Bowl Previews: Big Ten - SEC Showdown

by Kyle_Martin on Jan 1, 2012 8:00 AM EST in Football

Taylor Martinez's legs have been much better than his arm this year.

The new year always brings what most of us Penn State/Big Ten fans crave the most: a slew of bowl games against the SEC. This year, the Big Ten has three games against the SEC all starting at 1 PM on Monday. So when you're looking for something to watch during halftime of the PSU/Houston game, you'll have a lot to choose from.

Capital One Bowl
#20 Nebraska Cornhuskers vs. #9 South Carolina Gamecocks
Monday, Jan. 2nd at 1 PM
ESPN/ESPN 3D (ZOMG! 3D FOOTBALL!)/ESPN3

Watchability Rating: 8

Pertinent Facts:
Both teams have strong running games (each average 198 ypg or better) combined with rather anemic passing game (SC ranks 96th nationally, Nebraska 106th). This slightly benefits South Carolina, who allows 135 ypg rushing, while Nebraska allows 168 ypg. A South Carolina win will give them the best record in school history. It's unfortunate that Stephen Garcia was kicked off the team back in October, or we could have seen a game in which both coaches despised their starting QB.

Line:
South Carolina -3 O/U 46

Outback Bowl
#17 Michigan State Spartans vs. #16 Georgia Bulldogs
Monday, Jan. 2nd at 1 PM
ABC

Watchability Rating: 8

Pertinent Facts:
Both these teams won their division... but because they lost their respective title games, they were passed over for BCS bowls for teams that couldn't win their divisions. These two teams met in the Capital One Bowl back in 2009, where Georgia won 24-12. MSU is playing in their 5th consecutive bowl game, but they have yet to win one.

Line:
Georgia -3 O/U 50

TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl
Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Florida Gators
Monday, Jan. 2nd at 1 PM
ESPN2/ESPN3

Watchability Rating: 5

Pertinent Facts:
The last time these two teams met in a bowl game, Urban Meyer was leading Florida to the first of two MNCs in three years. Now the retired/unretired/retired/unretired Meyer is getting ready to take over the reigns in Columbus, and that is by far the most interesting part about this game.

Line:
Florida -2 O/U 44

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Schedule simultaneous bowl games between 2 conferences?

…consider them rolled…

Proud proponent of the 52 team Uber Conference

by ProveIt on Jan 1, 2012 8:05 AM EST reply actions

SEC slight favorites in all three.

Here’s the B1G chance to start a winning Bowl season.

2-2 after the Iowa and Northwestern scheduling debacles.

Good Luck to Huskers, Sparty, and tOSU.

Son of an Infidel.....Eater of Vegetables!

by joefromboalsburg on Jan 1, 2012 12:40 PM EST reply actions

I've been testing out a new computer

it’s a football adaptation of my Real Record computer used to determine NCAA Basketball Tournament worthiness. It is thus far undefeated whenever it predicts that a given team has at least a 55% chance of winning which, coincidentally, has included all 4 B1G games thus far.

It breaks down the games like this (rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent):

OSU over Florida: 67.2% chance
Nebraska over USCar: 49.9% chance
Michigan State over UGA: 49.5% chance

So if the computer were right about each game individually, a 1-2 record should be expected. But the odds for any given B1G record against the SEC in bowls are as follows:

3-0: 16.6%
2-1: 41.7%
1-2: 33.4%
0-3: 8.3%

So the B1G has a >58% chance of going 2-1 or better, but a >83% chance of losing at least one.

GO IOWA AWESOME

by ckmneon on Jan 2, 2012 8:33 AM EST reply actions