Not sure what Phil Steele means… whoever wins the UM/OSU game is going to Glendale, which vacates the Rose Bowl spot.

The next best team in the conference doesn’t automatically “move up,” rather, the Rose committee is then free to select whoever they want. They’re under no obligation to select the “next best” team in the conference.

Remember 2004? USC won the Pac 10, but didn’t play in the Rose because they went to play in the title game. So the Rose committee selected Texas to take the Pac 10 spot. (Vince Young’s coming out party.)

My guess is either USC or Cal is going to win the Pac 10, and play in the Rose. If the Big 10 winner competes in Glendale, then the Rose committee will choose whoever they want.

My guess is if USC wins the Pac 10, they’ll probably choose Texas, so they could set up a USC/Texas “rematch.” If Cal wins the Pac 10, they’ll probably choose UM.

ANYWAYS, he said something interesting (and somewhat troubling) that I hadn’t heard before. He said that if OSU loses to Michigan and Wisconsin wins out that UW would get the Rose Bowl bid due to the Big Ten’s “whoever has gone longer without going” tiebreaker. Is anyone in Columbus talking about this? Obviously, the answer to this problem if it really exists is to beat Michigan, but I was curious if this story has any legs…

Final score: OSU: 48 Illinois: 0 (shut out #2, baby!)
Illinois rushing yards: Even, 100
OSU INTs: at least 3. Juice is gonna spray the ball all over the place and Little Animal gets one of them.

>>Pittman is way down from his numbers thru 9 games from last year.< <

I noticed that ESPN kept running that stat on their "crawler" during the game last night. They're trying to insinuate that his performance this year has dropped off, but it hasn't. Nobody's taking into account that his total carries have dropped off. Tressel is using Beanie for a fifth of what he was using Pittman for.

I did a little homework, and so far, Pittman is averaging 18.2% fewer carries per game this year than last. What that means is that, to have the same success as last year, he'll need to clear 1100 yards this season. He'll probably do that with a game or two to spare, so his overall performance so far is significantly above expectations (i.e., he's improved from last year).

Also, he only had 7 TDs last year, he's already got 10, with three reg. season games and a bowl to go.

I found one more amazing stat: I didn’t realize this until just now, but Antonio Pittman has never fumbled the ball. 478 carries through 2004, and not one single fumble. Amazing.