Huskers (fwd)

Andrew R. Smith

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Jan 4, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/4/99

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At 03:58 PM 12/31/98 -0600, Mike Nolan wrote:
:I think that Kansas State earned a better bowl game than they received,
:...the Big XII should be ashamed that it let the bowls get away with
:what they did.
:
:On balance, I think we performed like the 3rd or 4th best team in the
:conference, that's the bowl placement we probably deserved. (I think the
:Big XII's bowl ties stink, but that's a different subject.)

And Trent Woodruff wrote:
:...I'd say the
:Alamo is PRECISELY where we belonged. Not because we weren't good enough
:for the Holiday (obviously, we were, it was a great game), but because other
:conference teams deserved it more.

It actually sounds like we agree - Nebraska deserved the Big12's 3rd-4th
place bowl, BUT the Big12's 3rd-4th place bowl should have been MUCH better
than it was (if you take into account how good the conference and its teams
are).

:I think Tulane got mistreated by the bowl folks, too, and they're definitely
:taking it out on BYU. I would have loved to see them against a generally
:acknowledged top-10 caliber school, if only just to find out how good they
:really are.

I think everyone would like the bowl assignments to be more in-line with
rankings. Most of the inequities we complain about would be solved if they
were.

:In the long run, I don't think we really know how good Kansas State was ...
:And I'm not sure we know just how good this Husker team was, either

After their games against Nebraska and Missouri, I felt that KSU was as
almost good as their stats on offense, but definitely not on defense.
Their games against Texas A&M and Purdue supports that (I believe that
their poor offensive performance against Purdue was due to a total lack of
focus during practices leading-up to the game).

What's interesting to me is how close the Big12 teams are. Using Sagarin's
most recent rankings (through Jan 2), you can see what I believe to be true:
* The difference between KSU, Texas A&M, Nebraska, Texas, and Missouri
is very small (9 points).
* Close behind (6 points) are Colorado, Texas Tech, Oklahoma St., and
Oklahoma (who differ only by 7 points).
* With Baylor, Kansas, and Iowa St. (all within 2 points) only 4 points
behind.

Basically, if you want great football and close games, watch the Big12!

BTW - according to Sagarin and most other rankings, the Big12 is still the
best conference followed by the Big10, SEC, Pac10, ACC, and Big East!

Andy

ChanceRyan

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Jan 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/5/99

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>:Alamo is PRECISELY where we belonged. Not because we weren't good enough
>:for the Holiday (obviously, we were, it was a great game), but because other
>:conference teams deserved it more.

Sure, I'll agree with that, in theory. BUT, what that doesn't take into
consideration that, like every other sport, college football and its bowl games
are a BUSINESS. If the Holiday Bowl had not locked up Nebraska when it did,
and Kansas had gone undefeated, then the Holiday Bowl coordinators would have
been "up the creek without a paddle." Then who would they have signed?

Mike Nolan

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Jan 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/5/99

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ChanceRyan wrote:

: Sure, I'll agree with that, in theory. BUT, what that doesn't take into

: consideration that, like every other sport, college football and its bowl games
: are a BUSINESS. If the Holiday Bowl had not locked up Nebraska when it did,
: and Kansas had gone undefeated, then the Holiday Bowl coordinators would have
: been "up the creek without a paddle." Then who would they have signed?

Had Kansas STATE gone undefeated, then Texas A&M would have been available,
I doubt that they would have been selected by the BCS with season ending
losses to both Texas and Kansas State and an earlier loss to FSU. And under
that scenario even if Texas A&M had gone to the Cotton Bowl, then Texas
would have been available to the folks in San Diego, which I doubt would
have broken their hearts OR their pocketbooks.

The Big XII has ties with several bowls, but the rules for who goes where
are rather poorly drafted. I think they should tighten up the rules
as follows:

The Big XII Champion goes to the BCS, along with any other teams that the BCS
picks, such as Kansas State a year ago and Nebraska two years ago. My
guess is that the Big XII will get a 2nd team in the BCS pool about every
other year.

The remaining bowl slots are filled up from the following ordered list,
until they either run out of eligible teams or bowl games willing to take
a Big XII school, and my guess is the former will almost always happen
before the latter. (Current bowl affiliations indicated in caps, at large
bowl teams for 1998 in parentheses.)

1. Big XII Runner-up (from conference championship game) COTTON BOWL
(Note that this is EXACTLY what the SEC does with the loser of its
conference championship game, which is how Mississippi State got paired
against Texas.)
2. Big XII 3rd place team HOLIDAY BOWL
3. Big XII 4th place team ALAMO BOWL
4. Big XII 5th place team INSIGHT.COM BOWL
5. Big XII 6th place team (Aloha Bowl in 1998, as an at-large team)
6. Big XII 7th place team (Independence Bowl in 1998, at large)

How the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th place teams are determined is open for
debate but any system that clearly specifies a reasonable order IN ADVANCE
is fine with me, even the BCS formula, though it would probably be desirable
to have the final conference standings figure in this somehow. I could
even live with a provision for reducing the number of repeat visits to
specific bowl games if there is a reasonably equivalent school next in line,
something that the Big 10 does not have and as a result they have sent
Ohio State to Orlando in something like 3 out of the last 4 years.

Admittedly, this would have kept the Holiday Bowl folks from selling tickets
to Nebraska fans for a few more days, but OFFICIALLY that was the case
anyway, the Big XII voted NOT to permit the bowls to extend invitations
ahead of the BCS selections, and then winked as the bowls effectively did
it anyway. (Most of the local travel agents were taking 'contingent'
bookings, fully refundable or applicable to another venue if the Huskers
had not gone to San Diego. Yeah, right! These 'continent' bookings
were then used as justification for going ahead and doing on December 6th
what the bowl wanted to do on about December 1st anyway.)
--
Mike Nolan