Last Call with Jake Simpson: Big Ten Bowl Basics
Before I clear up the bowl alphabet soup facing Northwestern, a quick shout-out to sophomore defensive tackle Corbin Bryant, who is out for the season after suffering a knee injury against Michigan. Bryant has been one of the keys to the Wildcats’ stifling run defense, anchoring the middle of the field along with John Gill. He’ll be sorely missed.
Also, here’s a random important stat this week. In the Cats’ four Big Ten road games, they have given up a total of seven points in the second half. That’s one touchdown in eight quarters of football. Indiana scored a third-quarter touchdown, and that’s it.
Quite an improvement for this defense.
Anyway, back to the bowl picture. For starters, the Big Ten conference has contracts with seven bowls. Those bowls pick in this order:
Rose (or BCS): PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 1
Capital One: ORLANDO, Jan. 1
Outback: TAMPA, Jan 1
Alamo: SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 29
Champs Sports: ORLANDO, Dec. 27
Insight: TEMPE, Ariz., Dec. 31
Motor City: DETROIT, Dec. 26
We can cross off some of these bowls right away. With eight wins already, the team has already left the Motor City Bowl behind (so long, Detroit). NU sits in fourth place in the Big Ten with an 8-3 overall record. The bowls look at overall record more than conference record.
Penn State, Michigan State, and Ohio State are ahead of the Cats, and two of them will occupy the Rose Bowl and Capital One Bowl for sure. But there’s still a chance that two Big Ten teams reach the BCS. If you want that to happen, root for Oregon State to lose. Just trust me on that one.
So that leaves the Outback, Alamo, Champs Sports, and Insight Bowls. How will they choose? I’m glad you asked.
The bowls can choose any team they want, with one restriction. Bowls can’t pick a team two or more games behind another team. In other words, if NU finishes 9-3 and Iowa finishes 7-5, a bowl couldn’t take Iowa over the Cats.
It’s much too early to break down every scenario (we’ll get to that next week). I will, however, provide the best-case scenario.
NU beats Illinois
Penn State beats Michigan State
Ohio State beats Michigan
Minnesota beats Iowa
Oregon State loses one of its final two games
If all this happens, the Cats are a virtual lock for the Outback Bowl.
ESPN.com predicts NU will play in the Alamo Bowl against Oklahoma State, coached by Mike Gundy.
For right now, all we know is that these Cats will be flying south for the winter.
james-simpson@northwestern.edu
Tags: Bowl, Corbin Bryant, Last Call, Northwestern
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November 20th, 2008 at 11:22 am
see here - http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/961. the Motor City Bowl is still a real possibility. Keep in mind that bowls exist to make money, so along with a team’s record, they consider ticket sales and to a lesser extent, TV viewership. Every other Big Ten school brings a much larger alumni base, and most schools, i.e. Iowa and Wisconsin, have fan bases comprised of entire states. while NU has a national alumni group that travels well, it is hard to make up for the non-alumni fans which are virtually non existent for Northwestern.