In yesterday's LA TIMES, college football writer Chris Dufresne makes a pretty good point in saying forget point spreads and coaching and talent when picking who will win bowl games. According to him, the biggest predictor of bowl success and failure is much simpler: Does the team really want to be there?
For examples, among others, he points out Texas in 2003 being miffed after not receiving BCS bid then getting smoked by Wazu in the Holiday Bowl and Cal last year getting spanked by Texas Tech after similar "displeasure" with their non-BCS bowl invitation.
Thus, using that as his indicator, he says the following about the upcoming Alamo Bowl:
"Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr is so miffed that Iowa got the Outback bid he is now in favor of a 16-team playoff. Winner: Nebraska"
You know what? Dufresne might be right. Because the truth is, nobody associated with Michigan - from the fans to the players to the coaches - wants to be in San Antonio while Nebraska is dying to prove that it doesn't, uh, suck as much as it appeared to most of the last two seasons.
And if Nebraska received BaggyPantsDevil's Xmas gift below, it could be a long night on the 28th.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
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4 comments:
i agree will power of team decides who will win
Me thinks you're right GFN.
This is wrong. This only applies to being dismayed at getting shut out of a big time bowl. No one has ever been so upset at not getting into the 3rd teir Big Ten Bowl Game that they downplayed being in the 4th Tier Game. Go ahead and bet against Oregon in the Let Down (I mean Holiday) Bowl, but you're crazy if you think this will affect our team at all.
PS:
http://www.collegefootballnews.com/2005/Bowls/Alamo.htm
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