of them. On a more nationwide scale, yah, it is their effective ability to market those "big" games as actually meaning something. Even though I would say over half of them only mean something if the wildest of scenarios works it's way the rest of the season. I mean honestly even if Wisconsin won out I bet they still miss quite easily. Michigan can win out and probably still be out. I mean sure they are still "in it" if you honestly think they won't lose another game and all the teams around them implode. you're not wrong in anything there. Yes, UW can't make the playoffs now. But they will play in a playoff level game against OSU or UM in the B1G title game. To the bolded though, that's just like the actual playoffs in other sports. Sure, the Bucks/Trailblazers/Heat/Pelicans were in it but were they really? Sure the 14 seed in the NCAA tourney are in, but really? Buffalo and Tennessee made the playoffs in the NFL, really? You see what I'm getting at, it's not fair to just look at the final 4 of any playoff and say the games leading up to were meaningless because only 4 can win. Basically, I'm just saying these games in the regular season are the equivalent of early round playoffs in other sports. As long as you're in position that winning out wins the title, it's just like all those playoff things I listed. That applies to Michigan right now. If they beat PSU and OSU then us again in the title game, they're for sure in the playoffs and should have a legit shot to win (have to be damn good to win all those games) so every game they play is huge for them and their fans but also nationally. Same would apply to an LSU type this year and several more if you look into it a bit. So you have this type of thing going for 12-13 weeks straight creating entertainment and drama, as opposed to other sports where you can ignore for most of the regular season. Clemson gets into a tussle with Syracuse, or like OSU did this week vs MN and it's huge drama. If that happens in any other sports regular season it doesn't matter, that team is in the playoffs anyway. As you can tell I like CFB, it's my #1 sport so of course I'm biased, but when this discussion comes up I just try to say to people just realize the playoffs happen all regular season in CFB. Note before someone points it out, to an extent baseball is an exception to this discussion because it's the sport with the most randomness in a game by game basis making any team have a chance come playoffs.