By Woodrow Carroll
Thanks to Ohio State University’s 48-45 comeback victory over Utah in the Rose Bowl, Saturday, Jan. 1, the Big Ten Conference closed out participation in this season’s bowl games with a final record of 6-4. Thanks to the Buckeyes’ victory, the Big Ten avoided a bit of a meltdown.
Five bowl games into postseason play, the Big Ten’s record was 5-0.
Minnesota, Maryland, Purdue, Michigan State, and Wisconsin all won bowl games. Backers of the Big Ten Conference were riding a high crest.
The opposition grew stronger and the Big Ten suffered. Rutgers, filling in for Texas A&M in the Gator Bowl, fell, 38-10, to Wake Forest. No shocker there because the Scarlet Knights were 5-7 coming in to the game and a decided underdog.
A Final four playoff selection, and defacto conference standard bearer by virtue of its playoff selection, Michigan, was no match for Georgia and lost, 34-11, in the Orange Bowl and in ta playoff semifinal game. Alabama best Cincinnati, 27-6, in the other semfinal, in the Cotton Bowl
The new year started on a down note for the Big Ten. Arkansas took out Penn State in the Outback Bowl followed by Iowa’s loss to Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl. Suddenly, the conference omce with a 5-0 record in the postseason a few days earlier, fell to 5-4 until the Ohio State victory.
• The Mid-American Conference (MAC), which looked to be a disaster in the early stages of the bowl season, righted itself and ended up bringing a degree of pride and glory to the Conference.
Both Toledo and Northern Illinois of the MAC opened bowl action, and, both lost! Toledo lost in the Bahamas Bowl and Northern Illinois suffered a close 47-41 defeat to Coastal Carolina in the Cure Bowl.
Life got no better for the MAC image with Eastern Michigan and Kent State both coming up short in their respective bowl games.
Needing image restoration, Miami (Ohio) defeated North Texas in the hastily-arranged Frisco Football Classic. Ball State lost its game before Western Michigan ko’d Nevada in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit.
It was Central Michigan’s 24-21 victory over Washington State in the Sun Bowl that brought attention to the MAC and, left the MAC 3-5 in bowl games.
Central Michigan was scheduled to play Boise State in the Arizona Bowl in Tucson, Ariz.. Boise State played the COVID card and pulled out! About the same time, Miami (Fla.) made an exit from the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.
Quickly, Central Michigan came forward and filled in as a foe for Washington State in the Sun Bowl, is the second oldest bowl game after the Rose Bowl.
The first Sun Bowl game was in 1935 and pitted two high school teams.
Food for thought! If the payout from the Sun Bowl holds up, Central Michigan will make far more from its Sun Bowl payout than what the school would have earned by playing in the Arizona Bowl.
Central Michigan’s victory was no fluke. The Chippewas had a statistical edge and raced to a 21-0 advantage then fought off a Washington State comeback.
A crowd of 34,540 showed up for the game in El Paso in the rain.
The game long has been an El Paso pride.
A point of MAC pride: Central Michigan’s 24-21 victory over Washington State, which was the first time a MAC team defeated a Power Five team in a bowl game. For instance, Northern Illinois has faced TCU, Florida State, and Duke, all from Power Five conferences, in bowl games, and come up short.
Prior to the Sun Bowl, the Pac-12 Conference was 20-0 in games against the MAC, however, Central Michigan made the change.
Central Michigan, 9-4, closed with a five-game winning streak. The Chippewas’ last defeat was October 23 to Northern Illinois which came back from 17 points behind for the 39-38 victory.