Bowl Games

For all of the talk about Harbaugh, his team played 4 games outside the state of Michigan as one of their 4 road games was in East Lansing. They went 1 (Rutgers) and 3 (Iowa, tOSU, FSU) on true road games. So they had 8 (really 9 with MSU sucking this year) home games and the difference between them and us was that they beat Wisconsin at home 14-7 and we lost to Wisconsin on the road in OT. Not to mention UM had a ton more talent that is either graduating or going pro, likey 18 total new starters if/when Peppers declars for the draft.

Ohio State was a huge disappoinment to say the least. I expected them to beat Clemson pretty easily and it was an butt kicking in the other direction.

What is hurting us more than anything is that we are playing southern teams in "neutral" bowl games in their home states. NU vs UT in Nashville, Iowa is playing Florida in Jacksonville and UM played FSU in Miami which is still a home game for FSU as they play in that staduim every other year.

It is what it is, but our conferecne has looked like crap so far. Hopefully we get to .500 tomorrow as a confernce.

 
Michigan's season ended up about were the preseason prediction expected them. 3 losses. 3 loses by a total of 5 points. They are not there yet. They have simply filled the QB spot for the last two years and the O-line is not where it should be talent wise. They have now lost 5 of 6 players from their 2013 OL class that was composite #1. No of the 5 ever started. The 6th MIGHT start as a 5th year senior.

OSU's loss was surprising. Maybe the Big Ten was overrated with early wins over OU and LSU. I dont think PSU is as good as their rank, and it would be nice if NU turned in a 10 or 11 win season soon.

Still it was a good year for the Big Ten. I enjoyed shutting up ESPN for most of the season. Maybe the final 3 teams can surprise today.

 
nic said:
Michigan's season ended up about were the preseason prediction expected them. 3 losses. 3 loses by a total of 5 points. They are not there yet. They have simply filled the QB spot for the last two years and the O-line is not where it should be talent wise. They have now lost 5 of 6 players from their 2013 OL class that was composite #1. No of the 5 ever started. The 6th MIGHT start as a 5th year senior.
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That's odd. I thought if you lost a lot of close games that meant you were much better than your record showed.
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Not a great showing for the B1G.

I haven't put a lot of stock in conference strength from bowl games over the years because there are so many things that affect teams differently. Coaches leaving, team motivation, and match-ups. I thought the B1G might be a little behind the 8-ball this year because we got a disproportional share of the New Year's Six bids. So I thought I'd look at how the match-ups were relative to how the teams finished in their respective conferences. If teams finished with the same conference record, I listed them as finishing in the same place (except Ohio State).

B1G finished higher in their conference

#10 Maryland (6-6) vs ACC #11 Boston College (6-6) - BC won 36-30

#3 Michigan (10-2) vs ACC #4 Florida State (9-3) - FSU won 33-32

#1 Penn State (12-1) vs Pac-12 #3 USC (9-3) - USC won 52-49

Same conference finish

#5 Nebraska (9-3) vs SEC #5 Tennessee (8-4) - Tenn won 38-24

B1G finished lower in conference

#7 Minnesota (8-4) vs Pac-12 #3 Washington State (8-4) - Minnesota won 17-12

#7 Northwestern (6-6) vs ACC #4 Pittsburgh (8-4) - Northwestern won 31-24

#9 Indiana (6-6) vs Pac-12 #6 Utah (8-4) - Utah won 26-24

#2 Ohio State (11-1) vs ACC #1 Clemson (12-1) - Clemson won 31-0

#5 Iowa (8-4) vs SEC #2 Florida (8-4) - Florida won 30-3

#3 Wisconsin (10-3) vs MAC #1 Western Michigan (13-0) - Wisconsin won 24-16

Wisconsin is kind of an asterisk because it's the only non-Power 5 opponent. But the B1G did fairly well as the lower-finisher by splitting the six game. Problem is two were blowout losses. Kind of disappointing that it looks like we'll lose all three games as the higher-finisher but they all could have gone either way.

 
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Mavric said:
nic said:
Michigan's season ended up about were the preseason prediction expected them. 3 losses. 3 loses by a total of 5 points. They are not there yet. They have simply filled the QB spot for the last two years and the O-line is not where it should be talent wise. They have now lost 5 of 6 players from their 2013 OL class that was composite #1. No of the 5 ever started. The 6th MIGHT start as a 5th year senior.
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That's odd. I thought if you lost a lot of close games that meant you were much better than your record showed.
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It means they couldn't finish and in one case turned the ball over too much. I think 10-3 was about right. A top 15 team.

 
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