The Most Meaningless Bowl Season In History Continues: Can A Michigan Win In The Sugar Bowl Help The B1G Save Face?
by Graham Filler on Jan 3, 2012 11:49 AM CST
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I would argue that no, a Michigan win does not in fact save face for the B1G. We sealed our fate with yesterday's losses. However, I would also argue that the 2011-2012 bowl season was one of the least consequential bowl seasons in history (yes, more meaningless than usual for you playoff lovers). This is not a diatribe about a need for playoffs though. Expansion and complete program overhauls made bowl results, in many circumstances, completely meaningless to the bigger picture. Let's discus.
The B1G is all set to go 4-6 or 3-7 in the bowl matchups. Compare that to the PAC-12, which posted a 2-5 record, or the SEC, which will post a winning bowl record along with a nat'l championship, or the Big 12, which has so far posted a monster 6-1 record.
What did we learn from these games? Very little. That exceptional Big 12 record is rendered semi-moot because the conference is losing two of those victorious teams. Furthermore, the Big 12 featured a preseason national #1...who just won the Insight Bowl. Congrats. The B1G has two top programs getting facelifts; wins for OSU and PSU wouldn't have affected their system overhauls. The PAC 12 has Oregon, Stanford, USC...and little else; did this bowl season change that idea? Finally, the SEC, with MNC in tow, is king. Don't give me that "the SEC has no middle" argument. Which conference does in fact have a strong middle tier?
Would it have been great for the B1G's programs, players, and fans to get wins this bowl season? Absolutely. But our respective fates and national reputations were pretty much sealed before the bowls began. Even an winning overall record for the conference would have given us little besides a month of chest beating and declarations that the haters had been proven wrong.*
*which wouldn't have been bad times
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I think this guy should get a shoutout too.
Always check the words with the red squiggly line. They mean you probably screwed up.
Author @ Off Tackle Empire
Next step, Twitter... @KennardHusker
by KennardHusker on Jan 3, 2012 4:46 PM CST up reply actions
Chants of
“Big Ten! Big Ten! Big Ten!” were echoing through Tampa after the Outback Bowl. So there’s that. Regardless of the outcome of the UM game, that’s undoubtedly the best B1G bowl win of the season.
That was a great win, I concur. What a comeback.
It killed me when State was throwing tremendously low percentage deep balls and getting them picked off and knocked down. The comeback begin when they altered the offensive gameplan and began throwing short, high percentage throws, screens, tight end screens, etc.
Off Tackle Empire
The quintessential Big Ten smoking room.
by Graham Filler on Jan 3, 2012 12:19 PM CST up reply actions
Thank you Roushar
Roushar (OC coordinator) is hot and cold all season. When they kept running bubble screens, I thought I’d drive to Tampa and beat him senseless. Then they started feigning bubble screens and got chunks of yards. He finally learned to adjust!!
Plus the usage of tight ends was brilliant, especially the tight end screen. UGA didn’t know how to stop them.
Oh no. Leave that crap to the SEC honks.
https://twitter.com/#!/SpartanKC
by Spartan D on Jan 3, 2012 1:27 PM CST up reply actions 4 recs
Knowing the attitude of the vast majority of my Sparty friends in Chitown
That chant was delivered with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
by ChicagoHoosier on Jan 4, 2012 2:35 PM CST up reply actions
You know what
At least they were reppin for the rest of the conference that collectively facepalmed again this season. Thank you, Sparty, for the best B1G win this season (including tonight’s miraculous/undeserved victory by Sgt. Armpunt and Coach Jabba).
"There is a force that makes us all brothers, no one goes his way alone." --Woody Hayes
This bowl season was meaningless when they announced the matchups
Very few of the bowls were ones where you could step back and say “Yeah, this is where these teams deserve to be.” Notable exceptions for me include the Rose Bowl.
Schadenfreude ist die schoenste Freude
UGA vs. MSU
The Outback bowl wasn’t the best place. But the matchup between the teams was killer.
Yea, this is true
Both division champions with 10-win seasons. And the game reflected that.
(At least the 2nd half – I’ll admit I was expecting a MSU beatdown when it was 16-0)
I thought by definition that the bowl season was meaningless.
After all as we’ve been told in finitum, the match-ups are based on the most profitable television rating. Merit factors little if at all into the equation, so how does one, judge meaning from the outcomes?
+1
And with many team’s coaches already having moved on to their next job.
Ever Grateful. Ever True.
Tell that to the Big 12 folks all around me...
….they’re convinced their 7-1 bowl record this year actually means something.
Of course, other than Okie State’s win over Stanford, they’ve beat a bunch of 6-6 and 7-5 teams.
https://twitter.com/#!/SpartanKC
I'm torn
I’m all about rooting for B1G. I rooted for Wisconsin (except Bielema…he can suck my nuts), as well as PSU, UN-L, and everyone else. I’ve been disappointed so far (except my heart-attack-inducing Spartans).
The original plan was to root for UM, regardless of their gaudy blue-and-gold uniforms. But the B1G bowl season has been such a nightmare, I may say frack it and let my inner UM hate come out.
So let it begin
Actually
Big MSU-UW basketball game tonight! I may flip back and forth.
My TV will be firmly glued to MSU/Wisky.
I’m not watchign one second of the Splenda Bowl
https://twitter.com/#!/SpartanKC
Good point
We can always see the results of the Allstate Lawlbowl on the ESPN ticker at the bottom of the basketball game.
This only matters to Michigan, much like
last year’s [REDCATED] Bowl only mattered to [B1G team name removed due to NCAA violations]. In all seriousness, OSU needed that win as a program more than the conference did, because the conference fate was sealed with the New year’s Day Massacre.
This year’s Sugar Bowl feels very much like last years in that regard. This is important for Michigan, for sure, but when we’re sitting 3-6 as a conference the meme has already been set for the next year.
In my opinion, this conference doesn’t get our national standing back until one of two things happen:
1) Both OSU and Michigan go to…and win…BCS games in the same season, preferably against SEC teams.
2) If OSU and/or Michigan don’t get back to where they have historically been, somebody…Wisconsin, Nebraska, Sparty…steps up and fills the void, and somebody other than OSU starts winning BCS games.
"Go hard. I mean, like relentless. I want a bunch of coaches that coach like their hair’s on fire, and I want a football team that goes for four to six seconds (per play) with relentless effort." OSU Coach Urban Meyer.
I partly disagree
We need two or three quality bowl wins, same year, by the top team and at least one of the next two.
Given where they are, Wisconsin, MSU, Nebraska would count. that other school, located in Sodom-on-Huron, just west of Detroit, can’t recall their name, maybe they could count if I didn’t hate them so much.
No one really cares much about how good your 5th or 6th school is if the top 3 or 4 don’t hold up.
A BCS win, Capital One, win, and Outback win could do it, even with a Rose Bowl loss. Whipping the better SEC teams gets a lot more respect than the PAC-how-many-now?
Paul -
Go Sparty! Go Bucks! Go Tigers!
Fair enough
Though I still don’t buy the “conference superiority” argument. The southeast, and specifically SEC country is insanely more college-football oriented than anywhere else. They live, breathe & die this stuff, unlike us in the upper midwest, who have not only pro athletics, but also actual lives, to distract us from college sports. That being said, we will always and only hear a chorus of “OUR COLLEGE FB RULEZZZ” from that fanbase, and that noise they make is more than sufficient to drown out any actual on the field accomplishments from teams in the B1G, Pac-##, east coast schools, etc.
A win tonight will be huge for M, no doubt, just like yesterday’s win is huge for MSU, and the Rose Bowl would have been huge for Whiskey. But I firmly believe that the B1G could run the tables in it’s bowl season, and the rest of the country would barely take notice.
Alabama
has no pro football team. Just going to put that out there.
Exactly
Neither does the FL panhandle (the Jaguars don’t count as pro), and the Carolina Panthers are clearly #2 in that region to their USC. Plus LSU draws a lot of inbreds from the non-NOLA parts of that state, as well as Mississippians that are tired of that MSU losing.
Cam Newton and Auburn
would like to have a word with you.
"Go hard. I mean, like relentless. I want a bunch of coaches that coach like their hair’s on fire, and I want a football team that goes for four to six seconds (per play) with relentless effort." OSU Coach Urban Meyer.
by Ted Glover on Jan 3, 2012 2:15 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
So does Albert Means and Alabama.
"Lying is like 95% of what I do."
-Sterling Archer, Codename: Duchess
by Bob Genghiskhan on Jan 3, 2012 3:27 PM CST up reply actions
We can't win them...
if you won’t let us play in them.
by MSULaxer27 on Jan 3, 2012 1:20 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
If we get 11+ wins again next year
And it’s completely possible. Or we can just buckle down and win the B1GCG. Then they have no choice.
next season will be a make or break year for MSU
in terms of solidifying our football as an actual program. Our guys had a hugely succesful class, now if Dantonio can maintain this high level into his next class, we may be on to something.
Next year’s schedule should work out nicely, too – yeah we’re hosting Boise, but it’s in the first game of the year, and as many players as MSU is losing on offense, Boise is losing just as many, not to mention 75% of their defense. My early prediction is the toughest game will be U-M at the Big Hole in the Ground in Oct.
I expect a step back next year. I think 9 wins would be a wildly successful season, given the talent and leadership we're losing.
The D will be top-notch again, but until I see Maxwell and all the new receivers, I’m not sold on us being in the B1G title hunt yet.
https://twitter.com/#!/SpartanKC
Look at Bama under Saban who Dantonio worked for.
He lost his all world QB, RB and WR and used his defense as his strong point this season.
You could argue that Richardson was at least as good as (if not better than) Ingram but the point is that Saban used his defense to get Bama into the NC this year.
I’m not suggesting a NC appearance for MSU next year but we bring back 9/11 of the defensive starters and 4/5 of the OL starters and our stable of RB’s. Maxwell was an elite prep (4 star?) out of HS and has been in the program for 3 years (he’s an RS junior next year correct). No reason we can’t follow the Bama model while Maxwell and the WR’s grow into their roles.
We’ll definitely be a good team. We could be a great team again.
I'd love to see it happen, and it wouldn't surprise me if we made the B1G title game again...
….but I just have a hard time buying into the new guys until I see them in real games. I do trust the coaching staff’s ability to bring in and coach up talent.
https://twitter.com/#!/SpartanKC
Nama
I think Bama had a little more talent on defense than MSU has. MSU might be equal or better on the line, but I think you’re weaker on the back 7/8.
by lonewolf371 on Jan 3, 2012 3:55 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
Oops
Meant to write Bama instead of Nama. Serves me right for typing on a phone.
by lonewolf371 on Jan 3, 2012 3:56 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
That's why I didn't suggest an NC appearance for MSU.
Still, we bring back 9/11 of the starters from the 5th ranked defense in the country. Hopefully they progress in their development.
They actually lose 10 of 11 starters on defense
On offense they lose Kellen Moore plus their starting RB, LT, C, RG and WR. I know they have a great program right now, but that’s a ton of talent to lose. I like our chances at home (where we’ve won 14 straight) with our defense against a QB who’s making his first ever start.
Not going to happen
1. Rose Bowl per vents both UM and OSU playing BCS games with SEC teams.
2. It would help if Badgers would actually win their BCS bowl.
3. It would strengthen B1G if OSU conference punishment included not going to any conference allied bowl game including all BCS games for the entire 3 yr. probation period. Maybe they could be in the Hunger Bowl. They didn’t just stain the conference by cheating they gave every B1G team in lower ranked bowl reason not to play-if the conference condones OSU cheating, why should they play all out? They won’t see a higher ranked bowl! Ever!
by James Rinkevich on Jan 4, 2012 8:31 AM CST via iPhone app up reply actions
This bowl season is as meaningless,
or as meaningful, as any.
Two teams get to duke it out for the right to say they were Natty champs. Fans at at least two other schools get to complain that their school was screwed out of a natty.
Everybody else is playing for pride & another notch in their coach’s bedposts. It’s fun, I love seeing intra-conference matchups between big name schools, but at the end of the day, this bowl season, for the B1G & all other conferences, is basically the same as any other. Take from it whatever you want.
This game strikes me as the blind leading the blind
"I wish you luck with a capital 'F'" - The Real Elvis.
No respect
The B1G will get no respect until the titles return. Until then, it’s a conference of has-beens.
by lonewolf371 on Jan 3, 2012 2:31 PM CST via mobile reply actions
I'm not going to lie.
This wasn’t the most meaningless bowl season in history. We’ll call it that because we’re the ones that lost. But I could not imagine any one of the B1G fans claiming this was a meaningless bowl season had we kicked ass.
We suck, are on down years, and have been disappointing in general. This includes the huskers, whom I feel especially suck.
It’s ok, we’ll be back next year.
by Fake Pelini on Jan 3, 2012 3:44 PM CST via mobile reply actions
I was extremely disappointed with yesterday's results.
But after thinking about it, I’m not too worried. Really, the only teams that embarrassed the conference were Ohio State, Nebraska, and Penn State. Northwestern played respectable, as did Wisconsin, and Iowa (that was a mismatch and Iowa’s defense played stellar).
So you have three teams that did embarrass, but those teams were OSU, Nebraska, and Penn State. At least two of those three are going to be just fine next year and thereafter, so as long as Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Michigan can keep building on their recent successes, the Big Ten will be back in a matter of 2-4 years. I think a lot of that hinges on the PSU hire though.
by TheHumbleBuckeye on Jan 3, 2012 4:03 PM CST reply actions
I, frankly, think this is all hyped up...this bowl record crap
but since everyone has their panties in a bunch, the issue with the Big Ten not doing better this year and for the past decade is not talent (we put tons of guys into the pros) or speed…it’s coaching. This league has very mediocre coaching. And I include my school of late. We get two or three solid coaching jobs (by team) each year whereas other conferences often get more. The systems we run tend to run more conservative, often are less complex and players are not really given a chance to do what we often see when they land in the pros (achieve). Overall the B1G is conference that is anything but cutting edge on an offensive or defensive front. If you look at what coaches are paid in the Big Ten, you get it. Assistants makes less, head coaches below the top 4 make much less than comparable schools in other conferences. The SEC spends money on football. They spend money on talent at the coaching ranks. They put a greater emphasis on winning. Thus, they are more likely to produce teams that play for all the marbles.
I’m fine with how the Big Ten conducts business, but I also think coaching is not a strong suit in this conference right now.
"I wish you luck with a capital 'F'" - The Real Elvis.
Did Woody ever pull for Bo ?
One more time people, conference rooting is for the 4-letter and toothless SEC sidewalk alum. AA Stagg hated Fielding, Zup could not stand Hanley, and Woody never ever wanted Michigan to win a single game. Got it….
Dikaia Upotheke - Justice Our Foundation
by Lord Willie on Jan 3, 2012 4:57 PM CST reply actions 2 recs
I disagree
Who you associate with says a lot about you. The same goes for universities. I think it’s good to pull for B1G teams during bowl season and when they are playing non-conference schools (especially when it’s Notre Dame) because it makes the strength of your institution appear stronger by association, especially if yours has had success against the other. Although, during intraconference play, I often find myself wishing the ground would open and swallow the arena, taking both teams with it (during the Purdue/U of I basketball game last Saturday, for instance.)
by ChicagoHoosier on Jan 4, 2012 2:52 PM CST up reply actions
Unrelated, but hasn't the north seen population growth?
Because more and more IT jobs are taking over what the rust belt used to be? I don’t know if we’ll ever be as good as the south is until NYC, Boston & Philly begin to carry their weight. No offense to DC or Detroit or Ft. Wayne, but when your 3/5 biggest metro areas don’t really do much in football, then that should definitely be looked at.
Also, now that over signing is beginning to go away, then that’ll shift even more power.
Some guy at Penn State Hershey just discovered a virus that eats cancer. Where were the CNN trucks for that? Now Someone at PSU found something that could cure Leukemia. Coverage? None. THON will probably break $10 mil this year. Put that on "Outside the Lines" you sanctimonious pricks!
I don't really think there's atlantic seaboard-midwest solidarity
And its less of a population issue, its more of a socio-economic issue.
by Mark Mandingo on Jan 3, 2012 5:26 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
Agreed.
There’s also less and less solidarity with the Deep South on the southern Atlantic coast. Do you think UVa or UNC would ever want to be considered peers of SEC schools? Not since 1953.
by ChicagoHoosier on Jan 4, 2012 2:45 PM CST up reply actions
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