VOLSVOLS17
12-13-2006, 03:12 PM
The Big Ten plays for its share -- OK, more than its share -- of goofy trophies, like a bronze pig, a spittoon, an oversized axe and a wooden turtle.
Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE
Lloyd Carr and the Wolverines are heading to the Rose Bowl.
What then, to give Michigan for joining the unenviable fraternity of worthy national championship game participants hosed by the ever-changing-yet-still-never-getting-it-right Bowl Championship Series formula?
How about The Golden Screw?
Congratulations, Lloyd Carr and the Wolverines.
Hey, and while we're at it, let's give the Platinum Dagger to Bret Bielema and the boys up there at Wisconsin.
Here you go, guys, enjoy it … right between the shoulder blades.
In a year where the Big Ten could be celebrating a historic monopoly on the BCS title game participants, Michigan won't get the chance to play Ohio State for the national championship.
And Wisconsin, despite an 11-1 record, a No. 7 ranking in the BCS standings and a spot as high as fifth in the polls, won't get in any of the five most lucrative and prestigious bowls because no conference can have more than two participants. (And, because, well, you know, we gotta make room for Notre Dame and that snazzy 26-point loss to Michigan and impressive 20-point beat down by USC).
The Wolverines made a compelling argument all season that they were, indeed, the nation's second-best team.
Too bad they eventually were undone by several unpardonable sins:
• Losing by three points on the consensus No. 1 team's home field, where the third set of sod this season afforded the same secure footing an ice rink offers someone in tap shoes.
• Concluding its season by Nov. 18, thus giving Florida the chance to impress brain dead voters with a rout of the always-stuborn Division I-AA Western Carolina Kick-Me-Hards, and an Arkansas club in the SEC championship game that can't pass a lick.
• Refusing to engage in the same posturing of Florida coach Urban Meyer, who whined and complained about everyone from university presidents to poll voters when a Michigan-Ohio State rematch looked like a certain fallback if USC fell to UCLA.
Carr declined to go that route, saying it wouldn't be good for the game. He meant the entire sport, of course, while Meyer's look at the issue was more, shall we say, Gatorcentric.
Does anyone see the irony of Meyer successfully lobbying about the unfairness of an OSU-Michigan rematch, when the only national championship trophy in his program's history came courtesy of a rematch in 1996 after a regular-season loss to Florida State?
Let's see, what was the score back then? Oh, Florida State 24, Florida 21.
And about five weeks later in the Sugar Bowl it was Florida 52, Florida State 20.
Yeah, Urban.
You're right.
Rematches are so unfair.
Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE
Lloyd Carr and the Wolverines are heading to the Rose Bowl.
What then, to give Michigan for joining the unenviable fraternity of worthy national championship game participants hosed by the ever-changing-yet-still-never-getting-it-right Bowl Championship Series formula?
How about The Golden Screw?
Congratulations, Lloyd Carr and the Wolverines.
Hey, and while we're at it, let's give the Platinum Dagger to Bret Bielema and the boys up there at Wisconsin.
Here you go, guys, enjoy it … right between the shoulder blades.
In a year where the Big Ten could be celebrating a historic monopoly on the BCS title game participants, Michigan won't get the chance to play Ohio State for the national championship.
And Wisconsin, despite an 11-1 record, a No. 7 ranking in the BCS standings and a spot as high as fifth in the polls, won't get in any of the five most lucrative and prestigious bowls because no conference can have more than two participants. (And, because, well, you know, we gotta make room for Notre Dame and that snazzy 26-point loss to Michigan and impressive 20-point beat down by USC).
The Wolverines made a compelling argument all season that they were, indeed, the nation's second-best team.
Too bad they eventually were undone by several unpardonable sins:
• Losing by three points on the consensus No. 1 team's home field, where the third set of sod this season afforded the same secure footing an ice rink offers someone in tap shoes.
• Concluding its season by Nov. 18, thus giving Florida the chance to impress brain dead voters with a rout of the always-stuborn Division I-AA Western Carolina Kick-Me-Hards, and an Arkansas club in the SEC championship game that can't pass a lick.
• Refusing to engage in the same posturing of Florida coach Urban Meyer, who whined and complained about everyone from university presidents to poll voters when a Michigan-Ohio State rematch looked like a certain fallback if USC fell to UCLA.
Carr declined to go that route, saying it wouldn't be good for the game. He meant the entire sport, of course, while Meyer's look at the issue was more, shall we say, Gatorcentric.
Does anyone see the irony of Meyer successfully lobbying about the unfairness of an OSU-Michigan rematch, when the only national championship trophy in his program's history came courtesy of a rematch in 1996 after a regular-season loss to Florida State?
Let's see, what was the score back then? Oh, Florida State 24, Florida 21.
And about five weeks later in the Sugar Bowl it was Florida 52, Florida State 20.
Yeah, Urban.
You're right.
Rematches are so unfair.