[NU Sports] A thought on bowling

[Mike Nolan]

> The Big Ten office, working with the AD's, talks to some of the at-large bowls, and those bowls whose conference does not have bowl-eligible teams, and offers some of our 7-5 teams. They find interesting warm-weather spots for those attractive-record teams, and their fans are happy with a fun, new, different spot to go to. They then fill the bottom two conference-assigned bowls with 6-6 NU and Iowa. All ten teams get a bowl, ten bowls get Big Ten exposure and fan turnout, the Big Ten is happy, everyone is happy. Possible?

Not all that far fetched.  The last list I saw indicated that the Big 12 
(and possibly other conferences) might not meet all its bowl committments.  

The question may hinge on whether a 6-6 Big 10 team can be taken over
a 7-5 team from another conferemce, such as the MAC, when neither 
conference has an automatic tie-in to that bowl.

The Big 10 may not be out of the running for a 2nd BCS bowl slot.

According to ESPN, the BCS is about to announce that they will expand
the number of teams eligible for BCS bowl games to the top 18 on the final 
BCS standings.  

As ESPN explains it, there's a possibility that some teams in the top 14 
(such as the 2nd place ACC team) might not have enough wins (9) to 
qualify for a BCS bowl.  One possible beneficiary of this is Illinois,
currently #17 on the list.  

Here's an interesting question:  Northwestern is bowl-eligible but not
guaranteed a bowl slot, something they won't know for sure until the 
1st Sunday in December.  

Are they permitted to practice this week and next?
--
Mike Nolan