Big Ten Football & Basketball Blog

New Year’s Day 2008 featured two Big Ten vs. SEC showdowns in bowl games as the Michigan Wolverines and Wisconsin Badgers matched up with SEC opponentts in their bowl games. #18 Wisconsin kicked off at 11 am in the Outback Bowl against #16 Tennessee and fell to the Vols 21-17. Just two hours later, unranked Michigan, led by head coach Lloyd Carr in his final game, faced heavy-favorite Florida in the Capital One Bowl. Michigan led 21-14 at the half over the #12 Gators and kicked two late FG’s and picked off a Tim Tebow pass to seal a 41-35 victory. With the win, Carr ends his coaching career at Michigan 122-40 overall and Chad Henne, Mike Hart & Jake Long, the three seniors who returned to Michigan this season to play for a National Championship, were able to get their first bowl win in four tries.

The University of Michigan’s head coaching job is reportedly no longer open. West Virginia head football coach Rich Rodriguez announced to his now former players on Sunday that he was leaving for Michigan. The official announcement and press conference will be on Monday morning. Rodriguez had a huge opportunity to leave WVU for Alabama a year ago and declined, but instead led his team to another Big East Championship and BCS Bowl berth before leaving for Michigan.

Lloyd Carr made the rumors official on Monday as he retired as the head football coach at the University of Michigan. After MGoBlog reported the rumor citing inside sources just a week ago, Carr announced his retirement during a 10 am press conference on Monday.

After an 0-2 start to the 2007 football season, Carr led the Wolverines to 8 straight wins before dropping consecutive games to Wisconsin and Ohio State. Carr led the Wolverines to 12 bowl games going 5-7 and in 13 games against rival Ohio State, Carr went 6-7.

Michigan coaching rumors have begun and will be followed at BigTen-fans.com.

The November 11th BCS Standings have been released and now feature 4 Big Ten football programs in the Top 25 rankings. After their 28-21 loss to Illinois on Saturday, the Ohio State Buckeyes continue to lead the Big Ten and will play Michigan for the Big Ten football championship next weekend, but the Buckeyes have dropped from #1 to #7 in the BCS standings. Illinois is the second-ranked Big Ten school coming in at #19 overall thanks to a strong computer score. Michigan comes in at #21 following a disappointing loss @ Wisconsin and the Badgers round out the Big Ten programs in the Top 25 of the BCS coming in at #25.

Penn State was the lone other Big Ten football team receiving Top 25 votes in the AP and USA Today rankings and was ranked as high as #22 by the coaches in the USA Today poll.

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In what was quite a surprise across the nation, the #1 Ohio State Buckeyes and the #12 Michigan Wolverines both fell in Big Ten games the week before facing each other in college football’s greatest rivalry. Michigan played @ Wisconsin without RB Mike Hart and lost QB Chad Henne in the 1st Quarter, but it was the defense’s inability to stop Wisconsin’s running game that did Michigan in. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes allowling just 9.7 ppg on the season, saw the Illinois offense score 28 points en route to a 28-21 upset of the #1 Buckeyes.

The losses mark the first time since 1959 that both teams lost the week prior to the Michigan/Ohio State rivalry game.

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