I didn't take the 90 minutes to watch the guys' thing to truly know their formula. Part of it definitely seems to be winning or losing close games, which is a very inexact science to me. There are teams that get some bad bounces but then you also have teams like 2023 who win close games because they were better in moments that mattered and have good QBs and teams like 2024 USC who lose close games because they're not that good and are soft.
With the dust fully settled it's safe to say a team like UW easily could have had the same record as Illinois or Indiana with the same schedule, and potentially even better. Scheduling is a major flaw with the bloated Big 10 and we will probably see 1-2 teams every year who are 6-6 teams that get easy schedules.