Big day for the Big Ten

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Jike Spingleton

Jike Spingleton

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Too bad Northwestern blew their chances late against Auburn, but can't complain about wins over LSU and Oregon. Would be nice if we could contribute to success like this one of these days.

My distaste for the Alamo Bowl aside, go Sparty.
 

All those suspensions might be tough for MSU to overcome, but I like Iowa's chances vs. GT.
 

Win one more and call it a success for the Big 10. Above .500 (4-3) would be significant improvement. Already, at least it's nice to get off the BCS schneid (sp?).

Not counting on Michigan State tomorrow vs. Tech's passing game. That's a bonus for the Big 10 if Sparty gets that one. It's likely going to be up to Iowa.
 

The Big Ten has taken down AP's #7, 13 and 14. We need Iowa to win to have a very good bowl season.
 



Big Ten is Back

It has been a huge bowl season for the Big Ten already. The Penn State win over LSU in the Capital One was Big. So was Wisconsin defeating a 2010 pre-season top ten team in Miami. The Rose Bowl win was HUGE! The Big Ten is going to end up winning their 3 highest rated bowls (Rose, Orange, and Capital One). It's a shame Minnesota and Northwestern lost on a bad missed fg and an unforgivable fumble respectively, but wins in the big games is what is going to gain the conference respect back.

Next year the Big Ten should have 4 preseason top 15 teams (Wisconsin, Iowa, Penn State, and Ohio State) and the Buckeyes should be ranked no lower than #3 to start the year. This is GREAT news for next year's Big Ten football teams. With USC, Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, and Wisconsin all likely to be ranked, the Gophers SOS should be off the charts.

Of course, that is only helpful if they manage to win 7 or 8 games. But I truly believe next year that's gonna happen.
 


I am eating crow about the success the B10 will have in the bowl season, and I love it. I am considering changing my pick in the Iowa/GT game based upon this success. Minnesota has been the biggest disappointment of the B10 bowl season so far, and considering I expect MSU to get blown out, it will probably remain that way.
 




The Big 10 gets villified and SEC celebrated year after year. It was interesting to see the stat during PSU game yesterday that SEC was only up 14-13 in head to head bowl games. Can't remember exactly since what year - 2000 or so.

Anyway, for the "separation" people like to speak to it's pretty even. Just had some bad high-profile showings like FL-OSU and run in Rose Bowl.
 

Going by conference records...

Insight B10 8 loses to B12 9
Champs B10 5 beats ACC 4
Outback B10 4 loses to SEC 8
Cap 1 B10 3 beats SEC 3
Rose B10 1 beats PAC10 1

So we've won all the games where a lower placed or even placed finisher played a higher placed finisher and lost the two games where a higher placed finisher played a lower placed finisher.

Alamo B10 6 vs. B12 4
Orange B10 2 vs. ACC 1

In my opinion a win in the Orange Bowl makes it a very successful season, beating two BCS conf. champs as well as some highly regarded teams from the ACC and SEC. An MSU loss, even a blowout, may be excused by the media becasue of the circumstances. An MSU win is icing on the cake.

If MSU loses and Iowa gets blown out, I think we will hear a lot of negativity again because the Orange Bowl will be the last thing people remember.
 

If Gray holds on to that ball and the Gophers get a FG or TD out of that drive, and if NU's kicker doesn't happen to have his career worst day and just converts 1 FG, the Big Ten would be sitting at 5-1 right now. I think Iowa will take GT to make it 4-3 this bowl season. Just a shame the Big Ten was 4 points away from 2 more wins.
 

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