WE ARE !!!!!!!!...............

edmundfitzgerald · January 1, 2009 7:51AM

VitoCo1972 · January 1, 2009 7:56AM

The Big 10 STINKS. Don't give me Iowa beating South Carolina as anything other than a blip.

goose3 · January 1, 2009 8:01AM

embarrassing.

Lothar52 · January 1, 2009 8:05AM

I am so ashamed....

coinkat · January 1, 2009 8:15AM

I think The Big Ten had a difficult year. I will say this in defense of the Big Ten... going back to the beginning of the season, Northwestern, Minnesota and Michigan State were not on any radar screens- all thre were unranked. Those three teams had excellent seasons and look who they played in the Bowl season... MSU played pre-season favorite, Georgia. Northwestern played Missouri which was probably ranked 10-12th at the beginning of the season and Chase Daniel was considered a strong Heisman candidate. Minnesota played last year's surprise, Kansas, and most predicted Minnesota would finish 7th or 8th at best in conference.

Northwestern lost a tough game in OT. MSU actually lost the game in the first half by failing to capitalize on turnovers and field position. I can't make excuses for Minnesota other than the match up with Kansas was a mismatch.

Iowa is not a blip... look at the close games they lost during the season. I think their biggest lost was to Northwestern by 5

Goot · January 1, 2009 8:16AM

<< embarrassing. >>

41-14, 38-24. You guys have already done enough for the Big Ten's rep.

coinkat · January 1, 2009 8:35AM

At least Ohio State played in the Championship game... I admit, I will never understand the Florida game

swartz1 · January 1, 2009 8:47AM

getting schooled....

young coach is out-coaching the old guy....

Fairlaneman · January 1, 2009 9:58AM

Hey Big-10 guys. Don't worry the cycle will start all over again in September. One of your teams will run the table right up to the end or run the table completely. The East Coast press will say the team is the greatest ever and another high profile Bowl will be granted. The game will be played and another slaughter will happen. Year in and Year out this is how it happens. 2009 will be Ohio States turn again. The press just loves Pryor for some reason.

Go Ducks!!

Ken

larryallen73 · January 1, 2009 10:36AM

The "weak" Pac 10 won all their bowl games.

DavidPuddy · January 1, 2009 10:58AM

<< The press just loves Pryor for some reason. >>

Have you seen that guys highlights? He's a freak.

MPeter · January 1, 2009 11:41AM

The Big Ten doesn't stink! The problem is in the matchups. Why is a 7th place Wisconsin playing a 1st place Florida State in Florida? Why is 5th place Northwestern playing a Big12 championship team? Why is Minnesota even playing a bowl game?

Penn State played a USC team in their own backyard. A team that should have been playing in a National Championship. Ohio State is also taking on a team that should be playing in the National Championship.

The only good matchups were Georgia vs Michigan State and Iowa vs South Carolina.......each conference came out with a win!

yawie99 · January 1, 2009 11:55AM

<< The "weak" Pac 10 won all their bowl games.

>>

Not too shabby!

Goot · January 1, 2009 11:59AM

<< 

Penn State played a USC team in their own backyard. A team that should have been playing in a National Championship. Ohio State is also taking on a team that should be playing in the National Championship.
>>

That's a lot of National Championship games.

Sheamaster · January 1, 2009 12:38PM

The Big 10 is down - yes. However, over the last 5 years (including this year), The B10 is 7-6 against the SEC (the perceived "best conference" during that time period) in bowl games - so let's not get too carried away with the "B10 stinks mantra". Granted, Ohio State was blown out by Florida and LSU in championship games. Maybe it's just that Florida and LSU were REALLY good those years (I also hate the fact that a team can play a home game for the national championship but that's a different story).

Same goes for USC, you can't judge the B10 strictly by getting blown out by USC in the Rose Bowl. Most, if not all, teams would get blown out by USC in the Rose Bowl. USC would be playing for championships if they could avoid that one blip per year.

Down - yes, stinks - no.

Goot · January 1, 2009 1:09PM

<< 

Down - yes, stinks - no. >>

DING DING DING

Fairlaneman · January 1, 2009 2:23PM

"The problem is in the matchups"

I suppose if any of the Pac-10 teams had lost they could have used this excuse also because everyone of them except USC played a team that was ranked higher than them. The way I see it when the Ducks lose the reason is because they got beat by a better team on that date. Darn thats weird, no excuses!

I will admit the same old matchups year in and year out get old. I would love to see the Ducks play someone else besides a Big-12 team. Just not BYU though.....

Opps...I forgot. They slaughtered South Florida last year and then at the start of this year the East Coast press was real high on SF and dissed the Ducks even though both teams were back at almost the same strength. Go figure.

Ken

Goot · January 1, 2009 3:00PM

<< 

Opps...I forgot. They slaughtered South Florida last year and then at the start of this year the East Coast press was real high on SF and dissed the Ducks even though both teams were back at almost the same strength. Go figure.
>>

No worries about USF anymore. We'll have to finish undefeated for the press to give us anymore love since we choked this year.

Michigan · January 1, 2009 11:11PM

I find myself rooting for Ohio State to win their bowl game.

MSU and Penn State were not favored so I was not all that surprised. A few days before the game the MSU coach got a $500,000 raise
so they still have confidence in him after a 9-3 season, his job is secure.

larryallen73 · January 1, 2009 11:49PM

The Big Ten doesn't stink! The problem is in the matchups. Why is a 7th place Wisconsin playing a 1st place Florida State in Florida? Why is 5th place Northwestern playing a Big12 championship team? Why is Minnesota even playing a bowl game?

I would like to see the point spreads becuase I bet the 7th place Wisconsin was favored over the 1st place Florida State, no? Florida State is in an awful conference which is much worse than the big 10. Florida State hasn't been very good in 10 years or so. Wisconsin should have beat FSU in my opinion. I don't know about Northwestern v. Missouri but Missouri wasn't great so I imagine they were only favored by a couple points.

You got to go win the games and don't make match up excuses. That is almost as bad as blaming the refs when your team loses.

The Big 10 is down this year. They are still a decent conference. Would be curious how non-bias people would compare the Big 10 and the Pac 10 this year. I am bias so like the Pac 10 and their undefeated bowl record... but bowl games are just exhibitions so what does it really mean.

Sheamaster · January 2, 2009 12:32AM

Wisconsin was a 4.5 point underdog, and rightfully so. They were not good this year and did not have any "quality" wins. Northwestern was a 13 point underdog which was the largest spread of any bowl. However, with that said, the spreads are somewhat indicative of the strength of your conference. The only favorite was Iowa.

What we should not overlook is that one of the B10's marquee programs, Michigan, is in a transition year, which hurts the overall strength of the conference.

I believe that the best indication of conference strength is head-to-head regular season games and bowl games. The Pac 10 should get the credit that is due for their bowl performance.

The last thing about the B10 is everyone loves to pile on the B10 for some reason. When they lose, everybody jumps on them, but when they win or do well, nobody says a word. Anybody remember Michigan beating Florida last year, or Wisconsin beating Arkansas and Penn State beating Tennessee the year before? No, because everyone was too busy jumping on Ohio State. Case in point, in the 2001-02 season (granted that was 7 years ago), the B10 went 5-2 with Ohio State winning the NC, where were the haters then? It's all cyclical, the SEC has a great run going with Florida and LSU, and Pete Carroll is having a great run at USC (they're practically putting together "pro" teams). And the B12 is rolling with Texas and OU. It just happens that the B10's powers (OSU, Michigan, Penn State) are not at that level right now.

jdip9 · January 2, 2009 2:23AM

<<<The Big Ten doesn't stink! The problem is in the matchups. Why is a 7th place Wisconsin playing a 1st place Florida State in Florida? Why is 5th place Northwestern playing a Big12 championship team? Why is Minnesota even playing a bowl game?>>>

Um, last I checked, Florida State didn't play in the ACC Championship, so they weren't first place, plus FSU was only 1 game better than the last place team in their division - so FSU is not exactly a powerhouse team by any stretch.....and, yes Missouri might have played in the Big 12 Championship game, but they were the 5th best team in that conference....so that is an even matchup, too....

the only problem with the matchups is that the Big 10 can't matchup with the other top-flight teams from other conferences.

bigfische · January 2, 2009 2:25AM

Im happy knowing where the big ten's 1 win this bowl season came from.

WE ARE !!!!!!!!...............

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