By Woodrow Carroll
The football bowl season got off to a very good start for the Big Ten Conference. Nine teams from the Big Ten qualified for postseason games. The conference was 4-0 in the early going.
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Maryland all emerged victorious from their respective bowl games. Then things started to go sour.
The Big Ten’s premier entrants in the bowl picture were Michigan and Ohio State. Both were in the final four seeking the national championship.
First, was Michigan. Despite scoring 45 points, it was not enough for the Wolverines who lost 51-45 to Texas Christian University.
On the heels of Michigan’s loss, the Big Ten’s other standard bearer, Ohio State, fell 42-41 to Georgia. In both games, the fans got their money’s worth. What the Big Ten didn’t get was a team in the national championship game.
• Illinois came into the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa, Fla. Monday, Jan. 2 with an 8-4 record. Illinois’ foe in that game, Mississippi State, was 8-4 at game time. The biggest story surrounding the game was the recent death of Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach.
Illinois, playing without leading rusher Chase Brown, who opted out of the game to prepare for the National Football League draft, led much of the way.
However, a late Mississippi State’ field goal followed by a bizarre game-ending sequence of events on the game’s final play, gave Mississippi State a 19-10 victory. On the final play, Illinois players sent lateral passes to teammates in order to score.
• Purdue didn’t have to worry about letting the game get away in its Citrus Bowl meeting with LSU. The final score was 63-7 in favor of Louisiana State, and, as the wags are wont to say, the game was not as close as the final score might indicate.
Remember it was Purdue that took on Michigan for the Big Ten Conference championship. The final score in that game was 43-22, Michigan. The Wolverines were clearly the better team. But, the game was competitive for the most part, which can not be said on the Boilermakers’ against LSU.
Suddenly the Big Ten, which was once 4-0 in bowl games, was now 4-4 and hurting.
• Penn State to the rescue!
Thanks to a 35-21 conquest of Utah in the Rose Bowl, the Big Ten closed out with a 5-4 record in bowl games. With Michigan and Ohio State out of the picture, the Rose Bowl game concluded the Big Ten’s participation in postseason football.
• Major college football, the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), is comprised of 10 conferences and a handful of independents led by Notre Dame. In all, 131 schools are in the FBS ranks.
If you were asked which FBS Ohio team was conference champion this season, what would your answer be? Ohio State and Cincinnati might come to mind. Both those football programs have excelled in recent years. But no! Ohio State did not win the Big Ten, nor did Cincinnati win the American Athletic.
The answer to the above query is Toledo.
• The Toledo Rockets, 9-5, of the Mid-American Conference emerged as MAC champion by beating Ohio University, 17-7, in the MAC championship game. The Rockets followed it up with a 21-19 conquest of Liberty in the Boca Raton Bowl.
A conference champion with a 56-point loss on the resume, early in the season, Toledo lost 77-21 at Ohio State.
• Northern Illinois’ most productive quarter this season was a 25-7 fourth quarter against Toledo. Very misleading! Toledo was ahead, 45-7 entering the fourth quarter and beat the Huskies 52-32.
The MAC has been viewed as the weakest of the FBS conferences in recent years, however, the MAC was 4-2 in bowl games this season.