On Saturday night, my wife and I went to do Thanksgiving with some friends of ours who figured out a formula for really enjoying thanksgiving. A night without the kids + turkey + bacon + beer, in case you were curious. My wife started asking me about what bowl I thought we'd end up in and I said, "No worse than the Capital One Bowl." She said, "Oh, okay." and she was a bit disappointed. "Exactly, my thought too." I said. So it is with no offense meant to the folks meant to the people who run the Capital One Citrus Bowl that I write the following paragraphs.
In 2006, Drew Stanton scored on a keeper, and as he was running through the end zone the mike accidentally picked him up yelling. "F*** yeah, we're going to a bowl!". At the end of the 2007 season, we all still talked about our trip to the 1999-2000 Citrus Bowl as a heralded moment in MSU football history. Now in 2011, the idea of the Captial One Bowl is kind of like a consolation prize. It might feel like a consolation prize because in our last two appearances we've gotten beat pretty handily, but I don't think that's the reason.
The reason is, after going 11-1 in 2010 and being en route to 10-2 in 2011 against the toughest road schedule I can remember, is that we have raised our expectations for this team. Second place and it's resulting tie-in of the Capital One Bowl isn't good enough for us anymore. The team's motto for 2011 has been P4RB, short for Prepare For Rose Bowl. What's strange is that while there is a disconnect between what's going on for the team and the fans sometimes, this is a place where they are definitely on the same page. Win out through the conference title game and MSU will be playing in Pasadena. This is the expectation of Mark Dantonio and this is becoming the expectation of the fans as well.
If you want the statistical breakdown of our likelihood of making the Rose Bowl, peep SpartanDan's work over at The Only Colors. As a team MSU controls it's own destiny to the Rose Bowl since 1990. As a recent MSU football devotee, 1997-present, this is new and strange territory for me, not hopin' and wishin' and prayin' for help from another team. The bar has been set at playing for the Rose Bowl for 2011 and MSU controls it's fate to do so.
I've got you guys in the Captial One against my Georgia Bulldogs. I have Michigan State going 10-3 with a loss in the Big Ten Championship Game in the Wisky re-match.
ReplyDeleteI want to do some homework later this week about what happens to the loser of a conference title game. This is new territory for us Big Ten folks. It would seem like typically they would take the Number Two tie-in game, unless a strong enough case could be made for the third place team, in this case, probably Nebraska.
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