[NU Sports] Steven's bowl scenario

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Sad news on Sutton. As for CJ, sure looks like a hamstring - the question is just how bad it is. But in any case, still miserable the day after - just wondering why, if IU was jumping on the short stuff, we didn't mix it up and go deep like we had against Purdue to loosen their D up. Just frustrating play calling, execution and ball handling on offense. Gotta fix that, as Minny is super aggressive on offense and defense (gotta admire that - sure they get beat sometime, but in that game against Illinois, it was almost like the Illini were in shock from a team that was that aggressive on D).

> I agree with all of it - damn shame NU can't take the
> Minnesota role -- but we would not "lose out" on
> a bowl, would we?

It all depends on the BCS (again, a reason to root for the Big Ten before league play :) - helps the league rep and the extra spot). It's pretty obvious we'd be the team out if there were 8 eligible and 7 spots. But add another BCS bid and not only do we get more $$$, but that extra practice time and a bowl game (even if it is Detroit).

It all seems to come down to whether we'll have two BCS busters this year. The SEC and Big XII will surely each send the limit of two teams. The ACC, Big Least and Pathetic 10 surely will not have a second team (unless ... Oregon State and SC win out and OSU wins that tiebreak!). Notre Dame will need a miracle, so the only bust would be if both Utah and Boise State finished high enough to qualify (which could happen since many of the teams above them play each other).

Interesting how our old "friend" John Saunders (seriously, what does he have against the Big Ten) and others seemed to be downplaying PSU's win last night - instead of asking whether an impressive, gritty win at a top 10 team qualified PSU to leap ahead of Alabama, they were asking whether a 1-loss team should jump ahead of PSU into the title game.

If that did happen, you'd really have to feel for JoePa to be shafted yet again. I can see being kept out if Texas and Bama win out because of their leagues, but it would really be a joke if Oklahoma, SC or Florida leapfrogged an unbeaten PSU.

* Oklahoma has some BIG questions on D (why did they only drop to 4 after their Texas loss while OSU dropped to #9 - Okie State was closer to the Horns and the game was IN Austin???)
* SC lost to a team PSU routed (and barely survived Zona last night)
* Florida lost at home to Mississippi (and I think we're starting to see that the SEC is overrated this year -- wasn't LSU supposed to have a great D, but they've had 50+ hung on them twice? And Vandy, Auburn, Kentucky and anyone outside of their big three have all but disappeared from the national scene once they started playing real foes).

Let's hope the Cats rally around all this bad weekend and shock the Gophers. We have to start strong, but I can see us hanging with Minny and pulling the upset if we play solid in all three phases of the game.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!