Thought I'd take some time while working nights to see how the Big Ten has done in the Sugar Bowl, historically.
I included Nebraska, Penn State, and Notre Dame, despite not being Big 10 when they played in the bowl (or in ND's case they're still not).
The Big 10 (plus Nebraska, PSU, and ND) is 6-10 all-time in the Sugar Bowl. In their victories, they won by an average of 10 points. Notre Dame (’73, ’92), Nebraska (’85, ’87), and Ohio (’99, ’11 [according to some this game never actually happened]) all have won two apiece.
In their 10 losses, they lost by an average of 15 points. Penn State leads the way with three losses (’72, ’75, ’79) while Ohio (’78, ’98) and Notre Dame (’81, ’07) each have two. Michigan (’84), Nebraska (’67), and Illinois (’02) each have one.
Virginia Tech, meanwhile, has played in three Sugar Bowls (’95, ’00, ’05), losing all but one ('95--thanks btjabrone). They lost by an average margin of approximately 2 points a game.
This probably won’t tell us anything, but I was interested to see how our conference has performed thus far, and how VT has fared.
*All data and image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Bowl
Virginia Tech won the 1995 Sugar Bowl against against Texas 28-10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Sugar_Bowl_(December)
They lost in 2000 to to FSU, 46-29. They also lost to Auburn in 2005, 16-13.
That makes their average margin of defeat less than 2 pts. That should go up a lot when we play them though.
"For today, goodbye. For tomorrow, good luck. And forever, GO BLUE!" - MSC