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Even after Ohio State’s win in the B1G Championship Game seemed to return a slight sense of normalcy to an insane 2020 college football season, news broke late Saturday that this year is not quite done messing with normality yet.
The Rose Bowl, scheduled to be a College Football Playoff semifinal, won’t be at the Rose Bowl. It won’t be in California at all, and it might not even be called the Rose Bowl.
The Rose Bowl game was moved to Arlington, Texas, because of the COVID-19 situation in California. CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock confirmed the news Saturday night.
And Penn State, probably in line for a bowl bid after winning 4 straight to end the season, became the first B1G program to opt out of the postseason.
Ohio State should check in at No. 3 or No. 4 when the final CFP rankings are released on Sunday. We think (as we have for weeks) that the Buckeyes will be ranked No. 3 and head for Pasade- … uh, sorry, Arlington for a date with Clemson in a rematch of last season’s CFP semifinal that the Tigers won.
We also think Indiana lands a coveted New Year’s Day 6 bowl spot and faces Pac-12 champ Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl. Northwestern headed into Saturday ranked No. 14, so, despite the Wildcats’ brave effort in the B1G title game against OSU, NU will miss out on the NYD6.
Don’t be surprised if some behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing by the B1G brass lands a few more teams in bowls than the ones we list here. B1G teams are brand names, and this year there is no 6-win bowl eligibility requirement. So no matter how (poorly) their seasons went, teams like Michigan and Michigan State could yet find spots in bowls outside the B1G’s normal contracted postseason list.
Here are the final B1G bowl projections:
CFP Semifinal (Arlington): Ohio State vs. Clemson
Fiesta Bowl: Indiana vs. Oregon
Citrus Bowl: Northwestern vs. Auburn
Outback Bowl: Iowa vs. Missouri
Duke’s Mayo Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Wake Forest
Music City Bowl: Minnesota vs. Tennessee
Guaranteed Rate Bowl: Nebraska vs. West Virginia
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a writer and editor for saturdaytradition.com and saturdaydownsouth.com.