[NU Sports] Texas vs. Cal

[hakirsch at aol.com]

Being from the Bay Area I too was hopeful that Cal would go to the Rose Bowl last year as well(technically 2005).  However, I do not think it is so unusual for a team to drop in the standings or, polls if you will, without a loss.  Certainly Big 10 fans remember Penn State getting knocked from #1 because Joe Pa did not run up the score on Purdue and only won by a small margin.  In spite of going undefeated and being #1 for most of the year , they finished #2.
 
A similar occurrence happened to Ohio State in 1970 prior to their loss to Stanford in the Rose Bowl as Texas moved ahead of them without a loss.  In spite of both Texas and OSU losing their respective Bowl games (ND beat Texas), Texas wound up #1 in one of polls.-There are other examples, that I can not remember , but it certainly does happen, and unfortunately provides  coaches an excuse to roll up the score. As it turns out Cal got clocked in the Holiday Bowl last year and probably was a bit overrated in spite of them being the last team to beat USC and only losing in a very close game to them in '04
 
Harry Kirsch
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Sanford_Stein at rush.edu
To: nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com
Sent: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 13:31:00 -0500
Subject: [NU Sports] Texas vs. Cal






I enjoyed Bob Schooler's link to the pro-Texas Rose Bowl arguments.
I'll provide the counter-arguments, with the disclaimer that I am the
parent
of a recent Cal-Berkeley graduate so I am totally biased.

It could be reasonably argued that Texas and Cal were pretty much equal
last year, with no definitiive way to determine the better team.  Given
that,
California should have been selected because:

1.  Texas has been to dozens of major bowls, Cal rarely gets the chance--
      probably the last time was the 1960 Rose Bowl.

2.  While the point is well-taken that Cal was not the Pac-10 champ, there
is
     still the Big Ten/Pac-10 tradition of the Rose Bowl and that should
have
     been honored.

3.  Cal was ranked higher all season and, suddenly, when the last poll
     determines bowl selection, they fall behind Texas despite not losing
     any more games -- this seldom happens and seems a little suspect.

                        SS

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