All 10 Big Ten teams are underdogs in bowl games

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per ESPN:

0-10 this postseason?: Call it disrespect, a conspiracy, an underestimation -- or the cold, hard truth. But Vegas currently has the Big Ten as an underdog in every single bowl game. Michigan State (vs. Baylor) and Penn State (vs. Boston College) currently have the best chance to win, according to VegasInsider, as both are just three-point underdogs. The team with the biggest point spread? Maryland. Stanford is a 14-point favorite in that matchup.

The conference didn't draw an easy lot with its top-five bowl matchups, but the other five are somewhat surprising. Louisiana Tech -- which lost to both Northwestern State and Old Dominion -- is a five-point favorite over Illinois, for example. We Big Ten bloggers will submit our bowl predictions in the near future … but I can't see any of us picking the Big Ten to win zero games. That being said, even a .500 record here has to be considered a victory. These opponents certainly aren't push-overs.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/112527/big-ten-morning-links-86

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
That being said, even a .500 record here has to be considered a victory. These opponents certainly aren't push-overs.
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Not sure how I feel about this. Just the mere fact that the conference's members are held in such low regard is not good. By the same token, a 3-7 performance would be treated like a disaster by the national media when in fact that finish would actually be some consolation to the true larger scale weakness of the conference.
 

Speaking of being favored, remember when Wisconsin was favored to beat OSU? 59-0! Never forget.
 

We got some tough draws, so 5-5 wouldn't be bad, but I'm not going to consider it some kind of major coup if we get there. Illinois should beat LA Tech, and a 7-1 B1G team should be better than a 4-4 SEC team. After that, we have enough competitive matchups that we should be able to go 3-5 in the other eight. Do we really think a one-loss B1G team should be anything other than a toss-up against a one-loss Big 12 team? Do we really think our champion shouldn't be able to hang with the SEC champ? I predict 5-5 on the button, no idea who gets the wins. I'll be pleasantly surprised with anything better, disappointed with anything worse. I'd consider 3-7 or worse to be pretty horrendous.
 

If I happened to be in Vegas, I'd be comfortable putting some money on Maryland +14 Ohio State +10 and Iowa +3½. That Rutgers-North Carolina game has all the makings of a blowout one way or the other, it just depends on which Tar Heels team shows up. And I really like the Gophers' chances. Not sold on the Big Ten in the other games.
 


I predicted 2 wins in the other thread. Here's a real chance for the Big Ten to prove its metal.
 

Everyone is forgetting about the 11th game after tOSU wins their first...
 







I hope tOSU wins it all, and we beat Mizzou.

We'll ride tOSU's coat tails to a pretty good final ranking going into next season.
 

Nice showing Big Ten!
 




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