If at the end of season the top two Big Ten teams are tied, how do they decide who wins the conference and goes to the Rose Bowl?
If the two teams have the same record in the conference (and presumably haven’t played head-to-head), the team that has not been to the Rose Bowl in the longer amount of time gets to go. At the moment, no tiebreaker is needed this year, since Michigan is the only unbeaten team in the conference. If they win the rest of their games, they go to the Rose Bowl. If they end up tied with Wisconsin, Wisconsin should get to go.
Thanks, but I don’t think it is possible for Michigan and Wisconsin to tie this year.
Sure it is. Michigan loses to Ohio State and Wisconsin beats Iowa next week. They would both have one loss in the conference, which is the only thing that counts.
Out of conference wins and losses (like UM’s to Notre Dame) don’t count when deciding who goes to the Rose Bowl.
Right conclusion, wrong reason. The second tie-breaker (after head-to-head) is non-conference record. Wisconsin went 3-0, Michigan 2-1.
The third tie-breaker is “who went last”, and technically it applies to the “automatic BCS bid”, not to the Rose Bowl, because there are now some years when the Big Ten champion doesn’t go to the Rose Bowl.
Sorry Lamar and Marley, but I’m pretty sure Freddy is right:
The automatic BCS bid (which goes to the Rose Bowl most years) is determined by conference record, head-to-head, overall record, and THEN “Rose Bowl draught”, in that order. Before this weekend, Wisconsin was in front because of their overall record (Michigan had one non-conference loss to Notre Dame), not because of the length of time since they had been to the Rose Bowl (though they would win that too). Of course, now no tiebreakers will be needed unless Michigan loses to Ohio State next weekend.