Andy

Notre Dame sucks. As they always do whenever anyone projects them to be decent. Can't decide if this is better than getting bludgeoned by 20 against a lower seed in March. Take it easy on us, IU.

Please let this happen. Just for the entertainment value and shakeup.

And the coaching carousel spins onward

I would just watch games in 2003 in utter awe of him. He was otherworldly that season.

Rutgers might be the worst team playing in a bowl this year. 5 of their 6 wins were over teams with 3 wins or less (the other was an OT win over 5-7 SMU). They lost the 4 games they played against winning AAC teams by 27 ppg. They're worse than any team ND played this year except Air Force and Temple (ETA: and Purdue, I must have wiped that game from my memory). That said, I completely expect ND to allow them to make this a game.

I was ready to lose. Getting our [expletive] asses kicked like this is enough to make me question everything good about this team all over again.

Might as well skip ahead to NO @ Seattle in January now. Both those teams are invincible at home.

If Brees is going to play like this, I'd rather face the Seahawks.

Gildan New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque, NM – 12/21, 2 pm (ESPN) Washington State vs Colorado State Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl in Las Vegas, NV – 12/21, 3:30 pm (ABC) (25) USC vs (20) Fresno State Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise, ID – 12/21, 5:30 pm (ESPN) San Diego State vs Buffalo R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl in New Orleans, LA – 12/21, 9 pm (ESPN) UL Lafayette vs Tulane Beef O’Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, FL- 12/23, 2 pm (ESPN) East Carolina vs Ohio Sheraton Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu, HI – 12/24, 8 pm (ESPN) Boise State vs Oregon State Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit, MI – 12/26, 6 pm (ESPN) Bowling Green vs Pittsburgh San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego, CA – 12/26, 9:30 pm (ESPN) (23) Northern Illinois vs Utah State Military Bowl in Washington, DC – 12/27, 2:30 pm (ESPN) Marshall vs Maryland Texas Bowl in Houston, TX – 12/27, 6 pm (ESPN) Minnesota vs Syracuse Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco, CA – 12/27, 9:30 pm (ESPN) Washington vs BYU New Era Pinstripe Bowl in New York, NY – 12/28, 12 pm (ESPN) Rutgers vs Notre Dame Belk Bowl in Charlotte, NC – 12/28, 3:20 pm (ESPN) Cincinnati vs North Carolina Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando, FL – 12/28, 6:45 pm (ESPN) (18) Louisville vs Miami Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in Tempe, AZ – 12/28, 10:15 pm (ESPN) Kansas State vs Michigan Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, TX – 12/30, 11:45 am (ESPN) Middle Tennessee vs Navy Franklin American Mortgage Company Music City Bowl in Nashville, TN – 12/30, 3:15 pm (ESPN) Ole Miss vs Georgia Tech Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, TX – 12/30, 6:45 pm (ESPN) Texas vs (10) Oregon National University Holiday Bowl in San Diego, CA – 12/27, 10:15 pm (ESPN) (14) Arizona State vs Texas Tech AdvoCare V100 Bowl in Shreveport, LA – 12/31, 12:30 pm (ESPN) Boston College vs Arizona Hyundai Sun Bowl in El Paso, TX – 12/31, 2 pm (CBS) Virginia Tech vs (17) UCLA AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, TN – 12/31, 4 pm (ESPN) Rice vs Mississippi State Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, GA – 12/31, 8 pm (ESPN) (24) Duke vs (21) Texas A&M Heart of Dallas Bowl in Dallas, TX – 1/1, 12 pm (ESPNU) UNLV vs North Texas Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, FL – 1/1, 12 pm (ESPN2) Nebraska vs (22) Georgia Outback Bowl in Tampa, FL – 1/1, 1 pm (ESPN) (16) LSU vs Iowa Capital One Bowl in Orlando, FL – 1/1, 1 pm (ABC) (19) Wisconsin vs (9) South Carolina AT&T Cotton Bowl in Arlington, TX – 1/3, 7:30 pm (FOX) (8) Missouri vs (13) Oklahoma State BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, AL – 1/4, 1 pm (ESPN) Vanderbilt vs Houston GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile, AL – 1/5, 9 pm (ESPN) Arkansas State vs Ball State BCS Games: Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA – 1/1, 5 pm (ESPN) (5) Stanford vs (4) Michigan State Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, AZ - 1/1, 8:30 pm (ESPN) (6) Baylor vs (15) Central Florida Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, LA – 1/2, 8:30 pm (ESPN) (3) Alabama vs (11) Oklahoma Discover Orange Bowl in Miami, FL – 1/3, 8:30 pm (ESPN) (7) Ohio State vs (12) Clemson Vizio BCS National Championship Game in Pasadena, CA – 1/6, 8:30 pm (ESPN) (2) Auburn vs (1) Florida State

My 12-1 fantasy team is getting bounced by the 8th-seeded 6-7 team because I had three players (Stafford, Jackson, Akers) in the blizzard game plus Peterson's ankle injury in the first half, while he had Andrew Luck and Shane Vereen. So that's fun.

What TT said, and also after this season the Sugar becomes an SEC/B12 property. Business relationships always trump intriguing matchups in the BCS.

ESPN's Big 12 blogger:

Bowl matchups are going to get much, much better with the new access-bowl system and more flexible tie-ins starting next year, I think.

All I know about the 'crappy officiating' in the MSU game is that if your secondary's game plan is to mug the other team's receivers, you really can't complain too much if the refs jump the gun on one P.I. call. A much bigger problem in that game was MSU's one score on four red-zone trips.

I'm fairly certain Notre Dame has never won a game without the other team's fans whining about crappy officiating.

If it was a 4-team playoff: #1 FSU vs #4 MSU/Stanford #2 Auburn vs #3 Alabama (yep, rematch) I think I'd take Stanford. MSU's been impressive, but Stanford won (in my mind) the deepest league in the country. Either would get crushed by FSU, though.

I literally cannot believe that the MSU team I watched in ND Stadium in September didn't lose again. I know their schedule was weak until Ohio State, but that's a really good coaching job by Dantonio.

UCF to Fiesta for sure (last pick). Bama/Okla in Sugar, Clemson/OSU in Orange if OSU loses. Clemson/Bama in Orange and Auburn/Okla in Sugar if they don't.

That's not really SEC bias. Auburn would have the best (Bama), 3rd-best (Missouri), 4th-best (A&M) and 5th-best (Georgia) wins out of the two of them. MSU's best win before today was Iowa. Are Georgia and A&M really as good as their ranking at the time Auburn beat them? The Mizzou win is probably the tie-breaker, as outside of that, both teams would have a win against an undefeated team, plus two wins against (eventual) 8-4 conference teams Neither of them are as good as their ranking at the time, but both are better than Iowa or Nebraska or Minnesota (at least, pre-Murray-injury Georgia was). better statistically, better "eye test", or better because the assumption is that an 8-4 SEC team is always better than an 8-4 B1G team? For me, it's eye test, but Sagarin also has A&M and Georgia (and LSU) ahead of Iowa, who is 25th. Nebraska and Minnesota are 49th and 51st, with Michigan 39th.

That's not really SEC bias. Auburn would have the best (Bama), 3rd-best (Missouri), 4th-best (A&M) and 5th-best (Georgia) wins out of the two of them. MSU's best win before today was Iowa. Are Georgia and A&M really as good as their ranking at the time Auburn beat them? The Mizzou win is probably the tie-breaker, as outside of that, both teams would have a win against an undefeated team, plus two wins against (eventual) 8-4 conference teams Neither of them are as good as their ranking at the time, but both are better than Iowa or Nebraska or Minnesota (at least, pre-Murray-injury Georgia was).

That's not really SEC bias. Auburn would have the best (Bama), 3rd-best (Missouri), 4th-best (A&M) and 5th-best (Georgia) wins out of the two of them. MSU's best win before today was Iowa.

OSU looks terrible.

They cheer against the SEC because of the mouth-breathing lunatics who cheer for the SEC, not 'just because they're the SEC'. All you need to do is look at Jay Jacobs' ridiculous behavior the last week to know exactly what kind of nonsense the rest of the country is cheering against.

I'm ok with Auburn getting in, mostly because I think FSU would beat them.

If they both win, Bama goes back to the title game vs Auburn and wins by 2 TDs. So I'd really prefer that to not happen.