Sugar Bowl 2012: Michigan Just as Undeserving of a Spot as Virginia Tech

In what is widely considered the most bizarre pick of any college football bowl this season, Virginia Tech was selected to play in the Sugar Bowl. It's ranked 11th in the BCS, a measly 17th in the AP Poll and lost by 20-plus points to Clemson twice, once at home and once in the ACC Championship in the final weekend.

With that 38-10 loss still fresh in voters’ minds, the Hokies were promptly ripped apart by national media including ESPN and Rivals, and Bleacher Report has not been particularly kind either.

And as a proud member of Hokie Nation, I could not agree with these sentiments more. Premier bowl games should go to premier football teams and not ones that lost its only games against the only team on the schedule that finished in the final BCS Top 25.

The entire BCS system is clearly flawed and based on filling up the stadium, hotels and getting people to watch the “big-name” teams on television.

Any way you slice it from a football standpoint, Virginia Tech should not have been selected for this bowl.

And for the record, I have yet to meet anyone who goes to school here who disagrees with that sentiment. We were all shocked to find out that the team would not be playing in the Chick-fil-A Bowl to finish this season.

But what is completely ridiculous, wildly hypocritical and flat out wrong is the lack of anger towards the Sugar Bowl selecting Michigan to take the other spot.

Many of the top college football analysts had the Wolverines landing here weeks ago, but even then, there was no outrage. This is a team who didn’t even become eligible to be in a BCS Bowl until last week when they didn’t play a game. They needed losses by Houston, Oklahoma and Michigan State in order to get into the Top 14.

It’s not like their record is any more impressive than Virginia Tech’s. Michigan’s best wins are home ones against Notre Dame and Nebraska, but the Irish were winning 24-7 heading into the fourth quarter before fumbling away it all with a meteoric collapse—go back and look at the box score and tell me which team won that game if it weren’t for dumb turnovers—and the Huskers have failed miserably all year at stopping mobile quarterbacks—see Wisconsin, Northwestern and Ohio State while Braxton Miller was in for details.

While there’s no denying the progress the Wolverines have made under Brady Hoke and defensive coordinator Greg Mattison, they have played six games against teams with records over .500 which is the same exact number as Virginia Tech.

Too nitpicky? How about the fact that Michigan was ranked behind the Hokies in every aspect of the BCS formula? The Coaches’ Poll, Harris Poll and computer rankings had them 11th, 11th and 13th, respectively, while Michigan was 12th, 12th and 15th, respectively. Or the fact that they each of two losses, but one of Michigan’s, was to 7-5 Iowa?

At the end of an unbiased day, you can probably make a stronger argument for Michigan over Virginia Tech but the discrepancy between the two schools' resumes is incredibly small. One would never know that based on the coverage of the Sugar Bowl selection.

It has been nothing but hatred towards the Hokies with little coming the Wolverine's way. Boise State, Kansas State, Arkansas, South Carolina and Baylor should all have been chosen above both of these teams, not just Virginia Tech.

It seems as though people think that Michigan is more deserving of a spot in a BCS bowl because of their history, conference affiliation and monumental progress under the new coaching staff. Does that deserve a reward? Of course! But that is what the Capital One and Outback Bowls are for, not the Sugar Bowl.

From a football standpoint, this team is still at least a year away before really deserving to play in such a prestigious postseason game.

Feel free to bash the bowl executives for choosing Virginia Tech to play in New Orleans this January; they deserve every bit of your criticism—the system is corrupt and this proves it beyond any shadow of a doubt.

But when you do, be sure to throw equal criticism towards them picking Michigan because the Wolverines are just as undeserving as the Hokies.