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.

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

BCS standings.

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 |

To get an Indiana media take on things, check out the Nov. 17th entry on

Terry Hutchen's IndyStar

blog.

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