As rumored, the Alabama Crimson Tide will take on the Michigan St. Spartans in the Capitol One Bowl, set for Jan. 1 in Orlando, Florida. One of the most prestigious non-BCS bowls, the former Citrus Bowl has been around since 1946, hosting the Spartans twice and Tide once. MSU lost to the Georgia Bulldogs here in 2009.
Bama is 9-3, with its only losses to the SEC Eastern and Western Division champions and the LSU Tigers. Sparty went 11-1, the only team to beat the Rose Bowlin’ Wisconsin Badgers, dropping a head-scratcher to the Iowa Hawkeyes by 31 points. Both teams beat their common opponent, the Penn St. Nittany Lions, though Bama did so by a much greater margin.
The Tide have the nation’s fifth-best defense and last year’s Heisman Trophy winner, while MSU boasts … well, they’re not astounding at anything, but they rank towards the top in most statistical categories.