Mike Hlas, CR Gazette –
Penn State’s football team went 9-3 in the 2011 regular-season. Iowa went 7-5.
Iowa was invited back to the Insight Bowl to play Oklahoma. Penn State, passed over by the Insight, Gator Bowl (took Ohio State, which was 6-6), and Meineke Car Care Bowl (took 6-6 Northwestern), landed in the TicketCity Bowl, where it got throttled by Houston, 30-14.
Penn State was toxic to bowls even eight months ago. The TicketCity, none too picky as a second-year event seen on ESPNU, didn’t complain. It was left with either 9-3 Penn State, 6-6 Illinois and 6-6 Purdue from the Big Ten, bit the bullet, and took the Nittany Lions. The game was lucky that Houston was a real good get.
Now we move toward Monday morning’s announcement of the NCAA’s penalties against Penn State, and they’ll surely include a bowl ban of some period of time. Now, who knows if Penn State would have even been bowl-eligible this season, or in seasons to come. And who knows if any bowl would have touched Penn State for a while unless it had no choice.
But it officially means Penn State is off the bowl chart, and is one less marquee program for Iowa to climb over to avoid going to games like the Meineke Car Care and TicketCity. With Ohio State serving its one-year bowl ban this year, Iowa could easily again finding itself going to a better bowl than its record might suggest it should. If, that is, the Hawkeyes go 7-5 or 6-6. Which would be a disappointing record, I would suggest, given their schedule.
Financially, however, there will be two fewer bowls paying into the Big Ten pot this season (assuming Penn State would have been bowl-eligible), so the Big Ten and all its members suffer from that.
But back to Iowa: Ohio State and Penn State are off the table this year. Those are two perennial go-to-good-bowl teams. That leaves Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State and Nebraska as the teams Iowa will try to jockey with to get the best bowl slots, unless Northwestern and/or Purdue make a surge. Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota aren’t likely to be in the mix, at least not for the Florida bowls and the Insight.
If two Big Ten teams get BCS bowl spots as in most years, Iowa could find its way back in a Florida game even if it isn’t anything special.
Does ruminating over such things given the seriousness of Penn State’s situation strike anyone as distasteful? If so … sorry. But the bell is going to ring the first weekend of September, and we will concern ourselves with trivialities like wins, losses, and the Big Ten standings then and until the season ends.
The question at this point is if Wisconsin has a bye in the Big Ten’s championship game since it’s in the same Leaders division as Penn State and Ohio State, neither of which will be eligible to play in Indianapolis for the league-title. Or will Purdue, or Illinois, or Indiana rise up and pluck the Leaders’ spot in Indy?
Another question is this: If Penn State football is drastically weakened for a long time to come, won’t the Leaders teams have a competitive advantage over their Legends brothers when it comes to reaching the Big Ten championship, and by playing the Nittany Lions every year instead of two out of every four years?
Here’s one more question: What must Nebraska be thinking right now? It joined the Big Ten in June, 2010, thinking it was entering major-college athletics’ paragon of virtue? Instead, the Cornhuskers have watched as two of the nation’s iconic football programs have brought scandal and shame upon the league and their sport.
But look at the bright side, Huskers. Even if you go a disappointing 8-4 or 7-5, you could easily find yourself back in Florida on New Year’s.
And since the league is named the Big Ten and it has 10 bowl-eligible teams, it has the symmetry that has long evaded it. That’s quite a way to get it, I grant you.
