NU Week 12 Rooting Interests: The Bowl Selection Day Cometh

I'm sure that there were a few people who were wondering, before last weekend, if Northwestern was going to be damned to the Little Caesar's Bowl in Detroit. Pessimists within the fan base suggested after the collapse at Penn State that the 'Cats would finish 6-6 and get passed by the likes of the Illini and the Nittany Lions. Luckily, we got two very nice gifts. The obvious one is that we won our 7th game of the season by upsetting Iowa, taking us off the track from the "Pizza! Pizza!" Bowl and somewhere a little bit... warmer. The other is the unexpected demise of Illinois at the hands of Minnesota this past weekend. A win against the Illini on Saturday guarantees that they will not jump us in the bowl standings, as they could only have a 6-6 record at best.

Big Ten blog Off-Tackle Empire now projects NU to attend the TicketCity Bowl in Dallas, to face Texas Tech. However, blog author Bama Hawkeye says this under the guise that Northwestern loses their last two games and gets jumped by Penn State and Illinois. (They predict Michigan to finish 8-4.)

Mark Schlabach and Andrea Adelson from ESPN are divided this week. Schlabach has us going up against Kansas State in the Texas Bowl. Andrea's hopes are more muted, however, as she agrees with Off-Tackle Empire and the TicketCity Bowl. Both sports pundits assume the Big Ten lands two BCS bids.

Northwestern blog Hail to Purple takes more of the middle ground regarding the 'Cats bowl prospects. In its projection, we have just about an even likelihood of being in either the TicketCity Bowl (named here as the Dallas Football Classic) or the Texas Bowl.

Because of the three-way tie at the top of the Big Ten standings, there is no statistical possibility that we could make the Capital One bowl this year. However, with a lot of help and some logistical pandering, we could see the Outback Bowl for a second straight season. That said, winning out would realistically give us the Gator Bowl at best. So who do we root for this week? We want...

NU Week 10 Rooting Interests

Friends, it's the time of year when we start looking at bowl placements in the Big Ten conference. While our Wildcats still have a shot at winning a share of the Big Ten title, the odds are getting quite slim at this point and we're going to need some help in order to make the Rose Bowl. Judging from our record and remaining schedule, we're currently being placed in a low-tier bowl. Let's not settle for that, mmkay?

Big Ten blog Off-Tackle Empire has NU going to the Texas Bowl, which is fine and dandy, except they assume that Michigan will be stuck behind us (true, if we go 7-5 and Michigan goes 6-6) and that two Big Ten teams will make the BCS bowls (less likely).
ESPN's Mark Schlabach and Andrea Adelson both have us going to the Texas Bowl.
Fellow Northwestern blogger Hail to Purple has the 'Cats most likely to enter the Dallas Football Classic. The second most like destination is --once again-- the Texas Bowl.

From what I can tell, most of these projections assume a 7-5 record (more or less). We obviously have control over these last four games, but how can the other Big Ten teams help us this week? Let's take a closer look after the jump. We want...