Can Bucky screw Sparty again?
Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 4:24 pm
Yes, right in their little BCS puckered starfish.
Ideally, tOSU goes to the championship against Bammer/FSU and Bucky gets a rematch with ASU in the Rose.Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio didn’t officially start his campaign on Tuesday for a berth in a Bowl Championship Series game.
But you can bet it’s coming — and it will be targeted at the University of Wisconsin.
Dantonio said his focus is on the home game against Minnesota on Saturday. And if the Spartans (10-1), who are 11th in the BCS rankings, win that game, Dantonio made it clear he thinks they deserve a berth in a BCS bowl game.
“Those are the stakes you have to play for as you move forward here,” Dantonio said at his Tuesday press conference. “We have to win this game to even be in the talk in that (BCS) regard. The next thing you have to ask yourself is, are the two best teams playing for the championship?
“I think they are, but we’re going to find after Saturday if that’s the case, because we have an opportunity and challenge in Minnesota. Then, you worry about things as they shake out.”
One of the worries for the Spartans is what happens if they lose the Big Ten title game to No. 3 Ohio State (11-0) on Dec. 7, which just about everybody seems to assume will happen.
Many of the bowl projections this week have the Badgers (9-2), who are currently 15th in the BCS rankings, being picked ahead of the Spartans for a BCS berth.
UW would have to win its game on Saturday at home against Penn State and move up at least one more spot — into the top 14 of the BCS rankings — to be eligible.
“You make a case by getting in the top 10, you make a case by winning this (Minnesota) football game and saying, ‘OK, we’ve won 11 games, now what?’ ” Dantonio said. “Next week, you’re not going to hear me talking about going 11-2, we’re going to go to 12-1.”
But if the Spartans lose in the title game, Dantonio will find himself having to make a case for his team over the Badgers.
“Oh yeah, I’ll campaign,” Dantonio said. “We’ve beaten Wisconsin the last three out of four (meetings), we can start with that. But we’ll worry about that later on. We’re not going to deal with that now. Our focus needs to be on Minnesota, that’s where it is.
“I don’t think we can put the cart before the horse. We have to deal with the present and deal with those things after the fact. I can also tell you this, we lost by one point to Ohio State last year — one — so we’ll be ready to play.”
The Spartans have never played in a BCS game and it’s understandable if they are feeling on edge. They lost to UW 42-39 in the Big Ten title game in 2011. That game was a thriller and wasn’t decided until a penalty on Michigan State for running into the kicker nullified a long return late in the game.
The loss allowed Michigan to land a spot in the Sugar Bowl, despite finishing behind Michigan State in the Legends Division and losing the head-to-head matchup. Michigan State settled for the Outback Bowl.
There was more BCS misery for Sparty in 2010. That year, UW, Ohio State and Michigan State tied for first place in the Big Ten. Because Michigan State and Ohio State did not play each other, the tiebreaker came down to the final BCS standings.
The Badgers ended up in the Rose Bowl, the Buckeyes went to the Sugar Bowl and the Spartans — who beat UW 34-24 — ended up in the Capital One Bowl.
Billboards were put up in Detroit by a Michigan State fan, with 34-24, accompanied by a large rose between the numbers. The implication was the wrong team was going to the Rose Bowl, an argument that lost steam when Michigan State was thrashed 49-7 by Alabama.
But that’s a downside to conference championship games, with the losing teams often penalized severely and dropping out of BCS contention. Meanwhile, teams such as the Badgers could benefit from not taking another loss during championship week.
“It’s risk versus reward to me,” Dantonio said when asked about it on the Big Ten teleconference. “Of course, if you have an opportunity to play for the championship, to go to the Rose Bowl … there’s risk involved in that, because you could lose the game, obviously.
“The mindset has to be for us: take care of business. We’ve always tried to stay in the present. We’ve got to play well against Minnesota, that is job one. And then we’ll worry about things as we move forward. A lot of people would say, it’s a good problem to have.”
