ESPN Bowl Predictions
With 14 weeks left, ESPN has granted us a view into the end of the year.
College Football Playoff semifinal: Michigan State
Chick-fil-A Peach/Cotton: Ohio State
Capital One: Nebraska
Outback: Michigan
National University Holiday Bowl: Wisconsin
TaxSlayer/Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl: Iowa
San Francisco: Minnesota
New Era Pinstripe: Maryland
Quick Lane: Indiana
Heart of Dallas: Rutgers
As an aside, these bowl names BLOW
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:00 AM ^
Man, I wish Michigan played Nebraska this year. Those two losses are going to burn for a while, because I feel Michigan had better teams both* times.
*Yes, overall better. I know the O-line was a dumpster fire, but just about everywhere else...
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:42 AM ^
We'll be playing Nebraska in the B1G Championship game.
September 3rd, 2014 at 8:59 AM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:01 AM ^
That's kinda what I mean, though. Couldn't have a QB ready to step in for Denard in 2012, couldn't adjust to the inability to run up the middle last year. Teams that were flawed but not terrible, made worse by awful coaching.
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:10 AM ^
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:52 AM ^
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:56 AM ^
While I might agree with your analogy, Justice Hayes is not amused.
September 3rd, 2014 at 10:25 AM ^
Even if Peppers hadn't picked 5, those four games of sweet glory were worth it.
September 3rd, 2014 at 10:31 AM ^
That last 75 yard drive was a killer as were key drops by Funchess and Dileo.
September 3rd, 2014 at 1:20 PM ^
yea and the coaches deciding to put in freshman and not play press coverage on a 4th and 4 or 4th and 5 whatever it was...
All their terrible QB had to do was turn and throw a straight pass to their WR standing there with no DB's within 10 yards
September 3rd, 2014 at 1:21 PM ^
not sure why duped
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:00 AM ^
In the BIG championship game.
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:05 AM ^
Jerry Palm hasn't updated his projections quite yet, but to start off, he actually had no Big Ten team in the playoff bracket, instead opting to put Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl and Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. After that, He went with Michigan in the TaxSlayer Bowl and then Iowa in the Outback Bowl, then Nebraska in the Capital One Bowl and Maryland in the FIght Hunger Bowl. Below that line, he picked Wisconsin in the Holiday Bowl and Minnesota in the Heart Of Dallas Bowl. Rutgers was conspicuously absent from his preseason projection.
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:06 AM ^
No Rutgers in his bowl projections? Must be an oversight.
September 3rd, 2014 at 10:52 AM ^
and didn't read all the way to the bottom?
Edit: thought the above poster was talking about the OP. Guess I got bored and didn't read LSA's post. Fail.
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:12 AM ^
I don't see any Big Ten team in the playoffs - the schedule is too weak.
I see MSU losing this week, Ohio and everyone else picking up a loss or two in conference.
The Big Ten champ is going to be a 1 or 2 loss team with a low strength of schedule.
I bet 1 ACC, 1 or 2 SEC and 1 or 2 PAC 12 in playoffs.
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:35 AM ^
State could lose this week and still get in if they ran the table and won the BIG title game. Personally, I think they are going to win this week and then lose a couple of games during the BIG season. Personally, I would like to see them win big this weekend. The more impressive wins the BIG can get the better because at this point we need victories against conference opponents to be meaningful again in this conference. Already upset that Wisconsin blew one chance last week.
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:45 AM ^
I cant, for the life of me, understand why Michigan St is a 2 td underdog against Oregon. I get that Autzen Stadium is a tough place to play and they are ranked #3 in the country, but they really struggle against teams like Michigan St. If I was a betting man I would put a lot of money on MSU. I hope Oregon wins, but I just dont see it.
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:52 AM ^
reason, Vegas wants the betting man to think exactly what you are thinking right now. I, like you, don't see it, but perhaps they know or see something we don't? We'll see.
September 3rd, 2014 at 11:14 AM ^
about wanting the betting man to think anything other than to bet the game. their sole goal is to have an equal amount of money bet on each proposition, to wit: the same amount of money bet for oregon and for msu. vegas gets 10% vig on each bet. then they simply hand the one stash of losers' cash to the folks that won, and keep their vig. no risk, just held the money for 6 days and kept the 'commission'.
as to the line, i agree it seems out of whack, but that is probably due to the fact that there are a lot more oregon fans going to bet $ in vegas than sparty fans. thus, to draw an equal amount of $ bet they had to tilt the line somewhat. i too think i'd bet the mortgage on sparty if it was purely a business deal. i will still kind of pull for them to win, but that's hard.
September 3rd, 2014 at 10:57 AM ^
Staee's RB, Langford, is banged up but even with that and being at Autzen, I don't see that spread either.
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:40 AM ^
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:52 AM ^
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:19 AM ^
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:43 AM ^
this morning on wtka. He's of the opinion that MSU is not as good as everyone is making them out to be. The defense is good but not like last year. JSU had some plays that were open, especially downfield that they couldn't connect. .. I really think they are going to underwhelm people this year. . .
September 3rd, 2014 at 10:00 AM ^
Oregon completely blows them out. Something along the lines of 45-10.
September 3rd, 2014 at 10:06 AM ^
As long as they start underwhelming October 25th, I'll be happy
September 3rd, 2014 at 12:38 PM ^
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:44 AM ^
Ugh, the Outback would be such a disappointing slot to end up in.
I actually would be surprised if one of MSU or OSU doesn't end up in the playoff. Oregon is a very flawed team, and I think MSU wins this weekend. OSU might struggle a bit against VT, since Bud Foster is great at toying with young QBs, but I don't see them losing to anyone in conference except maybe MSU. Really, in my opinion, the winner of the OSU-MSU game should be no worse than 11-1, and possibly 12-0, heading into the B1G title game against a weak West team.
Also, I can see Wisconsin dropping a few slots if McEvoy doesn't learn how to pass by the end of the season. As good as Gordon is, he'll be facing 9-man boxes quite a bit. Really opens up that division for Iowa and Nebraska to have shiny records, which only helps the perception of either OSU or MSU winning the championship game.
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:58 AM ^
see Iowa having a shiny anything.
September 3rd, 2014 at 12:19 PM ^
Iowa's schedule is hilariously terrible. Depending on whether Wisconsin can find a passing game or not, Northern Iowa might be the third or fourth best team they'll face all season.
September 3rd, 2014 at 10:52 AM ^
There's really something called the TaxSlayer/Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl? I'm sure they'll just call it the TSFAMMCB to make it easy to remember but damn.
September 3rd, 2014 at 12:55 PM ^
September 3rd, 2014 at 3:28 PM ^
That sounds like tradition....we can't have tradition when there's a buck to be made...
September 3rd, 2014 at 10:41 AM ^
September 3rd, 2014 at 10:46 AM ^
version of that exact same thing for about 5 years now all they do is continue to beat us over the head with a bowling pin and win 11 games. If MSU is going to come back down to earth I am going to have see it to believe it.
September 3rd, 2014 at 10:59 AM ^
Don't forget that only two years ago MSU had a subpar season. Yes, they have an easy schedule (seriously, Neb, UM, and OSU at home...c'mon), but they aren't very far removed from barely beating a shitty TCU team just to avoid a sub-.500 record.
The other reason I don't see them making the CFP is their non-conference schedule is a joke. One legit team (Oregon) and three piles of shit (JSU, EMU & Wyoming). If they lose to the Ducks this weekend, they would need to win out the rest of the way to be in the conversation, and I do not see that happening with all the talent they lost.
September 3rd, 2014 at 11:18 AM ^
what I am saying is that I have stopped waiting for that "step back" with Michigan State because I have been expecting it on multiple occasions and have ended up seeing the opposite. "now that Cousins is gone...." "Now that Gholston and Worthy are gone...." "Now that Bell is gone.....," it has just never happenned. Sure they had a transition year after Cousins but I am really not holding my breath anymore for that time where State just goes away because they are State.
September 3rd, 2014 at 11:34 AM ^
It's not a bad stance to take and I totally understand your reasoning. I'm not quite ready to crown them kings every year, but maybe that's wishful thinking.
September 3rd, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^
said "this is the year they suck" too many times. I am now settling on expecting them to be world-beaters and being pleasantly surprised if they are not.
September 3rd, 2014 at 12:26 PM ^
This is absolutely true, though (a) in 2012 (after Cousins and Bell left) they did go 7-6. So that was a major step back, and (b) they have been forced to replace quite a bit of talent on the defensive side, more than usual, and after one game nobody knows how successful that transition has been. Also, teams are starting to adopt the same defensive style that made them so successful but are doing so with better talent. It will be interesting to see how MSU handles all the grabbing and near-PI crap they pulled for years on their mediocre WRs. It feels a bit like how the Oakland A's found an inefficiency in the market and won for a couple of years before everyone else started doing the same thing and they fell back to the pack. Not a perfect analogy, but it would defy all reality for MSU to continue to be an elite program when they aren't recruiting like it and play in a major conference (unlike teams like Boise and TCU which for long stretches played mediocre teams most of the time and, thus, were protected somewhat).
September 3rd, 2014 at 10:49 AM ^
Agree - I see a fall off like our 1998 squad.
We went from National Champs to 3 regular season losses.
They could easily lose Oregon and any combination of Nebraska, Michigan and Ohio.
September 3rd, 2014 at 11:01 AM ^
September 3rd, 2014 at 10:54 AM ^
Would not be too bad. We'll see how we play in South Bend! If we win, I think we can build some momentum heading into the B1G schedule and may go undefeated going into the game against MSU. If we lose to ND then we may be on that 4 loss trajectory and may have to play in a smaller bowl then the Outback.
September 3rd, 2014 at 11:09 AM ^
nearly same avatar. you never ever see them together. you be the judge....
September 3rd, 2014 at 11:38 AM ^
I see ESPN is desperate for web hits yet again.
September 3rd, 2014 at 12:22 PM ^
Man, they are SUPER high on Nebraska beating the crap out of an overmatched team. This is still a team with major questions at QB and a defense that hasn't been particularly good for years.
Outback sounds about right, though I think the Sparty love is a bit high. If they lose to Oregon, I don't see how they pick up another marquee win this year to convince voters to put them ahead of a couple of other teams with 1 loss.
September 3rd, 2014 at 12:53 PM ^
This might be the only thing more useless than polls at this point of the season.
September 3rd, 2014 at 2:15 PM ^
This or the preseason braketology that either is out or will certainly be coming out.
Although those lines, has anyone looked at last year's bowl brojections after week 1 and compared them to the actual games. It would be interesting to see how that went.
Go Blue!!!
September 3rd, 2014 at 2:26 PM ^
Best I could find was week 2 for 2013.
Rose Bowl presented by VIZIO, Jan. 1: Ohio State
BCS at-large: Michigan
Capital One, Jan. 1: Wisconsin
Outback, Jan. 1: Northwestern
TaxSlayer.com Gator, Jan. 1: Nebraska
Buffalo Wild Wings, Dec. 28: Minnesota
Texas, Dec. 27: Michigan State
Heart of Dallas, Jan. 1: Illinois
Read more at http://gamedayr.com/sports/big-ten-bowl-projections-2013-14-week-2/#XO4…
Compared to what actually happened:
Orange: OSU - miss
BWW: Michigan - miss
Capital One: Winsconsin- hit
Gator: Nebraska - hit
Texas: Minnesota - miss
Rose: MSU - miss
Northwestern and Illinois did not go bowling - miss and miss
So 2 for 8. Not so good, but better than I expected