Capital One, Outback must play waiting game

Posted by ESPN.com’s Adam Rittenberg

Barring a surprise Sunday night, Ohio State will receive a BCS at-large invitation, giving the Big Ten two BCS entries and moving the league’s five other bowl-eligible teams up in the selection order. 

It’s safe to assume that the Big Ten’s other two January bowl tie-ins, the Capital One and Outback, will choose between No. 21 Michigan State, No. 22 Northwestern and Iowa to fill their slots. But representatives from both bowls don’t plan to jump the gun.

“Until we know who we’re choosing from, we don’t vote,” Outback Bowl president Jim McVay told me Monday. “These are all really good teams — Northwestern, Iowa, Michigan State. Until somebody says, ‘Here’s who’s available,’ there’s no reason to even get into a discussion about who we want.”

The Capital One Bowl does things a bit differently.

Approximately 200 scouts attend games throughout the season and report back to the bowl. The scouts are eligible to vote on the teams selected. Greg Creese, director of communications for Florida Citrus Sports, which runs both the Capital One and Champs Sports bowls, said the scouts and other staff members plan to meet around 4 p.m. ET Sunday to make selections. 

“There’s too much this year to figure out to do it any earlier,” Creese said. “It definitely is more complex this year. Ohio State obviously plays into it, but we really don’t do any advance planning before we know who our schools are.”

Most bowl projections have Michigan State going to the Capital One and Iowa going to the Outback Bowl. Iowa has been a good draw for the Outback Bowl in 2003 and 2005 and boasts a sizable fan following that could get the school the nod over Northwestern, which is ranked, has a better overall record and beat the Hawkeyes in Iowa City on Sept. 27.

Ohio State leapfrogged Big Ten co-champ Northwestern for the Outback Bowl in 2001, though the Buckeyes had the same overall record (8-3) as the Wildcats. 

McVay said Northwestern has a good history of traveling to bowl games. At the same time, Iowa’s previous trips to Tampa won’t be held against it when electing this year’s Big Ten representative. 

“These are three really good, deserving teams from the Big Ten,” McVay said. “They’d all travel well and we’d be happy with any one of them. But we don’t force ourselves to make a decision until we really have to. It doesn’t do any good to start identifying somebody you want and they might not even be there.”

The bigger debate for Creese’s group likely involves the Champs Sports Bowl.

Wisconsin and Minnesota likely will be the Big Ten’s candidates. Though the Badgers won a head-to-head matchup with the Gophers on Nov. 15, they have been to four consecutive bowls in Florida and might want a change of pace (Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz.). 

“I haven’t heard anything in that regard,” Creese said. “For two of those years, Wisconsin was here with us for Capital One, and they did great. I don’t see us backing out based on that [history]. Now if word comes officially from them that that’s the case, that would probably change how we feel about things.”

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