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Ohio State’s victory over Michigan shook up the Big Ten bowl picture in a big way.
And Minnesota’s stunner against Wisconsin gave the Big Ten nine bowl-eligible teams.
Ohio State made its case to be included in the College Football Playoff, but for now we’re projecting the Buckeyes to go to the Rose Bowl as Big Ten champions. The league’s nightmare scenario is to miss the CFP for a second straight year but it’s very possible even if OSU defeats Northwestern for the B1G title.
Buckeyes fans should root for Oklahoma to lose to Texas in the Big 12 title game and for Alabama to hold form and beat Georgia for SEC honors, knocking the Bulldogs out of the way.
Michigan stays in the New Year’s 6 picture, moving to the Fiesta Bowl. We’re projecting that Penn State, which closed its season by routing Maryland, will move up into a major bowl berth thanks to No. 7 LSU’s upset loss to Texas A&M. No. 8 Washington State’s loss to Washington makes things interesting. Only one Pac-12 team will make the NY6 anyway so whether it was the Huskies or Cougars might seem like it makes little difference. The snag is, will the committee keeps Wazzu ranked ahead of PSU? I don’t see that happening bu if the Cougars are deemed worthy over the Nittany Lions, it will shake up the B1G picture even further.
Minnesota and Purdue won their way into bowl eligibility this weekend. The Boilermakers topped rival Indiana to finish 6-6 and the Golden Gophers, who have been in and out of the picture often this season, punched its ticket by claiming Paul Bunyan’s Axe from the Badgers.
There are already 82 bowl-eligible teams and 78 spots (39 bowls plus the CFP championship game), so there will be no 5-7 teams in the postseason this year. That means Maryland and Indiana hit the end of the road with their losses Saturday, finishing 5-7.
Here are the last B1G projections before Championship Week:
| Bowl | Projected teams | |
|---|---|---|
| Rose Bowl | Ohio State vs. Washington | |
| Fiesta Bowl | Michigan vs. Florida | |
| Peach Bowl | Penn State vs. UCF | |
| Citrus Bowl | Northwestern vs. Kentucky | |
| Outback Bowl | Iowa vs. LSU | |
| Holiday Bowl | Wisconsin vs. Utah | |
| TaxSlayer Bowl | Michigan State vs. Texas A&M | |
| Heart of Dallas Bowl | Minnesota vs. Middle Tennessee St. | |
| Quick Lane Bowl | Purdue vs. Duke |
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a writer and editor for saturdaytradition.com and saturdaydownsouth.com.