Wednesday, November 28, 2007

More bowl projections

ESPN.com has updated its bowl projections. Two ESPN college football analysts are giving their opinions. One has IU in the Insight bowl and the other has them in the Las Vegas Bowl.

The Insight Bowl projection has the Hoosiers taking on Texas A&M. The Las Vegas Bowl slot has them facing BYU.


The Las Vegas Bowl slot is different from all the other projections. That indicates the analyst, in this case Ivan Maisel, believes IU will not get into a bowl tied to the Big Ten. The Las Vegas Bowl pits the Mountain West Conference champ against the Pac 10's fourth or fifth team. IU would get the slot because the Pac 10 would not have enough bowl eligible teams.


Maisel predicted Purdue would get the Insight Bowl slot. The writer who put IU in the Insight Bowl, Mark Schlabach, has Purdue in the Texas Bowl.

Monday, November 26, 2007

IU locks up its head coach

IU announced today head football coach Bill Lynch will be staying after this season. He signed a four-year deal that AP reported included a $250,000 base salary and about $300,000 in additional payments for promotional activities.

Lynch took over in the worst of circumstances last summer and performed admirably. He led the team to its best season since 1993 and is almost certainly heading to a bowl game. The question remains whether Lynch can continue to win games. This team was recruited by Coach Hep and now Lynch must begin getting his own players.

The future looks bright, we'll see if Bill Lynch can continue the momentum.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Hoosiers going west for New Years?

Projections indicate the IU football team should be playing in Arizona on New Year's Eve.

The Hoosiers' first bowl berth in 14 years is expected to come from the Insight Bowl. The game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Jan. 31 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz. The game pits the sixth Big Ten team against the sixth team from the Big 12. Both Collegefootballnews.com and CBSSportsline.com have predicted IU will play Oklahoma State in the game. Links to both are here and here. A poll on the Insight Bowl Web site shows the overwhelming majority (about 66 percent) of more than 1,000 voters want Michigan State in the game. Indiana has received the second most votes, with about 17 percent. Both sites predict MSU will play in the Motor City Bowl, which is in Detroit and a short drive from East Lansing.

Oklahoma State's season is over. The Cowboys are 6-6 and coming off a thumping by Oklahoma, 49-17. Last year, Texas Tech won the Insight Bowl 44-41 in overtime over Minnesota.