timBUCK2
Tim the Enchanter... WOLVERINE SLAYER!!
Rivals
January 9, 2006
The Big Ten appeared to be in big trouble midway through the bowl season as it got off to an 0-4 start.
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</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Santonio Holmes (4) and Ted Ginn sparked Ohio State's win over Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.</td></tr></tbody></table><!-- End SantonioHolmes12 Image-->There weren't any bad losses, though. Iowa was a blown call on an onsides kick recovery from having a chance to tie the Outback Bowl against Florida. Instead, the Hawkeyes lost, 31-24. Minnesota let Virginia pull out the Music City Bowl, 34-31, in the final minutes.
Underdog Northwestern took a 22-0 lead on UCLA but frittered it away at the Sun Bowl. And Michigan, too, stumbled late to lose to Nebraska at the Alamo Bowl.
So really, there was nothing discouraging but the record.
Then the Big Ten rolled out its big guns and showed why it has captured the top spot in the final Rivals.com Seismic Six for 2005, our ranking of the top conferences in college football.
The Big Ten rallied to win its final three bowl games in impressive fashion and captured seven of nine first-place votes from our panel.
The SEC and ACC tied for second in our poll. The ACC got more second-place votes than the SEC (6-2), but the SEC garnered the only other first-place votes.
The Big 12 had been fifth in every Seismic Six during the regular season, but it vaulted the Pac-10 in our final standings.
1. Big Ten: Wisconsin lifted the conference with its surprisingly easy victory over SEC power Auburn in the Capital One Bowl. The Badgers won 24-10 going away, and it could have been worse. Then Ohio State thrashed Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, and Penn State had a hard-fought, hard-hitting Orange Bowl triumph over FSU. More than anything, the Big Ten performed on the big stage when it had to, and that put it over the hump with our panel.
2. ACC: The ACC performed admirably in the postseason with the exception of Miami. What happened to the Hurricanes though, well, there was no excuse for a performance that poor. In one of the league's marquee games, the 'Canes got embarrassed in the Peach Bowl by LSU, 40-3.
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</td></tr><tr><td align="right">Associated Press</td></tr><tr><td height="3">
</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Coleman Watson wasn't the only one surprised by Georgia's loss in the Sugar Bowl.</td></tr></tbody></table><!-- End Image-->3. SEC: An otherwise stellar postseason was spoiled when South Carolina blew a huge lead to a mediocre Missouri team in the Independence Bowl, and league champ Georgia got ambushed in the Sugar Bowl by West Virginia. The loss by the Bulldogs was the most surprising and probably the most costly to voters in our panel.
4. Big 12: Texas won the national championship over Pac-10 champ USC, thus vaulting the league past the Pac-10 in our final Seismic Six rankings. The league got a surprising effort from Nebraska as it knocked off Michigan in the Alamo, and Oklahoma won a hard-fought game with Oregon.
5. Pac-10: Appears to have dropped with USC's fall from grace. Pac-10 teams were mostly favored and mostly won, but hardly in impressive fashion.
6. Big East: West Virginia performed admirably in the Sugar Bowl, but it wasn't enough to keep this league from being buried in our standings just as they were during every single regular season poll.
January 9, 2006
The Big Ten appeared to be in big trouble midway through the bowl season as it got off to an 0-4 start.
<!--Start SantonioHolmes12 Image--><script language="Javascript">document.write(insertImage('http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/1144/311347.jpg', '311347.jpg', 0, 267, 200, 1, 'Santonio Holmes (4) and Ted Ginn sparked Ohio State\'s win over Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.', '', 1136814327000, 'SantonioHolmes12', 1144, 'Align=Left'));</script><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="208"><tbody><tr><td width="202">
Underdog Northwestern took a 22-0 lead on UCLA but frittered it away at the Sun Bowl. And Michigan, too, stumbled late to lose to Nebraska at the Alamo Bowl.
So really, there was nothing discouraging but the record.
Then the Big Ten rolled out its big guns and showed why it has captured the top spot in the final Rivals.com Seismic Six for 2005, our ranking of the top conferences in college football.
The Big Ten rallied to win its final three bowl games in impressive fashion and captured seven of nine first-place votes from our panel.
The SEC and ACC tied for second in our poll. The ACC got more second-place votes than the SEC (6-2), but the SEC garnered the only other first-place votes.
The Big 12 had been fifth in every Seismic Six during the regular season, but it vaulted the Pac-10 in our final standings.
1. Big Ten: Wisconsin lifted the conference with its surprisingly easy victory over SEC power Auburn in the Capital One Bowl. The Badgers won 24-10 going away, and it could have been worse. Then Ohio State thrashed Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, and Penn State had a hard-fought, hard-hitting Orange Bowl triumph over FSU. More than anything, the Big Ten performed on the big stage when it had to, and that put it over the hump with our panel.
2. ACC: The ACC performed admirably in the postseason with the exception of Miami. What happened to the Hurricanes though, well, there was no excuse for a performance that poor. In one of the league's marquee games, the 'Canes got embarrassed in the Peach Bowl by LSU, 40-3.
<!--Start Image--><script language="Javascript">document.write(insertImage('/IMAGES/Player/photo/COLEMANWATSON200_0109.JPG', '', 1, 199, 200, 1, 'Coleman Watson wasn\'t the only one surprised by Georgia\'s loss in the Sugar Bowl.', '', 1136814595000, '', 1014, 'Align=Right'));</script><table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="208"><tbody><tr><td rowspan="4" width="6">
4. Big 12: Texas won the national championship over Pac-10 champ USC, thus vaulting the league past the Pac-10 in our final Seismic Six rankings. The league got a surprising effort from Nebraska as it knocked off Michigan in the Alamo, and Oklahoma won a hard-fought game with Oregon.
5. Pac-10: Appears to have dropped with USC's fall from grace. Pac-10 teams were mostly favored and mostly won, but hardly in impressive fashion.
6. Big East: West Virginia performed admirably in the Sugar Bowl, but it wasn't enough to keep this league from being buried in our standings just as they were during every single regular season poll.
