Happy New Year's! Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? That's up to your discretion. 2014 was a good year for Ohio State football and we hope 2015 will start off even better today, pending the result of the Sugar Bowl later today.
It's gameday for Ohio State fans. The two college football playoff games are this evening, but the day features the traditional B1G-SEC matchups in Florida and the Cotton Bowl between Baylor and Michigan State. Let's talk about these matchups below.
Auburn vs. Wisconsin (ESPN2, 12 p.m.). Auburn and Wisconsin clash in the Outback Bowl at noon.
It's the first meeting between the two since the 2006 Capital One Bowl. In this game, the BCS no. 9 Auburn Tigers, heavily favored in this game with the best offense in the SEC, lost 24-10 to the BCS no. 18 Badgers. The final score, 24-10, belied just how uncompetitive and impotent Auburn was in that game.
That game was also unique for being the retirement send-off for Barry Alvarez. He announced it would be his last game, but time makes fools of us all. It certainly made a fool of Barry Alvarez, who has seen two hand-picked successors abandon him at the first opportunity for other coaching gigs. Alvarez coached the 2013 Rose Bowl when Bert left for Arkansas and he will coach this game against Auburn.
Auburn is a touchdown favorite in this game. Expect Auburn to cover, and then some.
Baylor vs. Michigan State (ESPN, 12:30 p.m.). Baylor, which handed TCU its only loss on the season, will get an opportunity to exact its fury for the playoff omission on Michigan State. TCU took advantage of such an opportunity yesterday, running Ole Miss fans out of the stadium at halftime.
Michigan State will be only the second Big Ten team to play in the Cotton Bowl, a bowl game typically reserved for SWC/Big XII vs. SEC matchups. The only other Big Ten appearance was in 1987, when Ohio State took on the two-time SWC champion Texas A&M Aggies. Ohio State used two pick-sixes to beat the Aggies, 24-12. Michigan State will hope defense carries the day much like it did for the Buckeyes in 1987.
It's tough to see this, though. Michigan State has the no. 5 total defense (293.5 yards per game) and the no. 15 scoring defense (19.9 points per game). However, this betrays how badly Michigan State's defense has been incinerated by the two opponents we would expect to be common denominators for the Baylor matchup: Oregon and Ohio State.
Oregon put 491 yards and 46 points on Michigan State. Ohio State hung 568 yards an 49 points on Michigan State. The Spartans lost both games.
Baylor is about a field goal favorite in this game (-2.5), which is about right. While Michigan State's defense may be reduced to a windsock again, I expect its offense to put on points of its own. Known for defense last year, the offense is the strength of the Spartans this year.
Minnesota vs. Missouri (ABC, 1 p.m.). Minnesota will play Missouri in its first January bowl game since the 1962 Rose Bowl, a 21-3 win over UCLA. It's been 53 years since Minnesota played football in January.
This would be a marquee win for Minnesota for obvious reasons. Minnesota thinks it has found something with head coach Jerry Kill, who has thrived wherever he has been in what amounts to a three-year project at places like Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois. Norwood Teague has been a great addition at athletic director too, coming to Minnesota from Virginia Commonwealth to oversee new facilities projects in the Twin Cities. All that's missing is a signature bowl win to justify it all. The Citrus Bowl will always be a signature bowl win for up-and-comers in the Big Ten.
Meanwhile, Missouri is competing for back-to-back 11-win seasons for the first time in program history. It's also looking to go 1-1 against the Big Ten this year. Missouri lost to Indiana at home on the SEC Network in September, which I don't feel like I can mention enough.
Missouri is favored in this game (-4.5), which is about right. For Minnesota's sake, I think it drew the most benign possible matchup in the Citrus Bowl. The Gophers were looking at possible games against Auburn or Georgia, which I think would have ended in disasters.
Florida State vs. Oregon (ESPN, 5 p.m.). The Seminoles and Ducks meet in the 2015 Rose Bowl, a game with plenty of intrigue on its own accords.
One, the top teams in the ACC and Pac-12 rarely interact with each other. The two conferences share a guaranteed bowl matchup in the Sun Bowl. Arizona State beat Duke in that game held a few days ago. However, games between programs like Oregon and Florida State are rare. The last such game I can recall was between USC and Virginia Tech in FedEx Field to begin the 2004 season.
Two, this will be only the third bowl game ever that features two Heisman winners on opposite teams. The first such game was the 2005 Orange Bowl, a BCS Championship Game between Matt Leinart's USC Trojans and Jason White's Oklahoma Sooners. USC won that game 55-14.
The other bowl game was the 2009 BCS National Championship Game between Tim Tebow's Florida Gators and Sam Bradford's Oklahoma Sooners. Florida won that game, 24-14.
The Oregon Ducks are an eight-point favorite against Florida State, a team that has not lost a football game in over two years. I might be in the minority on this, but I kind of like Florida State in this game. Oregon will also be playing without an All-American cornerback, Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, who tore his ACL in a scrimmage after the regular season.
Alabama vs. Ohio State (ESPN, 8:30 p.m.). The Sugar Bowl will be your game of the week. Stay tuned to Eleven Warriors for comprehensive coverage of this game.
The winner of this game meets the winner of the Rose Bowl in Arlington, Texas on January 12th. The winner of that game is the winner of the inaugural College Football Playoff.
