Michigan State football seems headed to the Rose Bowl whether they win or lose Saturday in the Big Ten Championship game. Their opponents in the B1G Title game in Indy, Ohio State moved up to #2 in the BCS last night, so if the Buckeyes beat a really strong Spartans team, ranked in the top ten, they’re in the national title game, played in the Rose Bowl, in Pasadena.
Unless Auburn beats Mizzou by like 60 in the SEC Title game, it’s hard to imagine OSU being relegated to the Rose Bowl if they get upset by MSU. (Which I’m actually predicting. I think State gets it done, preview of the game coming tomorrow)
This year, the Rose Bowl will host both The Granddaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl game and the 2014 National Championship, in the 100th anniversary of the Rose Bowl.
And obviously if Michigan State wins, they’re headed to the Rose Bowl automatically to play the Pac 12 winner, Stanford or Arizona State. So as much of a huge game as the Big Ten title game is, it’s weird that MSU likely goes to the Rose Bowl either way. This isn’t just speculation; the Citrus Bowl’s official account (yeah, I know it has a corporate name now, but I’d rather not use it because a game of that magnitude should not have a sellout name like that) tweeted yesterday that the consensus is both Michigan State and Ohio State will not be available to them. Of course, the Citrus Bowl also said that they’ll take the Spartans or Buckeyes without question, if either team became available. But it won’t happen.
And that means they’ll get Wisconsin. The Badgers were in line for a BCS at large berth, likely the Orange Bowl, before the upset home loss to Penn State. Now they’ll probably face either Mizzou or South Carolina in the Citrus Bowl game.
The Auburn/Mizzou winner will get a BCS slot; with the second SEC position going to Alabama. For Michigan State, the school’s first BCS appearance in school history is imminent. Yes, MSU has zero BCS appearances while Illinois has 2. Weird fact but true. Especially crazy when you consider that MSU has won 11 games in three of the past four years. So this Rose Bowl berth is long overdue and well deserved. If Michigan St. wins either the Big Ten Championship or the Rose Bowl, it will be win #12 on the season- a school record.
This year’s MSU football slogan in “Chase it,” the 2011 slogan was “P4RB: Prepare for Rose Bowl,” now it seems inevitable. State last went to the Rose Bowl in 1988, the famous Spartans vs Trojans War, as MSU defeated USC 14-10.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS Catch him Tuesdays talking Illini and Northwestern for KOZN 1620 The Zone, Fridays talking Chicago Bears for WAOR 95.7 The Fan