[NU Sports] Big Ten losses and why I love them

[Jim Bendat]

-----Original Message-----
>From: "SjT (Stephen J. Truog)" <sjtruog at yahoo.com>

>But if we have 9 wins and Michigan or OSU has 8 or 7 wins, they're still going to get chosen over us for a bowl game - just the way fan bases and TV ratings are.
>


I remember Mark Murphy explaining how a Big Ten affiliated bowl can select a team with one few win than another team, but that bowl cannot select a team with two fewer victories. See the following edition of Murphy's Mark when we were anticipating what bowl game we would go to in 2005:

http://nusports.cstv.com/genrel/112205aac.html

Here's the key paragraph from that column:

If Ohio State does go to a BCS bowl, Wisconsin will most likely go to the Capital One Bowl. A bowl can select a team with one less overall win, but not two. Wisconsin is 8-3, and Northwestern, Michigan, Iowa and Minnesota are all 7-4. The Capital One Bowl could select one of these 7-4 teams over Wisconsin (Michigan would be the most probable), but it is not likely. This would leave Michigan for the Outback Bowl. Michigan would be the likely choice based on their tradition, reputation and ability to travel fans. 

So, if the above is still true, then if would be extremely helpful for us to wind up with two more victories than as many other Big Ten teams as possible. Go Cats!  Everybody else in the Big Ten:  Lose!

Jim B.