Wolverine247 Board

lulz

4 BCS Bowls and National Championship game = 10 teams, 5 conference champions and 5 at large bids. That'll leave ND, a 2nd SEC team, 2nd Big 12 team(OU), 2nd ACC team(Clemson, FSU) and a 2nd PAC12 team. Let's face it, we don't get an at large, our only shot is to win the conference.

I understand all this talk and i hate to be a party pooper..but lets get payback on Iowa 1st

This isn't quite right. First of all there's 6 conference champions and ND gets an AQ if they finish top 8, so there's 3 spots. For those 3 spots:

1. Second SEC team is a lock
2. Second Big 12 team (OU) is a lock if they win out, which I think they'll do.

but for the 3rd spot...

Clemson is currently #11 at 9-1, but they still have to play SCAR. If they lose, which I think they will, they could easily fall out of the top 14 and not be eligible. Or, even if they stay top 14, they'll be one of the least impressive 9-2 teams possible...their best win would be Ball State, the only other team with a winning record they've beaten is Duke. No other ACC team is close for this spot.

In the Pac-12, there's Stanford, Oregon State, UCLA, and USC as potentials. But Stanford and Oregon State both still have to play Oregon, so they'll be knocked out of contention. USC and UCLA still have to play each other, so that's a guaranteed loss for one of them, and the winner of that game has to go play Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game and lose again. The way the schedules shape up, I think there are only two ways an at-large team can come out of the Pac-12, and neither of them seem very likely:
(1) Stanford beats Oregon to win the Pac-12 North, then beats USC/UCLA in the championship game; Oregon becomes the at-large
(2) UCLA or USC beats Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game; Oregon becomes the at-large.

If things go to plan, though (i.e., Oregon wins out), the Pac-12 won't have an eligible at-large team.

So, really, if we win out, the spot is between us and Clemson. I articulated why I think Clemson would likely get chosen instead of us, but if they lose to SCAR it might not matter and we'd get in by default.

Just realized I neglected to account for the possibility that Oregon State could beat Oregon and thus finish 10-2 and in the top-14 as a clear at-large candidate. But I really don't think that'll happen.

OU doesn't need to lose all three games. They only need to lose one of the three. If you add up the odds, it's greater than a 50/50 chance they lose another game.

FWIW I agree with everyone who says UM in a BCS game this year is a longshot. First we need to beat OSU in Columbus and then we need a couple of other teams to lose, but it's not a crazy hypothetical. And don't forget that a loss by Nebraska opens up a path for UM to reach the Rose Bowl. Upsets happen every week and Nebraska is far from immune.

And they barely beat both NW and MSU this year (the latter with some help from the officials). UNL's last two games are against Minnesota and @Iowa. Minnesota has been up and down this year but they have improved significantly since Kill took over. Iowa has the kind of defense that will give them a shot in the event Nebraska does not play its best. All it will take is a couple of TOs or for Martinez to have an off day and the game in Iowa City could be up for grabs. Iowa did beat Sparty.

At the same time, Nebraska deserves credit for consistently overcoming double digit deficits (Wisconsin, Northwestern, Michigan State, Penn State).

Has any team ever been down at least 10 points in 4 or more Big Ten games and gone on to win the conference?

This is the attitude you guys should have. I know that is ultimately how we felt last year when we knew we didn't have much of a season ahead of us, or post season I should say.

However, I do not think you guys will be able to beat us this year. Never too soon for some talk about The Game is it?

We're not getting in with 3 losses, unless it's the Rose Bowl.

There are too many teams with either 1 or 2 losses that would have to lose. Bottom line is we need Nebraska to lose, and we need to win.

Edit: Before someone points me to Inuyesta's very well written explanation above... Yes I read that. It's just asking for too much.

it wasn't about the three loses. they weren't ranked in the top 14. you have to be a top 14 team to go to a bcs bowl

At 9-3...there is no BCS bowl.