College Football: Big Ten has history of Rose Bowl or bust

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Up until 1975, there was the Rose Bowl and nothing else for Big Ten teams.

The conference champion — or, in the case of one infamous tie, the team selected as its representative — was the only fortunate squad that did not pack up its equipment in late November and try to hibernate through a long, cold winter in the Midwest.

"When I got [to the Rose Bowl] my senior year, I was very thankful," former Buckeyes and NFL offensive lineman Jim Lachey said of his trip in 1984. "I was glad I got a chance to go to the Rose Bowl because there were some guys who didn't get that opportunity who played before me."

From 1901, when Michigan beat Stanford 49-0, to 1974, when USC edged Ohio State 18-17, no Big Ten team played in any bowl game other than the Rose. A lot of very good teams who had come up short by a yard or a point had to stay home and listen on the radio or watch on television while another team went to the land of movie stars, palm trees and Disneyland.

A case in point is the 1973 Michigan team which went 10-0-1, outscored opponents 330-68 and was in the top five in the rankings all year — but tied Ohio State 10-10 in the regular-season finale. In a 6-4 vote by the Big Ten's athletic directors a day later, the rival Buckeyes and coach Woody Hayes received the conference's lone bowl bid and went to Pasadena.

Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, an Ohio native and former Hayes lieutenant at Ohio State, never got over the slight.

"It was the greatest disappointment of my career," a still angry Schembechler said four days before he died in 2006.

FCS title game today

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Villanova coach Andy Talley and the Wildcats finally have their first shot at winning the school's first Football Championship Subdivision title when they face Montana tonight.

The second-ranked Wildcats (13-1) couldn't have picked a more dominant opponent.

"I think they've won something like 3,000 conference championships in a row," Talley joked about Montana. "They are the only show in town in Montana, and people rally around it."

Actually, the Grizzlies (14-0) have won just 12 Big Sky Conference titles in a row, but they're undefeated for the second time in three seasons after losing last year's title game to Richmond.

Notes

• Appalachian State quarterback Armanti Edwards became the first two-time winner of the Walter Payton Award, which goes to the top player in the Football Championship Subdivision. James Madison defensive end Arthur Moats won the Buck Buchanan award honoring the top defensive player. Prairie View A&M coach Henry Frazier III won the Eddie Robinson Award for top coach.

• Ohio State confirmed it will be without freshman wide receiver Duron Carter when it takes on Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

• Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick said West Virginia assistant John "Doc" Holliday signed a five-year contract to coach the Thundering Herd. He will be paid $600,000 per season.

• Three Oregon players — Brian Harris, 18, Benjamin Butterfield, 18, and Brian Jackson, 19 — are scheduled to appear in Eugene Municipal Court next month on charges of discharging a firearm. Police said one of the players shattered an apartment window with a shot from a pellet gun.