Rose Bowl- Bucks vs. Ducks
So this was decided well before the BCS selection show on Sunday, as soon as Oregon beat Oregon State on Thursday night, but it is now official. The Pac-10 Champion, Oregon, will play the Big 10 Champion, Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. I was looking into taking the trip to Pasadena on January 1, but the package came to ~$2000. That is a lot of cash to pony up for a three day trip to California. I went to Arizona for the 2006 National Championship game and to New Orleans for the National Championship game against LSU, but both cost significantly less than this trip. Either way, I thought I would throw out some interesting facts about the similarities of both teams:
Teams that are on both schedules: Purdue and USC. Unfortunately, those teams sounds very familiar to Ohio State fans, as those are the only two teams that mustered a win against Ohio State's ferocious defense. Oregon manhandled USC, defeating them 47-20 and squeaked out a win against pesky Purdue by a score of 38-36.
Oregon comes in as the Nation's seventh ranked rushing offense, with 2833 yards on the ground or 236 per game, and seventh ranked total offense.
Ohio State comes in with the 5th ranked total defense, and 5th ranked rushing defense allowing only 83.4 yards/game.
Looks like if Ohio State's defense can hold Oregon to well below their average, Ohio State will win the "Granddaddy of Them All".