Icers' photos Sor an illustrated look at Michigan ockey's sweep of Bowling Green last weekend, check online. michigandaily.com /sports NTb Atidiiga ig SPORTS THURSDAY OCTOBER 26, 2000 5A STEPHANIE OFFEN BCS lesson for this Saturday - . ^, r a, f " . ,,: .r, . I a ; ou've probably taken Psychology 111, Calculus 115 or Spanish 101. Forget everything you learned in any of those classes. None of that information is going to help you this Saturday. Football season doesn't halt when Michigan has a bye. In fact, this may be the most important weekend of college football so far this season. Michigan is virtually out of the bowl cham- pionship series race at the moment. The rank- igs were released this past Monday and the Iolverines were nowhere in the top 15. That's what an AP ranking of 15, two losses and nonconference opponents such as Bowling Green and Rice will do to a team. Michigan's only hope right now is to pray to the BCS Gods that Ohio State beats Purdue at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday (the only time - I hope - that anyone will be rooting for the Buckeyes). But in order to understand the full impor- tance of this game plus the full importance of the game I'm sure all of you will be tuning in ' before that one - Nebraska at Oklahoma - one needs to take BCS logic 101. I know what your thinking, "Why should I be listening to her, she can't make picks against the spread to save her life?" For those of you who think I'm insulting your football knowledge by the following explana- tion, I apologize. This is for those who will turn on the televi- sion Saturday and wonder how in the world e random football analyst came up with the I and No. 2 rankings that surround the day's highlighted matchup. I think the BCS rankings mean very little since Wisconsin still ended up in the Rose Bowl as the Big Ten champion the last two years. But the rankings have picked the national champion the last two years, and the way things are going this season, it very well may happen again. All depending on what happens Saturday. This lesson will be handier Saturday than differentiating binomial equations, believe me. * put down those textbooks and stop listening to lecture. This is an important lesson that you don't want to miss. THE BCS BOWLS: Six of the eight spots in the four bowl championship games will be determined by conference champions. The Rose Bowl, like always, will host the Big Ten and Pac-l0 champions this year. Since neither conference will boast a No. I or No. 2 team, the tradition will once again stay intact. All the rest of the major conferences will get a spot in one of the three remaining BCS bowls, the Fiesta, Sugar or the national championship game, the Orange Bowl. This leaves two wild card spots for other teams that finish in the top 10 of the BCS standings. TiE EQUATION: Four things are factored together to figure out these BCS rankings. f The first factor is position in the polls. The rankings calculate the average standing of each team in the Associated Press and the USA Today/ESPN polls. 9 The second component is an average of eight computer rankings. These include three used in 1998 and five that were added last year. The seven highest computer rankings are averaged and the lowest is disregarded. * The third item in the BCS rankings is strength of schedule. The strength of a team's schedule is determined by evaluating the win/ loss records of a team's opponents and the win/loss records of the teams' opponents' oppo- nents. Sound confusing? It gets worse. The formula is weighed by two-thirds for the opponents' record and one-third for the opponents' opponents' record.' Then once the schedule strength is calculated it is divided by 25 to get a figure. 0 The final component is a team's losses. Each loss a team accumulates during the season equals one point. So Michigan currently has two points in this catergory. The final standings are decided by adding these four catergories together and the team with the lowest point total will be No. I in the BCS standings. The top two teams in these standings at the end of the season will compete in the Orange Bowl. Hopefully your lecture is now over and you fully understand how the BCS rankings work. If not, there's always next season. - Stephanie O/en can be reached at sogfenw(uunich.edit k V i~~DNOQ~~/al -.w BRENDAN O'DONELL/Daily Jed Ortmeyer (26) will face his brother Jake as Michigan plays host to Miami this weekend. Battle of Ortmeyers roars into Yost tomorrow night By Jon Schwartz Daily Sports w riter The home of Jack and Judy Ortneyer in Omaha, Neb. is approximately 700 miles from Yost Ice Arena. So on the surface, Michigan's hockey rink would seem like an odd place to hold the Ortmeyer family reunion. Jed Ortmeyer is a sophomore forward for the Wolverines, his brother Jake a junior defenseman for Miami. And when the RedHawks invade Yost this week- end, the entire Ortmeyer family will be ready to see the brothers go to battle. "it means a little more," Jed, the younger Ort- meyer, said of the matchup. "You just want to go out and do your best to win the game, but it means a little more because he's out there." The Ortmeyers that fly in for the game will see another chapter in the already long history of the brothers'hockey lives. The two have the ultimate scouting report on each other. Besides learning the game together, they both played juniors for the Omaha Lancers of the USHIL and their careers almost progressed along- side each other to Miami. "They offered me to go there to be a freshman with him but I didn't think I was ready yet," Jed said. "I wanted to wait a year and they told me that they wouldn't have a scholarship so they were pretty much out of the question." The older brother was a little bit disappointed but realized that Jed was making a choice that was best for his career.° "Coming out of Omaha, lie was the best player I'd played with," Jake said. "He's quick and lie plays both sides well." After tomorrow night's game, the family plans to go out for dinner. There will be chatting about school, home and family life. It will be an ordinary meeting between a family that doesn't get together very often. What there won't be mention of is what went on during the game and what is going to happen on Sat- urday night. Because some of the things the brothers will be doing to each other are not exactly condu- cive to healthy family life. "I wouldn't mind dropping him a few times," Jake said."I'm not going to go out and cheap shot him or kill him, but if I have a chance to, I'm going to hit him. Mom and dad might not like it but they're not out thdre playing." Mike Cammalleri, the center on Jed's line, is excited for the extra spring that the matchup will give his winger. "I think it intensifies our line and it will electrify us a little bit and get us going a little more," Cam- malleri said. "The great thing about the relationship they have is they're really good friends off the ice but on the ice they can battle like no one else. I'm extremely excited. It'll be a good weekend of hockey" This weekend will be the first time that Jed and Jake's brothers and sisters get to see them play against each other. So for the two soldiers going into hockey's civil war, there is some added pressure. See ORTMEYERS, Page SA 'M' eyes twin titles By David Roth Daily Sports Writer The Twix bar mentality sums it up for the Michigan field hockey team. In a Twix bar, you get two deli- cious chocolate and caramel bars. The newest Twix ad suggests to eat them both and not give one away, as the guy on the commerical self- ishly declares -- "two for me, none for you." This parallels Michigan's outlook for the next two weeks. The Wolverines want the Big Ten regular season championship, plus the Big Ten Tournanment champion- ship. And they don't want to share it. "The team is so clear about its goals -- to win the regular season championship outright," Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz said. To win the regular. season crown outright, No. 5 Michigan (15-3, 5-0 Big Ten) must defeat No. 19 Michi- gan State (10-7,1-4 Big Ten) tomor- row at 3 p.m. at Ocker Field. The Wolverines have tied for the regular season crown, but have never won it exclusively. They have won the Big Ten Tour- nament, but not in the same season that they won the regular season title. Last year, the Wolverines placed third in the Big Ten regular season when they won the tournament. But Michigan is hungry for both, drooling over every Big Ten honor the conference offers. If Michigan's eagerness to show the conference that they are the bul- lies of the Big Ten isn't enough motivation, playing an archrival, Michigan State, should fuel the fire even more. Michigan would love to win the championship at home on Senior Day against its in-state foes. "I expect our team to rise to the challenge of winning the champion- ship," Pankratz said. "This should be a dangerous game because Michigan State always brings their 'A' game when they come to play us," Pankratz said. "This is a great rivalry." t k t h XAI fl r 1 A Are you ready for the great IT challenge? Find it at the place where global finance and cutting-edge technology meet- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. We 've got the resources, the rewards and the environment (fast paced, stimulating, plus business casual) to make it right for you. 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