[Husker] KU just knocked off Mizzou

[Steve Schmadeke]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Huskers still wind up in the Gator Bowl  
as expected by many, but the KU upset also opens up other bowl  
possibilities.  The Big 12 has a rule that bowls can't reach down to  
teams that have more than one fewer win than other teams that are  
available when they pick.

The conference put in that rule after Kansas State slipped down to the  
Alamo Bowl after losing to Texas Tech in the conference championship  
game in 1998.  They went from probably being in the BCS national  
championship game to losing to Drew Brees and Purdue as the fourth  
overall pick in the conference's bowl selection order that year.

Since Missouri and Oklahoma State lost, if Missouri follows up this  
loss with another in next week's national championship game, Nebraska  
will be within one win of both teams when the bowls make their  
selections.  Oklahoma and Texas will be off to the BCS.  Texas Tech,  
with their eleven wins, must be chosen by the Cotton Bowl.

However, the Holiday Bowl could then pick from any of Oklahoma State  
(9-3), Missouri (9-4) and Nebraska (8-4).  Nebraska has a strong  
reputation for traveling and, unlike the other two teams, won't be  
coming off a pair of losses in their last three games.

The fly in the ointment of this particular speculation is that the  
bowls like to get a jump on their marketing if they can, and if  
Missouri wins next week, Nebraska cannot go to the Holiday Bowl by  
rule since Missouri and whoever out of Texas/Oklahoma loses out on the  
BCS vote today go to the BCS, leaving Texas Tech and Missouri's victim  
to be picked by the Cotton Bowl and the Holiday Bowl respectively.   
Both teams have three more wins than Nebraska, locking the Huskers out.

I wouldn't be surprised if they resolve this dilemma by slotting the  
loser of the Big 12 Championship Game into the Holiday Bowl.  Texas  
Tech goes to the Cotton Bowl regardless.  The odd team out of the BCS  
vote today gets an at-large bid.  And the winner of the championship  
game also goes to the BCS, of course.

That scenario frees up Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Kansas to be  
slotted into their bowls in advance of next week's game, though the  
invite can't be made official until the BCS actually chooses a Big 12  
team as an at-large team.

In that scenario, I could see the Gator stepping up to take Nebraska  
ahead of OSU, the Alamo taking OSU and Kansas going to the Insight  
bowl while the Independence and Texas Bowl slots go unfilled by the  
Big 12.  However, Nebraska could be relegated all the way down to the  
Insight, but only if somebody along the way picks Kansas to leap-frog  
Nebraska with their selection, a pretty unlikely occurrence.

On Nov 29, 2008, at 2:13 PM, Patrick Gaule wrote:

> In one of the best games of the year, Kansas beat Missouri 40-37.
>
> By virtue of this win, Nebraska is essentially "Big 12 North co- 
> champions" (if such a monicker exists)  Missouri wins the tie- 
> breaker, so they're going to Arrowhead as the official Big 12 North  
> champions, but tying for first place in our division is pretty damn  
> good for Bo's first season.