<p>An exciting good game worthy of this rivalry. I had hoped for a game like this! It was still painful to lose.</p>
<p>Going for the 2 point conversion was clearly the right decision. We didn’t have Gibbons for overtime, so we likely had a better chance to win with the 2-point conversion than in overtime. It is also a point of pride…just to lose by 1 point rather than 3 or more points in overtime…perhaps a strange way of looking at it.</p>
<p>There is continued improvement in this team, Gardner and the offense. It will be great to see them play in a bowl game and next season…we won’t be losing to many of them, and “no” we shouldn’t fire Hoke.</p>
<p>…one more thing</p>
<p>I’d never seen anything like that fight before. My understanding is Ohio state lost two good players for their game against Michigan State. I look forward to seeing Michigan State win next week, and at this point I really think Michigan state is the better team versus Ohio State.</p>
<p>I think OSU will not lose both. The one who flipped the bird to the fans will likely be out but not the other (c’mon what a stupid, stupid move!) </p>
<p>Even as a Sparty, I think OSU is better than MSU. HOWEVER, I honestly think MSU has more fire in them to beat OSU than the other way around. We’ll see. </p>
<p>Question: (I do not understand the BCS at ALL) if OSU beats MSU and ends up going to the BCS Championship, does MSU automatically go to the Rose Bowl or does it then come down to some sort of contest between Wisconsin and MSU?</p>
<p>^Wisconsin took themselves out of the running today by losing this week. Theoretically had they not lost the Rose Bowl would have a choice of taking either Wisconsin or Moo U, of which any rational bowl exec would take Wisconsin. Bigger name with more fans, similar to how Sugar Bowl took Michigan over Moo U in 2011. But this is moot now.
Hopefully Auburn jumps Ohio State for beating Bama to keep Ohio State out of the championship game, which will also keep Moo U out of the Rose Bowl (and BCS in general because at large is a popularity/big name contest)</p>
<p>No. And if Sparty loses to ohio next week they probably won’t go to a BCS game. So the deal is if ohio goes to the NCG then the Big Ten loses its Rose Bowl tie in and that spot becomes an at-large, most likely going to Northern Illinois (obviously ohio would go to the Rose Bowl if Auburn jumps them). Then you have the teams that will win their conferences to auto-qualify which are the SEC winner, Florida State (title game for sure), UCF, Stanford/ASU, Okie State, and ohio. Then Bama is obviously in as well as the loser of the SEC title game plus Northern Illinois which gets us to 9/10 BCS slots filled. Assuming Oregon stays in the top 14 in the BCS rankings which they should after beating Oregon State, there is a 0% chance any BCS bowl would take Sparty over Oregon. And even if Oregon drops a bowl would still almost assuredly take Baylor over Sparty, and might even take them over Oregon. </p>
<p>I don’t see a way MSU gets into the BCS unless they beat ohio next week. Just not enough slots for a 2 loss big ten team that’s not a traditional power who will draw ratings and travel well.</p>
<p>^rose bowl will for sure take a pac 10 and a big 10 team if possible, regardless of prestige of program, to preserve the tradition, unless bound by spots because of the “top 16 non BCS conference” rules.</p>
<p>^Not for sure. They took Texas against Michigan in 05 and TCU against Wisconsin in 2011, so if Stanford wins against ASU I could definitely see them taking Baylor. Plus Northern Illinois will be guaranteed a spot somewhere so we’ll see where they fit in. The only saving grace for MSU might be that’s it’s the 100th Rose Bowl this year and they might want a traditional matchup, but if they can’t get ohio I don’t see the nation perceiving MSU as a traditional big ten power anyways. They very well could decide to do Baylor Stanford thinking it’ll get higher ratings. That’s pretty much all the selection is about anyways. If ASU wins then who really knows, they’re not a traditional power so the Rose Bowl officials may decide to just throw tradition out the window. We’ll see, it’ll be interesting.</p>