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The Big Ten is probably going to send some teams with losing records to bowls in 2020.
That’s not surprising in a year when the NCAA waived its 6-win requirement for bowl eligibility, when teams are playing a B1G-only schedule minus the usual nonconference wins against weaker opposition, and when there are 4 teams that have at least 5 wins and 10 other teams that have exactly 2 with 2 weeks (including the week of the B1G Championship Game) remaining.
Iowa leaps ahead of Wisconsin this week for a Florida bowl destination in our projections because the Hawkeyes look pretty likely to beat the Badgers, considering how hot Iowa is and how inept the Wisconsin offense has been over the past 2 weeks.
Again a reminder: the B1G lost contracted tie-ins with the Pinstripe Bowl and Quick Lane Bowl when those games got canceled in recent weeks, plus the Redbox Bowl that was called off months ago.
It’s possible that B1G teams (again with losing records) make their way into bowls not on this list just based on brand name recognition, tradition and money rather than merit earned in 2020.
Rather than the old “Big 2 and little 8” of olden days, the B1G is now the Big 4 and little 10, at least this year.
Here are the latest B1G bowl projections:
Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs. Clemson
Fiesta Bowl: Indiana vs. USC
Citrus Bowl: Northwestern vs. Auburn
Outback Bowl: Iowa vs. Missouri
Duke’s Mayo Bowl: Wisconsin vs. North Carolina
Music City Bowl: Maryland vs. Tennessee
Guaranteed Rate Bowl: Minnesota vs. TCU
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a writer and editor for saturdaytradition.com and saturdaydownsouth.com.