Re: Official Illinois has more wins than Michigan and ND combined thre
 

Bowls don't have to choose teams with a better record (except with 7-5 and 6-6, I believe). A bowl with the 2nd big ten team just gets second choice of available teams from the big ten. If Illinois gets this over Michigan, I would be surprised.

OSU would probably still get picked over Illinois even in the event of a blowout. Fanbase matters a ton with these things.

Re: Official Illinois has more wins than Michigan and ND combined thre
 

Illinois fanbase will travel as well as any big11ten team to a bowl game right now

Illinois has a huge alumni network

Illinois = good share of Chicago tv market

Re: Official Illinois has more wins than Michigan and ND combined thre
 

Am I wrong in thinking that the way it USED to be, for the Rose Bowl at least, was that if there was a tie then the team that had been the longest w/o a Rose Bowl was selected?

Re: Official Illinois has more wins than Michigan and ND combined thre
 

yeah...that's how it worked for the Rose Bowl

other bowl slots were never determined that way
but, it's very rare for a team a full game ahead in the Big11Ten standings to be passed over by another team for the other bowls

the debate is when teams have the same conference record

Re: Official Illinois has more wins than Michigan and ND combined thre
 

Just want to say that Illinois actually has a shot at a BCS bowl.
No joking.

I was surprised when I first heard it mentioned and had to dig through to see it.

****FIRST: BEAT NORTHWESTERN***** Impressively would help

The main thing is that no conference can have more than 2 of the 10 bids.

SEC, Pac10, and BigXII are limited to 2 bids---that makes 6 teams
Big11Ten, ACC, and Big East champ are in --- that leaves one bid


If tOSU beats Michigan, Illinois becomes the second highest Big11Ten team by a decent margin and will climb the polls as other teams play games and lose

Need Hawai'i to lose, preferably not to media darling Boise St

Need W Va to handle UCONN and Cincy in the BigEast

ACC is set-up so that all but the champ will have a 3rd loss coming that will drop them below Illinois, but it will be close.

It's possible it could come down to Illinois, ACC runner-up, and mid-major for the last BCS spot!

It shocked me to hear it, but it is a real possibility when I looked at the situation.

Re: Official Illinois has more wins than Michigan and ND combined thre
 

I think a Jan 1st bowl game would be cool. BCS acceptable too.

Re: Official Illinois has more wins than Michigan and ND combined thre
 

Time to start the cheering for a BCS

1. BEAT NORTHWESTERN (impressively would help)
2. Ohio State beat Michigan
3. Hawai'i pick up a loss (among @ Nevada, v Boise, v Washington)
4. Be nice for Boise to pick up a loss (v Idaho and @ Hawai'i)
5. Go West Virginia! (beating Cincy and UConn would put those teams well behind Illinois in bargaining position)
6. pull for V Tech out of the ACC--all but one ACC team will pick up a late season 3rd loss, the team best able to handle a 3rd loss and compete for a BCS berth with Illinois is V Tech--best to have V Tech just win that conference and compete verse the other 3 (Virginia, BC, and Clemson)
7. Go South Carolina v Clemson--along with the point before, Clemson is the second best at having a 3-loss argument with Illinois. Tougher argument if Clemson beats BC, wins @ S Car, and then loses an ACC title game on the way to 10-3.

8. Oregon losing opens up a slim chance that the Pac10 might not send 2 teams...pull for another Oregon loss and ASU to look impressive beating USC.

While not a great chance, chances still exist.

New Years in Florida is not a bad fallback plan--BEAT NORTHWESTERN!!!!!

Re: Official Illinois has more wins than Michigan and ND combined thre
 

This is nuts and I hope it happens. Although driving to Tempe will take a lot longer than driving to Orlando [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Official Illinois has more wins than Michigan and ND combined thre
 

[ QUOTE ]
Time to start the cheering for a BCS

1. BEAT NORTHWESTERN (impressively would help)
2. Ohio State beat Michigan
3. Hawai'i pick up a loss (among @ Nevada, v Boise, v Washington)
4. Be nice for Boise to pick up a loss (v Idaho and @ Hawai'i)
5. Go West Virginia! (beating Cincy and UConn would put those teams well behind Illinois in bargaining position)
6. pull for V Tech out of the ACC--all but one ACC team will pick up a late season 3rd loss, the team best able to handle a 3rd loss and compete for a BCS berth with Illinois is V Tech--best to have V Tech just win that conference and compete verse the other 3 (Virginia, BC, and Clemson)
7. Go South Carolina v Clemson--along with the point before, Clemson is the second best at having a 3-loss argument with Illinois. Tougher argument if Clemson beats BC, wins @ S Car, and then loses an ACC title game on the way to 10-3.

8. Oregon losing opens up a slim chance that the Pac10 might not send 2 teams...pull for another Oregon loss and ASU to look impressive beating USC.

While not a great chance, chances still exist.

New Years in Florida is not a bad fallback plan--BEAT NORTHWESTERN!!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]


I want some of the cool-aid you've been drinking!

Re: Official Illinois has more wins than Michigan and ND combined thre
 

MT2R isn't delusional, there was a Tribune article a few days ago saying basically the same thing. He did skip the best 3 loss team that would definately go over Illinois: Florida.

That said, Illinois winning last week was big for Northwestern. It's my totally unsustantiated opinion that teams generally have letdowns after huge wins like that. I thought last week the line would be around NU +17, but its only +13.5 which I think reflects that line of thought. Plus, we need the win to go to a bowl game. So GO CATS!!

I always hated Illinois. When I was a grad student there, my roomates were so pissed that I was pulling for North Carolina in the title game.