In simpler times, the second-place team in the Big Ten rooted for the first-place team to lose.
But that was before the Bowl Championship Series, with its quartiles and computers, made college football as complicated as calculus. Thanks to the BCS, second-place Wisconsin , which is 5-1 in conference play, is almost forced to cheer for league-leading Penn State (5-0) as the Big Ten race hits the homestretch.
The Badgers’ best shot at the Rose Bowl appears to rest on two scenarios:
– Wisconsin defeating Purdue and Iowa.
– Penn State defeating Minnesota, Michigan and Michigan State.
If the Nittany Lions run the table, they likely will be selected for the Sugar Bowl. That would leave the Rose Bowl open for Wisconsin–but only if the Badgers qualify with nine victories and a ranking in the top 12 of the final BCS standings. Wisconsin is 7-2 overall and 10th this week in the BCS.
If the Nittany Lions lose once, they would drop into a first-place tie with the Badgers. In that case, Penn State’s superior overall record would earn it the nod to Pasadena.
There’s one more “if.” If the Badgers lose at Purdue this weekend, their only Rose Bowl hope would rest on Penn State dropping its final three games.
Got that, Bucky fans?
Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez understands the tradeoff the Big Ten made when it became a full partner in the BCS last year. Access to the national title game came with a price, and the Badgers may be about to pay it.
“You’d like to have the best of both worlds,” Alvarez said. “Quite frankly, I don’t really like to think about that right now. I think there’s just a lot of football to be played. I think this is great for college football that everybody can anticipate and speculate where everybody’s going through the BCS, and certainly there’s a possibility that there’s not a Big Ten team in the Rose Bowl. But let’s let it shake out and see what happens.”
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A dish best served cold: Ohio State coach John Cooper bristled at a reporter’s suggestion that the Buckeyes will go to East Lansing this weekend seeking to avenge last year’s loss to Michigan State. The Spartans knocked off top-rated Ohio State 28-24 last Nov. 7 in Columbus, ruining the Buckeyes’ national title hopes.
“Last year’s over,” Cooper said. “Whatever happened last year is over. David Boston, Dee Miller, Joe Germaine, John Lumpkin, Andy Katzenmoyer, Antoine Winfield, Damon Moore and Jerry Rudzinski, they don’t play down here anymore. Those were the big names in last year’s football game and they don’t play for us, unfortunately, anymore.”
A year ago the Buckeyes went into the MSU game shooting for the national title. This year they need to win one of their final three games–at Michigan State, Illinois or at Michigan–to qualify for a bowl berth.
Fourth and inches: The latest sign of the Big Ten’s national recruiting pull was the players of the week released Monday. The offensive award went to Michigan tailback Anthony Thomas of Winnfield, La.; the defensive award to Penn State defensive end Courtney Brown of Alvin, S.C.; and the special teams award to Michigan kicker Hayden Epstein of Cardiff, Calif. . . . Michigan and Wisconsin remain the big road draws in the Big Ten. Last week the Badgers played Northwestern in front of 42,292 in Ryan Field, the biggest NU crowd this fall, while Michigan drew 41,516 at Bloomington’s Memorial Stadium, Indiana’s largest crowd.