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Tyler Wright has always called her professional surfer brother Owen her inspiration.But a serious injury to him last December changed her mindset and put her on the path to world title glory.Owen was chasing the world title himself when a shocking wipe-out at Pipeline derailed his campaign and left him with bleeding on the brain.Wright said at the start of the year the injury had motivated her to seriously pursue the world crown for the first time in her five years on the world circuit.Prodigiously talented, she had come close twice - finishing second in 2014 and 2013 - but admitted she didnt really care about the result.Wright said that the injury to Owen had made her grow up.Owen has always been an inspiration to me but the last couple of months have made things so much clearer for me, Wright said after winning the opening world tour event of the year on the Gold Coast.It made me realise that I want to win a world title and I want to do it my way.Under new coach, former pro surfer Glenn Hall, the 22-year-old then added a further two titles from the first four events to set herself up for the world title tilt.With American challenger Courtney Conlogue stumbling in the semi-finals in France, Wrights dream has been realised.She became the seventh Australian to win the womens world title and the first since six-time champion Stephanie Gilmores last triumph in 2014.Wright grew up in Culburra Beach, a sleepy town south of Wollongong, in a surf-mad family.Three of the five children are professional surfers - Owen, Mikey and Tyler - while theres also Tim and older sister Kirby, who had a brief stint on the circuit.A popular surfer on tour, Wright counts fellow Australians Gilmore and Nikki Van Dijk, as well as inspirational Hawaiian Bethany Hamilton, a mum who surfs with one arm following a shark attack, as her close friends.Owen, 26, is yet to return to competitive surfing but is back in the water while 19-year-old Mikey has overcome a serious ankle injury that hampered his results.Before the injury Owen was asked who the best surfer was in their family and he had no doubt.Tyler, shes got it for sure. Physical and mental strength combined with a love for surfing, he saidIts letting her go places.Including to the top of the world rankings. Western Michigan will be rowing from Kalamazoo to the Cotton Bowl.The 12th-ranked Broncos (13-0, No. 15 CFP), the Mid-American Conference champions and the only FBS team other than top-ranked Alabama still undefeated, will play Big Ten runner-up and eighth-ranked Wisconsin (10-3, No. 8 CFP) on Jan. 2 in the Dallas Cowboys home stadium.Coach P.J. Fleck said Sunday that it really is surreal right now. Surreal to know Western Michigan University, a team that I coach, is going to play in one of the historic New Years games that he used to watch with his dad when he was growing up.The 36-year-old Fleck, who has infused the Broncos with that Row The Boat mantra, revealed that he had a large piece of cotton in his pocket during the MAC championship game on Friday night. He showed that cotton to the WMU players and fans gathered for the bowl announcement inside while it was snowing outside.Well, theres a lot of cotton falling from the sky here in Kalamazoo today, a lot accumulating on the ground, Fleck said during the ESPN selection show. How ironic.During a team meeting last January, just weeks after the Broncos first-ever bowl victory, Fleck displayed to his team a logo of the Cotton Bowl, the destination this season for the highest-ranked champion from the Group of Five.Wisconsin is also going to its first Cotton Bowl. The Badgers lost the Big Ten championship game and a chance to get back to the Rose Bowl for the first time since going to Pasadena at the end of three consecutive seasons (2010-12).Badgers coach Paul Chryst said while his team was disappointed with their Big Ten finish, the Cotton Bowl and the opponent will be make it easier for them to get re-focused.One of the stories of the year, and that will grab our kids attentions, Chryst said of WMU. It will be a challenge for us.While the West Division champion Badgers are officially the Big Ten runner-ups, they are behind three of the conferences East Division teams in the final College Football Playoff rankings and AP Top 25 -- trailing Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan.The Badgers 15 consecutive bowl games is the longest streak in the Big Ten.Some other things to know about Westeern Michigan and Wisconsin going to the Cotton Bowl:SMALL SUCCESSES: This is the third season of the College Football Playoff, which offers a spot for the highest-ranked Group of Five champion in one of the New Years Six games.dddddddddddd The first two have won their games. Boise State beat Arizona 38-30 in the Fiesta Bowl two years ago, and Houston beat Florida State 38-24 in the Peach Bowl last season.BEATING THE BIG TEN: Western Michigan has played -- and beaten -- two Big Ten teams this season. The Broncos opened their season with a 22-21 win at Northwestern, and two weeks later won 34-10 at Illinois. Western Michigan has played Wisconsin four times before -- all of those early-season games in Madison, Wisconsin. The Badgers won the last meeting 19-7 in 2000, two years after Western Michigan got its only win in the series.THIS WAS THE GOAL: Wide receiver Corey Davis had already had three standout seasons for Western Michigan, and could have possibly been a high NFL draft pick had he left after his junior year. But Fleck said Davis returned to finish the job he started with his teammates, to become a MAC champion. Davis has 91 catches for 1,427 yards and 18 TDs this season, and 325 receptions for 5,205 yards and 51 TDs overall.NOT FIRST VISIT: Wisconsin previously played at AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFLs Dallas Cowboys, in losing its 2015 season opener 35-17 to Alabama. While this will be Western Michigans first game at the stadium that started hosting the Cotton Bowl seven years ago, Fleck coached there as a receivers coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2012, and attended the first CFP championship game there two seasons ago.BIG TEN IN COTTON: Before Michigan State played in the Cotton Bowl the last two years, including the national semifinal game loss to Alabama last season, the only Big Ten team that had ever played in the Cotton Bowl had been Ohio State. The Buckeyes beat Texas A&M in the 1987 Cotton Bowl.---More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 . ' ' '