B1G Bowl Projections, Week 10: Thinning the herd

Northwestern lost on Saturday and still drew one step closer to a spot in the Big Ten championship game.

That’s how weird this season has been.

The Wildcats stayed fairly close but lost at home to undefeated Notre Dame in a nonconference game. There was still good news for the Purple Gang, though, because Iowa lost to Purdue.

What this means is that Northwestern essentially has a two-game lead with three to play in the West Division race. Even if the Wildcats lose this Saturday at Iowa, they will still be in the lead. NU (5-4 overall, 5-1 B1G) is a game ahead of both Wisconsin and Purdue but holds all tiebreakers because the Wildcats have defeated both the Badgers and the Boilermakers. The Hawkeyes slipped two games back in conference play at 3-3.

Closer to the bottom of the standings, three teams are trying to hang on for dear life to become eligible for a bowl. Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota are all 4-5. Indiana and Minnesota have bounced in and out of our projections all season. After Minnesota fell to Illinois over the weekend, I think the Golden Gophers are toast. In fact I think all three teams at 4-5 will wind up sitting at home during bowl season.

Nearer the top, Penn State holds its place in our Citrus Bowl projection even after getting thumped by Michigan, just because nobody chasing that spot was very impressive either. If Michigan State stuns Ohio State this week, the Spartans can improve their lot significantly. But otherwise there will be a big, almost indistinguishable pack scrambling for the next five or six bowl bids after the Citrus.

Now let’s check out this week’s projections:

Jim Tomlin

Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a writer and editor for saturdaytradition.com and saturdaydownsouth.com.