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This time of year is always a little sad.
Yes, we still have conference championships, bowl games and the College Football Playoff to look forward to, but the end of the regular season is the first sign that football will be gone in just a few weeks.
But the final week of the season provided us with plenty of entertainment as a few undefeated teams fell, a couple clinched bowl berths and two finished the season with a perfect record. Here are some quick takeaways from Week 13.
- Wisconsin was the only Power Five program to finish the season with a perfect record, helping its case for a bid in the College Football Playoff. UCF was the only other team to make it through the year unscathed.
- There’s going to be a lot of “Alabama or Ohio State” debate over the next week or so. Analysts everywhere are debating which team has the better résumé, and a case could be made for both sides. One thing is certain, if the Buckeyes beat the Badgers in Indianapolis, things could get really interesting.
- After beating Rutgers soundly, Mark Dantonio and Michigan State completed the turnaround, going from 3-9 in 2016 to 9-3 in 2017. He likely won’t be in the mix, but Dantonio deserves to be in the Coach of the Year conversation on a national level.
- For the first time since 2012, Purdue is going bowling. That’s quite a remarkable feat for Jeff Brohm in Year 1. Saturday’s win over Indiana for the Old Oaken Bucket was pretty sweet not only because the Boilermakers clinched a postseason bid, but because it prevented the Hoosiers from a bowl berth.
- It would’ve been kind of nice if we got to see how this Northwestern team, the one that finished with seven straight wins, would stack up against Wisconsin. The Wildcats were expected to be the second-best team in the West and, despite the 2-3 start, they fell right into that spot.
- Just as we all expected, Nebraska is searching for a new head football coach. It was no surprise that Mike Riley was fired after a 4-8 campaign this fall. Now the pressure is on AD Bill Moos to bring UCF head coach Scott Frost back to Lincoln.
It was an entertaining final week of the season. Maybe we didn’t get the same drama as we had a year ago, but it was still a decent way to close out the year.
With the regular season in the books, here are our bowl projections for each of the B1G’s eight eligible teams.
Bowl Conferences Teams Pinstripe Bowl B1G vs. ACC Purdue vs. Wake Forest Music City Bowl B1G vs. Pac-12 Iowa vs. Kentucky Holiday Bowl B1G vs. Pac-12 Michigan vs. Stanford Outback Bowl B1G vs. SEC Michigan State vs. LSU Citrus Bowl B1G vs. SEC Northwestern vs. South Carolina Cotton Bowl B1G vs. SEC Penn State vs. UCF Peach Bowl AL vs. AL* Ohio State vs. Auburn CFP Semis: Rose Bowl AL vs. AL* (3) Wisconsin vs. (2) Oklahoma
*Denotes at-large
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB