[NU Sports] one angle I wonder about

[Mike Nolan]

> Not that it matters in the big picture (except to the bean counters at
> all the Big Ten schools), but there are conference revenue implications 
> here.  Penn State was in the hunt for a BCS at-large slot even if 
> they lost the Big Ten Championship game.  

More bowl thoughts:

The Cats still need two more wins (as does Purdue) to be bowl eligible,
but if neither school gets to 6 then the conference would only have 
8 bowl-eligible teams and 9 bowl committements to fill, and that
would drop to 7 teams if Penn State opts out of a bowl game.

So, assume for now that the Cats win 2 more games.  (A clean sweep
of November would be better, if Michigan State loses in Iowa City
could they fall apart?)  

If Penn State opts out of a bowl game, then all the teams below them 
would presumably move up a slot, which would likely send us to the Ticket 
City Bowl (again) against a Conference USA team instead of Detroit and the MAC.  

Some sites have Tulsa projected for the Ticket City Bowl, would
Northwestern be more likely to beat them than Toledo (projected
for the Pizza Bowl), which has averaged 63 points in its last two games, 
though winning just one of them? 

Can a bowl choose not to pick a team from its committed conferences?
--
Mike Nolan