06 Michigan team a top "BCS bridesmaid"
I know that we all feel we got jobbed out of a MNC game bid by Urban Meyer in 2006 but its nice to see a national media memeber acknowledge it:
6. 2006 - Michigan
Regular season: 11-1
Because Ohio State lost -- and lost big, 41-14 -- it's easy to forget now that most fans didn't even want Florida to be in the game. They wanted Michigan, which spent the final six weeks of the regular season ranked behind Ohio State in the AP Poll. The Wolverines' lone loss was a 42-39 classic in Columbus, Ohio, a game so good that the following week the pollsters kept Michigan at No. 2, as did the BCS. But when one-loss Florida defeated Arkansas in the SEC title game, the Gators leaped into the second slot and into the BCS title game. Michigan settled for the Rose Bowl, where they were romped by one-loss USC, whom Florida also leapfrogged.
Top 6 teams as BCS bridesmaids... its behind a paywall but you can probably guess who is number 1. I'll give you a hint they were ranked number 1 and took out their frustration on us.
Link: http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/blog?name=mcgee_ryan&id=5812163
November 19th, 2010 at 12:40 AM ^
I think the Big Ten was starting to move in that direction before 2006. I mean they have been trying to court Notre Dame for a while now and Notre Dame has been saying, "What part of we have NBC paying us don't you understand?". 2006 may have been the straw that broke the camel's back though.
I think the bigger reason that the Big 10 wanted to move towards a playoff is the number of times you hear, "Yeah, Iowa (or Wisconsin or MIchigan or Ohio State or Penn State) is good but they don't play Iowa (or Wisconsion or MIchigan or Ohio STate or Penn State). I mean every year since the addtion of Penn State there has always been two conference teams that aren't played. Sometimes those teams aren't a factor but sometimes they are.
November 17th, 2010 at 1:21 AM ^
The current era of Michigan football and our becoming a rebuilding project really kind of got under way with the passing of Bo that day. After Bo passed, it seemd that our earthly protection and magical 2006 season turned to dust from the now loosened Angry Michigan Hating Satan!
Since then, we endured back to back losses to OSU and USC, and then opened 2007 with the Horror (against the team that Shall Not be Named) and the Oregon slaughter and back to back losses to Wisky and OSU with Henne hurt. Thus departed Lloyd (after a brief resurgence in the Capital One bowl) and then came the rebuilding of the offense and the decimated defense and 3-9 and 5-7. Maybe we will look back and see the 2010 Illinois 3 OT win as the turning point and the end of this period.....Hope springs eternal!
November 17th, 2010 at 12:23 PM ^
Bo's passing really changed everything, and marked the beginning of the end of his era of football (Lloyd Carr definitely carved out his own legacy as a coach, especially with '97, but in a way he'll always be a Bo man).
With that being said, it hasn't all been horrors-- you gloss over it, but the Capital One Bowl was truly a thing of beauty, and while it in no way shape or form resembled typical Bo/Lloyd offenses, we vanquished the "spread demon" that had bedeviled Carr for so long, and sent him out with a win against the most highly decorated spread-guru coach and spread QB in the country.
Hope does indeed spring eternal!
November 17th, 2010 at 2:06 AM ^
If you think you guys had a rough end to 2006/start of 2007 try being us lol. We still haven't lived that shit down. One bad game and suddenly the nation thinks that an entire section of the country can't play football because they are "slow". Asinine.
November 17th, 2010 at 8:17 AM ^
You'll pardon me if I have little sympathy for you.
November 17th, 2010 at 9:28 AM ^
Ohio State: The Buffalo Bills of the BCS
November 17th, 2010 at 10:13 AM ^
That call, and I have watched the replay of that EPIC game, was the most chicken shit, rediculus call EVER!!
You have a running quarterback who has, for that entire game, been getting first downs by cheating up the sideline just like he was doing on that play. Our linebacker(Crable) decides enough is enough of this BS and takes him all the way out of the play. FLAG!!
Initially I called Crable a retard and various other names since it was 3rd and like 11? and he was not going to get the first down anyhow, but upon further contemplation I can see why he rode him out, he was sick of giving saint troy the extra 3-5 yards that he was getting on the end of every scramble by skating the sidelines. It you can BEAR to watch the replay of that entire game you'd see that he did that crap to us on at least 5 occasions that day.
November 17th, 2010 at 1:28 PM ^
you don't have eyes i guess.
November 17th, 2010 at 2:49 PM ^
I have eyes, enough to know that troy was doing that all game long. I wouldnt be surprised if michigans D-backs were yelled at by coaches during the game to stop letting him steal the extra 3 yards at the end of every run. I dont blame Troy for doing it, hell it was working for him. I just blame the official for treating a "running" quarterback who'd been tearing us up all day like he was a "pocket passer" that was just heading out of bounds to avoid a sack. Those things are 2 completely different animals dont you agree?
November 17th, 2010 at 12:18 PM ^
To be fair, watching Florida defensive ends terrorize Troy Smith for four quarters in a NC game was pretty memorable. Also, you were subsequently embarrassed by LSU in the national championship game the very next year. Once again, by an SEC team. You guys really need to thrash a good SEC school if you want to quiet the doubters.
Then again, I think Michigan can help out... going to be fun watching Saban get acquainted with Death Roh and Dilithium in 2012!
November 17th, 2010 at 3:17 PM ^
You could have just been nice and lost to us, and then we would have beaten Florida (hell, we beat basically the same team the following year), and with that tremendous defensive backfield you probably would have fared better than we against USC, and then we'd still be able to talk about the best rivalry in the country because M would have this major signature win (For BO!) to break up the recent domination.
You have a chance to do it again in two weeks. Lose to Michigan, and then we can both beat up SEC teams in January, and usher in another century of the South being our bitches, just like when a bunch of roughnecks from Ohio and Michigan went and showed those states what's what in the 1860s.
Screw having a better team. You had a better team in 1969, but did the right thing anyway, and not only did we get 10 years of awesome because of it, but Led Zepplin wrote Stairway to Heaven to commemorate it.
You don't hate Stairway, do you?
It's in your hands, TOSU: for your conference, for your country, for rock music, for the love of God, please lose to Michigan and get this world back to normal.
November 17th, 2010 at 3:21 PM ^
hell, we beat basically the same team the following year
2007 Florida was much, much younger than their '06 team.
November 17th, 2010 at 5:23 PM ^
Wait, are you arguing our 2007 team regressed from 2006 less than did Florida's?
November 17th, 2010 at 5:47 PM ^
nothing like re-opening some old wounds..