How sweet it is
Ohio State, Texas A&M to meet in Sugar Bowl
Posted: Sunday December 06, 1998 08:01 PM
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Sweet as Sugar: Sirr Parker's two late touchdowns pushed the Aggies to a Sugar Bowl berth against Ohio State AP |
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- For Ohio State, the Sugar Bowl is a letdown. For Texas A&M, it's a season-ending high.
The two teams will meet at the Superdome on Jan. 1 to the surprise of almost everyone, thanks to upsets of UCLA and Kansas State on Saturday.
"I was telling the guys on the sideline, 'Think Sugar, baby. Think Sugar,"' Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum said Sunday. "Our players were actually passing it around on the field."
But while No. 8 Texas A&M was working to earn a trip to New Orleans, No. 3 Ohio State coach John Cooper felt his team -- which lost in last year's Sugar, 31-14 to Florida State -- was of championship caliber.
"We're happy to be in the Sugar Bowl, but I think we can make an argument that we're one of the top two," Cooper said. "We were No. 1 for nine straight weeks. It's difficult to run the table to go undefeated. The day we got beat, we did not play our best game."
The Sugar Bowl thought it would match Florida State against Kansas State before upsets on Saturday changed the picture.
Kansas State, with its large contingent of fans, was prepared to play in the Sugar Bowl if it had finished third behind Tennessee and UCLA.
The Aggies' 36-33 victory in double overtime against Kansas State took care of those plans, sending A&M to the Sugar instead. Matching them against Ohio State offered the best game and best draw, Sugar Bowl assistant executive director Jeff Hundley said.
"We think we put together the best possible match considering the landscape," Hundley said. "We were concerned about how Kansas State would travel on a loss. Think back and you'll see teams coming off a loss have not sold well."
Selling tickets and boosting television ratings have become a consideration for the Sugar Bowl. The bowl, traditionally a hard ticket to get, did not sell out in two of the last three games.
Texas A&M (11-2), which lost to Florida State in its opener and to Texas two weeks ago, became the Big 12 champions for the first time to get an automatic Bowl Championship Series berth. Its proximity to New Orleans and the chance to bring a big crowd to the game clinched their appeal for the Sugar Bowl.
Texas A&M's last visit to the Sugar Bowl was in 1940 when it wrapped up an undefeated, national championship season.
The Buckeyes got one of the two remaining BCS berths, thanks to Miami's 49-45 upset of UCLA and Kansas State's loss.
In the final BCS standings, Tennessee and Florida State came out a clear 1-2 on Sunday and were invited to play in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 4, where the national title will be on the line.
Ohio State ended up fourth, behind Kansas State, which was left out of the BCS games -- the Fiesta, Rose, Orange and Sugar bowls.
Slocum said he could understand Kansas State's disappointment.
"We didn't create this system this weekend," Slocum said. "It's been in place all along."
Tennessee's final BCS total was 3.47. Florida State was second at 4.91, followed by Kansas State (9.96) and Ohio State (10.37).
Ohio State (10-1) shared the Big Ten title with Michigan and Wisconsin, but the Badgers received a spot in the Rose Bowl based on the "last-to-go" tiebreaker.
Ohio State, ranked No. 2 in the original BCS standings before moving up to the top spot a week later, was on track for a spot in the Fiesta Bowl until an upset at the hands of Michigan State.
"We had out goal set early in the year to win the national championship," Cooper said. "You always set goals realistically high, but sometimes you have to adjust them on the run."
This will be coach John Cooper's 10th bowl trip in his 11 years at Ohio State.
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