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MSU has Capital One Bowl in its sights

By: Jacob Carpenter Posted: 11/30/08 8:29pm

MSU’s ticket to the Capital One Bowl might have been punched Saturday.

No. 25 Oregon State, which was in line for a Rose Bowl appearance if it could knock off No. 16 Oregon, was annihilated at home on Saturday, 65-38. (Side note: Is there a rivalry between two teams with worse nicknames than the Beavers and Ducks?)

As a result, No. 5 Southern Cal is now in line for the Pac-10’s automatic Bowl Championship Series bid in the Rose Bowl — assuming it beats undermanned UCLA next weekend. With USC’s move up to Pasadena, there is now one open at-large BCS bid, which will either go to No. 9 Boise State, which is undefeated, or No. 10 Ohio State, which is 10-2 but has a much larger fan base to travel to a BCS game.

I would pencil in the Buckeyes for the final BCS at-large spot because of their fan base and strength of schedule, which would bump up MSU to the Capital One Bowl instead of the Outback Bowl.

What is the impact of this? Well, both games are played on New Year’s Day in Florida against Southeastern Conference teams, so that doesn’t offer much significance.

The payout for each team, however, is a little different. The Outback Bowl offers $3.1 million per team while the Capital One Bowl doles out $4.25 million per team.

Also, the competition would be drastically different. MSU would likely tangle with No. 16 Georgia, the No. 1 team coming into the season, in the Capital One Bowl while the Spartans likely would draw No. 22 Mississippi, Vanderbilt or South Carolina in the Outback Bowl.

Either way, there are positives and negatives for each bowl slot:

In the Capital One Bowl, the Spartans receive the biggest payout of any non-BCS game while snagging a top-tier bowl in prestige. Yet, a Capital One Bowl opponent would offer the biggest challenge and would be a tougher win.

In the Outback Bowl, the Spartans would be more likely to win against a lesser-ranked SEC foe. Still, it doesn’t carry the paycheck or prestige of the Capital One Bowl.

It doesn’t sound like an announcement will be made until Sunday, but at least we know Florida should be calling for the Spartans on New Year’s Day 2009.

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Commentary:

James

12/01/08 1:40am

Isn’t it amazing what our football team has managed to do this year? It seems incredible that we just had a great 9-3 regular season that wouldn’t have thought possible last year. Credit to Mark Dantonio and all he has accomplished! I for one look forward to seeing the Spartans in a Florida New Year’s bowl this year, preferably the Capital One Bowl.
Go Green!!

John

12/01/08 3:06pm

GO WHITE!

MSU

12/01/08 4:53pm

Doesn’t the Cap One Bowl also pay for teams travel expenses? That’s a couple hundred K in savings to MSU.

Sean

12/01/08 6:49pm

Just have to wait and see…could be Iowa or Northwestern in this kind of year. Anything is possible still!

savings

12/01/08 7:38pm

“Doesn’t the Cap One Bowl also pay for teams travel expenses? That’s a couple hundred K in savings to MSU.”

The University does not pay for any of the football team’s expenses. They generate their own revenue through ticket sales (and most likely pay for a lot of the girl’s teams).

Old Rebel

12/03/08 3:23pm

Should Ole Miss meet the Spartans a Bowl (which would be a joke). We will crush any Big 10 team, because the whole conference is overrated

Pdoyle

12/06/08 12:45pm

Old Rebel is on drugs. He/She is as deluded as the orignal southern rebels who took on the north. The Big Ten is not at its best by far this year, but Ol’ Miss is no sure thing against MSU. Take some different pills next time Old Rebel.

Mason GO IOWA

12/06/08 3:32pm

i think iowa deserves a chance to play inthe capital one bowl instead of msu even though they beat them they had plenty of chances to win whatever and iowa will draw a lot more fans and they won the capital one bowl a few years a go on a last second td i think that they might might want to see that a gain!

Steve

12/07/08 11:23am

Well MSU draws just as many fans as Iowa does if not more. MSU was in the Capital one bowl a couple of years ago and won it on a last second field against Florida, think they might want to see that again. Not to mention Iowa lost to MSU and has a worse record. I could see Iowa jumping Northwestern though for the outback bowl.

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Josh Radtke / The State News

Senior linebacker Brandon Denson holds up the Paul Bunyan Trophy after the Spartans defeated Michigan in overtime 26-20 Saturday afternoon at Spartan Stadium.

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