Ad Disclosure
B1G bowl projections after Week 5: Upsets elsewhere help league
By Jim Tomlin
Published:
Okay, Iowa. That was impressive.
On Friday night, the Hawkeyes finally produced as well on offense as they always seem to on defense in crushing Maryland 51-14 on the road.
Iowa gained 428 yards with decent balance — 283 yards passing, 145 rushing — against the Terrapins, answering some of the questions that have dogged the offense all season.
And thanks to losses by Notre Dame and Florida, a couple of spots opened up in our New Year’s Day 6 projections and the Hawkeyes are sliding right into one of them.
With four unbeaten teams (Penn State, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State), the most in any Power 5 conference, the Big Ten is off to a fine start in 2021. And that doesn’t even account for 4-time defending league champion Ohio State, which has a loss but has looked much better the past couple of weeks.
So now the B1G has 3 teams in our NYD6 projection — but still not a College Football Playoff spot at this time. The problem for the league now is that it is so balanced, it’s hard to see any team going undefeated, and that might be what it takes to get in. Cincinnati’s landmark win at Notre Dame on Saturday (remember, the Fighting Irish have been to the CFP in 2 of the past 3 years) might just be enough for the American Athletic Conference team to become the first Group of 5 program to earn a CFP berth.
Remember, these projections are based on where we think teams will finish in December, not where they are now.
Here are the latest B1G bowl projections:
Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs. Oregon
Fiesta Bowl: Penn State vs. BYU
Peach Bowl: Iowa vs. North Carolina State
Citrus Bowl: Michigan vs. Kentucky
Outback Bowl: Michigan State vs. Auburn
Las Vegas Bowl: Minnesota vs. Arizona State
Music City Bowl: Maryland vs. Florida
Pinstripe Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Louisville
Guaranteed Rate Bowl: Indiana vs. West Virginia
Quick Lane Bowl: Rutgers vs. Western Michigan
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a writer and editor for saturdaytradition.com and saturdaydownsouth.com.