Nov. 12, 2007
Bowl Update
With the exciting, come-from-behind win over Indiana on Saturday, our football team is now bowl-eligible. In most years, all bowl-eligible Big Ten teams receive invitations to play in bowl games. This year, though, is unprecedented for the Big Ten. With one week remaining in the Big Ten season, 10 Big Ten teams are bowl-eligible. Six teams have seven or more wins and four (Northwestern, Iowa, Indiana and Michigan State) have six wins. The Big Ten only has tie-ins with seven bowls, so getting the seventh win is crucial to the teams with six wins. A seventh win would not guarantee a team a bowl bid, but would allow a team to accept a bid from a non-Big Ten bowl (it looks like the Pac-10 and Conference U.S.A. will not fill their bowl allotments).
With six wins, a team can only go to a Big Ten bowl and Big Ten bowls cannot take a six-win team over a seven-win team. The other factor that can impact the bowl selections is whether the Big Ten gets two teams in the BCS bowls. The Big Ten has had two teams in BCS bowls in five of the last six years, but with Michigan and Ohio State's losses last week, that trend could be in jeopardy. The winner of the Ohio State-Michigan game will be the conference champion and will likely play in the Rose Bowl. In order to receive a BCS at-large bid, a team must have at least nine wins and be ranked in the top-14 of the BCS rankings.
This is certainly an exciting time for the conference and our football team. While the bowl picture will not be sorted out for a few weeks, the game this week at Illinois takes on added importance for our team. Illinois is coming off a tremendous win on the road against top-ranked Ohio State, and is playing with great confidence. They have much at stake as well, and could play in a BCS bowl if they move up in the BCS rankings. It's a rivalry game, though, and we have played well against Illinois in recent years (four straight wins). It should be a great college football game. Congratulations to Pat Fitzgerald and his staff for a fine job in getting the team to this position.
NCAA Play
Two of our other teams have very good chances to earn at-large invitations to NCAA postseason play. Our men's soccer team has been ranked in the top-15 much of the season, and should earn an invitation to the NCAA tournament. The tournament field will be announced next Monday (Nov. 19). There is a good chance that we could earn a bye (the top 16 teams get first round byes), and host a second-round game the week after Thanksgiving. Also, our volleyball team has rallied in the second half of the conference schedule and is in a good position to earn an at-large bid. If we win two or three of our remaining four games, we should earn a bid. Both Tim Lenahan and Keylor Chan deserve special mention for leading their teams to strong seasons.
Men's Basketball Opener
Our men's basketball team opens regular season play Thursday night with a game against Stanford. This is a very attractive opponent to open the season against, and I encourage our fans to come out to the game. In our exhibition win against the University of Chicago, I was encouraged by the play of our two freshmen -- Mike Capocci and Michael Thompson. They showed great promise and will play key roles for the team this year.