Bowl Possibilities.
- Thread starter acedog
- Start date
Of course I'm thinking 3-0, Rose Bowl or bust, but does an 8-5 NU team that played well in two close losses to Michigan have ANY shot of the Rose Bowl? This assumes Michigan goes to the CFP and beats Ohio State soundly. Could NU really get invited over a 10-2 Ohio State, or is that a pipe dream?)
That is a pipe dream.
It’s Rose or bust. Even if we go 8-4 and lose in the BCG, the Citrus & Outback bowls will want nothing to do with us. We’re California dreamin’ either way...
Oh boy...don’t get AlaskaCat started.
Rose has historically taken the next-highest-ranked B1G team if they lose the champ to CFP. That will be the loser of OSU/Michigan. Only way we go to Pasadena is if we win out.
If we win out reg season and lose in Indy, I'd bet everything we go to Citrus on Jan 1. vs. Georgia. Historically, this has been the landing spot for losers of the B1G/SEC title games.
It would be unprecedented for Division champs to go to San Diego or Santa Clara, but if we were, to say, lose out, then it would also be unprecedented for a Division champ to limp into the postseason at 6-7...so...there's that.
If you remember a few years ago it looked like we were the favorite to go to Citrus over Neb, but rumors swirled that both the B1G and SEC conference offices leaned on the Citrus officials to take the "other" Division champs who lost their games. And then we went to Outback and got pummeled by Tennessee...
this is where that Akron game would come back to haunt us, win that one and at 9-3 (8-1) whatever happened in Indy would send us to Pasedena
Georgia? Good God I hope not. Other than Alabama that is the one team I would want no part of if I was NU. Horrible match up.
Naw, still not sure we get a Rose Bowl at 9-4 compared to 10-2 Ohio State/Michigan teams.
Realistically, it's better to be 10-2 and miss the championship game than to be 9-4 with a championship game loss if the champion is going to the CFP. The 10-2 team will end up in the Rose Bowl typically.
[I'd say the same about a 10-2 Northwestern if we missed the West division title, we'd be in a great spot to go to the Rose Bowl if we were somewhere around top 12 in CFP and the East Division champ lost to fall to 9-4].
The SEC teams that I think would be best for us: Florida, Auburn, Texas A&M, South Carolina, Missouri.
I think we can matchup well with and win against any of those. Florida in Citrus or Outback would be a big marquee chance for us. That'd be a very nice consolation prize.
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My thought though is at 9-3 and 8-1 in the B1G with some back door Jim Delaney magic we would go to Pasadena and the tOSU/Michigan loser would get one of those 4 at large NYD six bids. Doesn't matter we cannot go back and hold on to that 18 point lead or play Duke again. Just need to win out
Our defense's greatest strength is stopping the run and Fromm isn't known for his mobility, so in theory, it would come down to pass defense ... not saying we wouldn't be 14-point underdogs, but there are worse matchups on the board.
Us back in Pasadena would be a great story, with them babbling about the Fitz broken leg angle every 5 minutes.
ESPN has us playing either Kentucky or Mississippi State (sound familiar?) in the Citrus.
Yuck to both. Nothing against them, but I'd like to see someone new in the bowl game.
I'm kind of hoping we somehow sneak into the Holiday Bowl. I'm tired of playing SEC teams in Florida bowl games. Although nothing is as painful as playing Tennessee.
Egad! Nothing was worse than Rocky Top...
Those are the absolute 2 worst options as opponents from the available range.
Nothing to gain by playing those two. Would much rather get a rematch with Auburn or Missouri or Tenn. Playing Florida in Florida is probably best outcome if that happens.
If we have to go to a Florida bowl it would be nice to play Florida...we have only played them twice in our history and the last time was in the 1960's. I would say that would be a different opponent.
Bowl opponents matter for building the image of our program. Yeah we've won some bowls recently, and they've been against middle range opponents.
Nobody will improve their view of us with another win over Kentucky or Miss. State.
And conversely, we can't get into another 2015 situation where we get blown off the field; that's not good either if we're looking to improve perception of the program. That's the main reason I don't want anything to do with Georgia (who will probably end up in the NY6 bowls).
For us, the optimal opponents this year are mid/upper range SEC opponents or Pac-12 opponents:
If I had to rank them by what wins against these teams would mean for us as a program:
1) Florida
2) Auburn
3) Washington
4) Texas A&M
5) Tennessee
6) South Carolina
7) Oregon
8) Cal
9) Missouri
10) Ole Miss
11) Utah
I think that's most of our possible opponents depending on how things shake out (ignoring Kentucky and Miss. State since we don't gain anything by beating them again).
Reality is that you get way more respect for beating SEC teams than others, but Washington/Oregon/Cal would also be quality opponents. [Cal is a very similar team to us].
Nobody will improve their view of us with another win over Kentucky or Miss. State.
And conversely, we can't get into another 2015 situation where we get blown off the field; that's not good either if we're looking to improve perception of the program. That's the main reason I don't want anything to do with Georgia (who will probably end up in the NY6 bowls).
For us, the optimal opponents this year are mid/upper range SEC opponents or Pac-12 opponents:
If I had to rank them by what wins against these teams would mean for us as a program:
1) Florida
2) Auburn
3) Washington
4) Texas A&M
5) Tennessee
6) South Carolina
7) Oregon
8) Cal
9) Missouri
10) Ole Miss
11) Utah
I think that's most of our possible opponents depending on how things shake out (ignoring Kentucky and Miss. State since we don't gain anything by beating them again).
Reality is that you get way more respect for beating SEC teams than others, but Washington/Oregon/Cal would also be quality opponents. [Cal is a very similar team to us].
No qualms with your rankings except I might consider Oregon higher. They're down this year, but they still have a good reputation nationally. They also are (were?) the gold standard for football facilities, right? We'd probably get a lot of mileage and comparisons between the two facilities.
Interesting that a lot of these teams are teams that have beaten NU in bowl games or Ryan Field. I'd like some revenge please!
Yeah that's fair, and I should have probably mentioned that there's a gap there between 7 and 8 to illustrate that point.
A win in a bowl game against Florida, Auburn, Washington, Texas A&M, Tennessee, South Carolina, or Oregon would do a lot for us in terms of how it would be received by general college football fans.
It would automatically become our highest quality bowl win in the modern era.
A win against Cal, Missouri, Ole Miss, or Utah would be good, and those would more or less fit in with our previous 3 bowl wins: Miss. State, Pitt, and Kentucky. Those 4 don't move the needle as much as the top 7.
Those are the points I'm trying to get across, that's the perception that would be on the table in a bowl game depending on the opponent. Obviously these things are debatable, like is Missouri that different from South Carolina? Probably not, but South Carolina's a more traditional SEC team with a larger fan base.
Rose Bowl against anybody would be a mile higher (when you're talking NY6 bowls, the opponent quality isn't important since it's a higher tier automatically; only if you're comparing two NY6 bowl wins would you compare opponent quality).
Any NY6 bowl win even against Group of 5 opponent is higher quality than Citrus/Outback/Holiday/Redbox against a blueblood.
I guess beating Florida in Citrus/Outback or USC in Holiday/Redbox probably comes closest just because of opponent quality (i.e. SEC or Pac-12 bell cows).
Either way, there's a ton of opportunity here if we get a good matchup in bowl season; of course, getting to the Rose Bowl makes this all moot.
