Big Ten Bowl Preview: The B1G Gets a Chance to Save Face This Postseason in High-Profile Contests

The Big Ten will get a chance to save some face this postseason.

Three years from a great showing in which Ohio State won the national championship and the conference went 4-2 in January postseason games, the league is suffering another reputation problem. It was blanked in its past two playoff games. Last year's heavyweights—Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State—all suffered disappointing losses.

The Big Ten won't get to correct that in the playoff, but it'll get a chance to improve its image in the other bowl games. Here, we offer a preview of the Big Ten bowl games outside the Cotton Bowl and what you can expect from these contests.

Pinstripe Bowl: Iowa (-3) vs. Boston College

The Big Ten bowl schedule begins with the reason Alabama might backdoor to another national championship taking on Boston College in the Bronx.

Frustrations with the loss at Iowa aside, this matchup is one of the more intriguing ones on paper for what a bowl game should be: an interesting non-conference matchup between two different programs from two different parts of the country in a peculiar venue. The Pinstripe Bowl is a great venue for excited fan bases who want to attend just to say they attended.

The Ohio State game will completely belie the kind of team Iowa is. It's the No. 108 total offense in the country, sandwiched between Florida State and South Carolina. Indeed, Iowa followed its 243 rushing yards on 38 carries against Ohio State with 25 yards on 26 carries the next week at Wisconsin. Michigan State mauled it worse than that earlier in the season, holding Iowa to 19 rushing yards on 25 carries.

Iowa will hope Akrum Wadley can duplicate his effort from the Ohio State win against Boston College.

Boston College should be inviting, though. The Eagles concede 198 rushing yards a game, good for No. 102 in the country. Defense is certainly not why the Eagles are even in this postseason. Rather, the rushing offense is. 

Boston College averages 224 yards on the ground, an increase of 76 yards a game from last year. It's rushing offense pulverized Louisville (364 yards) and Florida State (241 yards) en route to a seven win season. The Eagles will challenge Iowa's No. 38 rushing defense.

Vegas likes Iowa by a field goal in this contest, though I think the Eagles ultimately leave with the win. Iowa is a high-variance team in which quality wins against Iowa State and Ohio State belie some grisly losses.

Foster Farms Bowl: Purdue (+4.5) vs. Arizona

Purdue is in its first bowl game since 2012. This much is a minor miracle given the recent fortunes of the program. However, it'll get a deceptively challenging Arizona team for its troubles.

Put simply, Arizona's ground attack has been incinerating opponents all season long. The Wildcats average 324 rushing yards a game, good for No. 3 in the country behind the usual suspects (Army and Navy). That it's just 21 yards shy of No. 2 Navy and 44 yards shy of No. 1 Army should tell you something. Army and Navy do nothing but run the ball. Meanwhile, Arizona at least has a functioning passing attack.

Another way of thinking about this: Arizona has the No. 1 rushing offense in the country selecting on yards per carry. Each rushes averages 6.83 yards.

Freshman running back J.J. Taylor averages 6.08 yards a carry and won't be an easy assignment for Purdue (Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)

Purdue's rushing defense is okay on a first-year turnaround. However, the closest comparison here is Wisconsin. The Badgers put up 295 rushing yards on Purdue, almost 70 yards more than the Badgers' season average.

Expect some trials for Purdue this contest and, in all likelihood, a comfortable Arizona win.

Holiday Bowl: Michigan State (+3) vs. Washington State

This will be Mark Dantonio's first encounter with a Mike Leach offense since the 2010 Alamo Bowl. Even then, Mike Leach didn't coach this game. He was fired for mistreating Craig James' son. If you remember that game, you'll probably remember how woefully unprepared Dantonio was for that Airraid offense. The Red Raiders hung 587 yards on the Spartans' defense.

Texas Tech even had 31 first downs that game, which no team had done to a Dantonio defense since. It was ugly.

Vegas likes Washington State by a field goal this game though I'm not sure I'd take that. Washington State is who we'd expect just from knowing who coaches them. They're a far better defense right now than they were in previous seasons under Mike Leach. Still, Dantonio has learned since that game. His defenses are generally light years from that Alamo Bowl nadir.

Music City Bowl: Northwestern (-6.5) vs. Kentucky

This will be a first crack for a Big Ten team against a major pain for the mid-tier on the recruiting trail. So much of what has propelled Kentucky to back-to-back bowl games is realizing how close it is to Ohio's fertile recruiting grounds. Kentucky is recruiting players into the program that might have otherwise more seriously considered playing in a place like Evanston.

That Northwestern is a touchdown favorite in this game is a small surprise. The B1G's Wildcats may have more talent. I would've argued it had the better season to date if not for the ugly consecutive losses to Georgia and Louisville to end the regular season. Northwestern, which could've otherwise finished second in the SEC East, lost their last two games by a combined 56 points.

I wrote off Northwestern as dead to rites after its 2-3 start, which included an inexplicable-in-hindsight 24-point loss at Duke. However, Northwestern has rattled off seven-straight wins. Some required grit, including back-to-back-to-back overtime wins over Iowa, Michigan State, and Nebraska. Others were outright dominations, including a 39-0 thumping of Minnesota.

Should Kentucky prevail in Nashville, it'll come off breaking Northwestern's rushing defense. Northwestern only concedes 111 yards a game on the ground, good for ninth-best in the country. More eye-opening: 28% of the total rushing yards gained against Northwestern came in its first two games during its ugly start. After then, no team has gained more than 139 yards on the ground against Northwestern.

Nate Hall (#32) is No. 2 in the Big Ten in TFLs and is a large reason why Northwestern's rushing defense is so good. (Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports)

That was Minnesota in the aforementioned 39-0 loss.

Fiesta Bowl: Penn State (-4.5) vs. Washington

Last year's Pac-12 champion and Big Ten champion will play the day after this year's champions meet in the Cotton Bowl.

Vegas likes Penn State (-4.5) and it's easy to see why. If this game had been played last year, I would've favored the Huskies. However, the attrition of Darrell Daniels and, especially, John Ross left Jake Browning a wide receiver corp in whom he has considerably less trust. 

It's why the Huskies dropped from the No. 40 passing offense last year to the No. 73 passing offense this year.

Jake Browning isn't having the same season he had last year, but is still the best QB Penn State will have seen all year. (Jennifer Buchanan-USA TODAY Sports)

That said, Washington had a puncher's chance at repeating as conference champions until the final weekend because of its defense. The Huskies are the best rushing defense in the country, averaging just 92.33 yards a game on the ground. All things considered, it's the No. 5 total defense. 

It is worth noting Penn State did play one defense better than Washington: Michigan. Penn State put 506 yards on a defense that otherwise concedes 268 yards a game. Further, Washington hasn't seen a player as versatile as Saquon Barkley either.

All else equal, I'd take Penn State to cover but there'll be a few wild cards in this contest. Namely, both teams will be missing their offensive coordinators. Jonathan Smith left Washington to return to his alma mater as Oregon State's new head coach. Joe Moorhead recently left Penn State to take over Mississippi State's program as well.

Orange Bowl: Wisconsin (-5.5) vs. Miami

This year's ACC and Big Ten silver medalists will meet in the Orange Bowl. It'll be their first encounter since the 2009 Champs Sports Bowl.

That previous encounter serves as a useful illustration for pre-game expectations. Therein, Miami expected to shock-and-awe Wisconsin with its superior athletes but Wisconsin, in turn, overwhelmed the Hurricanes with its superior coaching and discipline. The six-point margin of victory belies how uncompetitive Miami looked for most of that game.

That issue of talent will probably be an issue with which the Badgers' coaching staff grapples in the coming weeks. Ohio State almost boat-raced Wisconsin in the first half of the Big Ten Championship Game, showcasing its talent superiority and making the then-No. 1 (now No. 2) total defense in the country look like scrubs.

From the Miami perspective, it's probably grateful that happened. A Wisconsin win on Saturday would've placed the Badgers in the playoff and, in every prediction I encountered, the Crimson Tide in the Orange Bowl against Miami. That would've ended poorly for the Hurricanes.

Wisconsin might be the better team but this is a far easier matchup than Miami could've received if things played out differently on Saturday.

Outback Bowl: Michigan (-7.5) vs. South Carolina

There's something supremely disappointing, and yet peak #B1G, about the marquee bowl game for the Big Ten being the Outback Bowl. At the least, this will be the last Big Ten bowl game this season.

This game is conspicuous as the Big Ten bowl game in which the Big Ten representative is favored the most. Both teams have problems. Michigan's offense is a dumpster fire and South Carolina, despite its 8-4 record, is not spectacular in any category and has no ostensible superlative to its name.

Certainly, there's no Jadeveon Clowney on the roster capable of recreating what happened when both teams played in the Outback Bowl five years ago.

Do note Michigan is favored by more than a touchdown in a game in which the over/under is 43. That... seems generous. Michigan is the No. 3 total defense in the country matching wits with the No. 109 total offense. Michigan's No. 101 total offense will clash with South Carolina's No. 51 total defense. It's worth noting the over/under for this contest is the lowest of any bowl game by about seven points (Hawaii Bowl) and yet it feels like it should be a fair bit lower.

In other words, should Michigan cover, that game should be in the ballpark of 24-14.

My hunch stands as a departure from the received wisdom from Vegas and other onlookers. Early-season Michigan hammers the best version of South Carolina by a whole lot. This version of Michigan with its third-string quarterback hamstringing the team could well lose a low-scoring contest against a mediocre South Carolina squad