Cotton Bowl pits Buckeyes vs. USC
ARLINGTON, Texas — Ohio State coach Urban Meyer could have easily stoked a debate about expanding the four-team College Football Playoff after his Buckeyes were the first team left out this season.
Instead, he focused — as much as he could — on tonight’s Cotton Bowl matchup against Southern California, another conference champion.
“We’re on the outside looking in twice. We’re in the playoff twice, and twice we’re right on the edge of not being in it. If they extended the playoff … but I don’t see that happening,” Meyer said Thursday. “College football is just hitting on all cylinders right now, so I don’t know how much I’d change.”
The Big Ten-winning Buckeyes won the first championship in the fourteam playoff era three years ago. That game was at AT&T Stadium, where No. 5 Ohio State (11-2) returns tonight to play Pac-12 champion and No. 8 Southern California (11-2) in the second Cotton Bowl appearance for both teams.
USC coach Clay Helton mostly agreed with Meyer after initially deferring to him to first answer the question posed about if it was time to consider an eight-team playoff.
“The playoff system has been great for our game,” Helton said. “You’re talking about two teams that were in that controversy and in that discussion right down to the end and have the ability to have this game (with) two really premier teams in the country. That’s what you focus on.”
Had the Rose Bowl not been a playoff semifinal this season, the Trojans and Buckeyes almost certainly would have been spending this week in Pasadena, Calif. The Rose Bowl traditionally hosts the Big Ten and Pac-12 champions, but this year it will host Oklahoma and Georgia for a bid to the Jan. 8 title game.
Instead, the two powerhouse programs with more than 1,700 wins combined meet in another traditional bowl. The Cotton Bowl is being played for the 82nd time overall and the ninth since moving from its namesake stadium to the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
This is the eighth time Ohio State and USC have met in a bowl game. The first seven were all in the Rose Bowl, with the last coming 33 years ago.
“This is just a classic, classic matchup on every level,” Helton said, mentioning
the schools, teams and bands. “I think it’s great for college football for this to be able to happen and to happen right here in the Cotton Bowl.”
While Meyer has a national title with the Buckeyes, he still hasn’t been to the Rose Bowl in his six seasons as Ohio State’s coach.
“Hopefully get there some day,” he said.
Time to play Music
NASHVILLE — Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald and his 20th-ranked Wildcats have a chance to make school history with a victory against Kentucky today in the Music City Bowl.
They could walk away with back-to-back bowl victories for the first time in program history, and it would also mark a 10-win season for the second time in three years and the 27th victory for the Wildcats’ seniors.
Northwestern (9-3) might have been happier
playing in a warmer bowl game further south, but Fitzgerald said the team knew Big Ten rules wouldn’t let it return to the Outback Bowl after playing there to cap the 2015 season. Northwestern quarterback Clayton Thorson noted it’s still warmer in Nashville than it is in Chicago.
“It’s history for us, and this (potential) win is big for our program,” he said.
Of course, Kentucky (7-5) has other plans as it wraps up season five under coach Mark Stoops. It had hopes of a much better bowl destination as well, but that was before consecutive losses to Georgia and Louisville to end the regular season.
Aggies auditioning
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Texas A&M wide receiver Christian Kirk remembers the sinking feeling in his stomach when he learned Kevin Sumlin had been fired as the Aggies’ head coach.
“It hurt,” Kirk said, recalling the Nov. 26 team meeting. “There were a lot of guys walking out of that meeting room with tears in their eyes — and I was
one of them. Coach Sumlin gave a lot of guys a chance that nobody else wanted to give them.”
Over the past month, the Aggies (7-5) have had to come to grips with an uncertain future, knowing that former Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher will be taking over the program beginning next season. Kirk said that means today’s Belk Bowl against Wake Forest (7-5) amounts to an audition for 2018 for many players.
Interim coach Jeff Banks will handle today’s game, but the Aggies are never far from Fisher’s watchful eye. He has been taking in practices from afar and getting to know the team he’ll inherit.
A day in the Sun
EL PASO, Texas — North Carolina State enters today’s Sun Bowl meeting with Arizona State seeking the secondmost wins in school history and a good ranking to finish the season.
“This year it’s really important to have a top-25 finish,” junior running back Nyheim Hines said. “We haven’t done that yet since I’ve been here.”
The Wolfpack (8-4) are in a bowl for the fourth consecutive season and sixth time in seven years under coach Dave Doeren.
Arizona State (7-5) is playing its final game under coach Todd Graham, who will be replaced by Herm Edwards.
Arizona showdown
TUCSON, Ariz. — New Mexico State and Utah State bring 6-6 records into today’s Arizona Bowl.
It’s the first bowl appearance in 57 years for New Mexico State, ending the longest bowl drought in NCAA history.
Utah State wants to cap a turnaround season with a win after being picked to finish last in the Mountain West Conference.