Hoosier Bowl Review
So what did Indiana's thrilling win over Purdue and the rest of the Big Ten
action mean in terms of the bowl picture?
Here is a quick breakdown:
Indiana's win, Iowa's loss and Michigan State's win has set up three 7-5
teams, Indiana, Michigan State and Purdue -- that the Insight Bowl will pick
from with the Motor City Bowl getting pick of the remaining two teams.
Above that group of three you have the group of Illinois, Michigan,
Wisconsin and Penn State that appear set for the Capital One, Outback, Alamo
and Champs Sports Bowls. Still a possibility that Illinois could slide into
a BCS Bowl but it looks like a longer shot.
Iowa and Northwestern both blew opportunities to get the all important
seventh win and likely have their seasons over.
With the win over Michigan, Ohio State is the outright Big Ten champ
again and is Rose Bowl bound unless it gets into the BCS Championship game.
Here are the final Big Ten standings and likely bowl games for each team
eligible:
6-6 teams in the Big Ten can't take a bowl bid before 7-5 and better Big Ten teams.
Outside bowls looking for an at-large team team much choose a 7-5 team over a
6-6 at large team. It won't happen in the Big Ten bowls this year but you
may see a 6-6 team make a bowl from the conference it is affiliated even with
at-large 7-5 teams out there. This is why you might see a bowl like the Insight
take a 6-6 Nebraska or Oklahoma State team because it has the Big 12 affiliation
and a lack of enough Big 12 teams with 7 wins or more.
Here is quick look at the bowl breakdown:
BCS bowls (BCS
standings)
Rose Bowl: January 1st, Pasadena
Sugar Bowl: January 1st, New Orleans
Fiesta Bowl: January 2nd, Glendale, Arizona
Orange Bowl: January 3rd, Miami, Florida
BSC Championship Game: January 7, New Orleans
The Big Ten champ heads to the Rose Bowl unless it qualifies for the BCS
Championship game. Also note that each conference can't have more than two
teams make the BCS bowls.
From the Big Ten teams left over:
1st choice: Capital One Bowl, January 1st, Orlando -- vs. SEC team
2nd choice: Outback Bowl, January 1, Tampa -- vs. SEC team
3rd/4th choice: Alamo Bowl, December 29th, San Antonio -- vs. Big 12 team
3rd/4th choice: Champs Sports Bowl, December 28th, Orlando -- vs. ACC team
5th choice: Insight Bowl, December 31, Tempe -- vs. Big 12 team
6th choice: Motor City Bowl, December 26th, Detroit -- vs. MAC team
Here are a few bowl games that might open up for a Big Ten
team because of the possibility not enough teams from the conference slated for the game will be
bowl eligible:
Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl: December 22, Las Vegas, Pac-10 #5 vs. Mountain West
#1
Texas Bowl: December 29, Houston, Big 12 #8 vs. C-USA #6
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl: December 31, Fort Worth, Pac-10 #6 vs.
Mountain West
The Pac-10 is the conference helping out here first of because they may put
two into the BCS Bowls from these three teams - Oregon, Arizona
State and USC. And then because Oregon State is the only other bowl eligible
team at this time. With some more surprise wins, Washington State, UCLA
and Arizona could still get to eligibility but most still don't predict that.
The Big 12 might also not be able to fill all its spots and open up things for a
team in the Texas Bowl.
Click here for
a nice summary of each conference's bowl eligibility breakdown.
So where might the Hoosiers go?
First off we likely will not know for certain until December 2nd. That's the
day after conference championship games in the Big 12 and SEC and several Pac-10
games. The Insight Bowl people
went on record yesterday indicating its announcement won't come till then.
But as mentioned, with the Big Ten regular season finished, it is fairly safe
to say the three Big Ten 7-5 teams (Indiana, Purdue, Michigan State) are likely
going to be there for the Insight Bowl people to choose from. The only thing
that might upset that is if Illinois sneaks into a BCS bowl. Possible but
unlikely as the Illinois are #17 in today's
Of those three 7-5 teams, almost everyone is projecting the odd team out will
be Purdue. The Boilers have lost three straight and may not have the story
lines that Indiana and Michigan State possess. So if the Insight has a choice
between Indiana and Michigan State, which school will they choose? Some of
the media have weighed in on the question. As you might expect, the Indiana
based media say the Insight is likely to choose the Hoosiers and the Michigan
media say the Spartans. The good news for Hoosier fans that prefer Arizona over
Detroit is so far the neutral media say Indiana.
Here is a summary of the neutral media that have already updated their bowl
predictions for this past weekend's results. Indiana's selection followed
by the other Big Ten team selections by bowl:
Sportsline: Insight Bowl (Indiana),
Rose (Ohio State), Capital One (Illinois), Outback (Wisconsin), Alamo
(Michigan), Champs Sports (Penn State),
Motor City (Michigan State), Las Vegas (Purdue)
College Football News: Insight Bowl (Indiana),
Rose (Ohio State), Capital One (Michigan), Outback (Illinois), Alamo
(Wisconsin), Champs Sports (Penn State),
Motor City (Michigan State), Las Vegas (Purdue)
Chicago Tribune: Insight Bowl (Indiana),
Rose (Ohio State), Capital One (Illinois), Outback (Michigan), Alamo
(Wisconsin), Champs Sports (Penn State),
Motor City (Michigan State), Texas (Purdue)
Both the Tribune and College Football News predict Indiana will play Oklahoma
State in the Insight while Sportsline projects Nebraska.
The Insight Bowl people have attended several IU games
the past couple years and have developed a good relationship with key Indiana
people. Also the bowl people seem very intrigued with Indiana because of
several story lines: 1) The Coach Hoeppner tragedy, 2) IU's first bowl since
1993, and 3) James Hardy and Kellen Lewis are marketable players.
Another factor here is that Michigan State can obviously bring a lot of fans
to the Motor City Bowl. Also former Spartan coach and A.D. and current MSU
trustee George Perles is the CEO of the Motor City Bowl. Perles' son John
is the Director of Operations for the Motor City Bowl.
Despite that the Michigan media still view the Insight Bowl as the Spartans
likely destination:
Detroit Free Press |
Detroit News 1 |
Detroit News 2
To get an Indiana media take on things, check out the Nov. 17th entry on
Terry Hutchen's IndyStar
blog.
Final Comments
New Year's Eve in warm Arizona or the day after Christmas in Detroit?
The former probably sounds more enticing to most Hoosier fans. But it is
not cheap to fly over the holidays and the Motor City Bowl has a television
advantage in that it is shown on ESPN while the Insight gets carried by the NFL
Network, a channel which many cable companies do not provide.
It will be interesting to see how well Indiana travels after not playing in a
bowl for so long. Is holiday travel for a football game so out of habit
that many Indiana fans will stay home? That's obviously not good for the
university and football program if that does happen. Will you travel?
Let us know by voting in polls set up by Hoosier fans on the IU football forum:
Insight Bowl Poll |
Motor City Bowl Poll