If the Big Ten can punt out, or share, the Holiday Bowl bid with the Big 12, as ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg is reporting they have interest in doing, that would be a win for one of college football’s most powerful conferences. A chance to get into California, expand their brand into a region that their fans want to visit and play a game against the Pac-12 is an ideal situation.
With the landscape changing in the next year, moving to the four-team playoff, the bowl tie-ins are shifting and evolving as well. For the Big Ten, with two new members entering the fold soon, that means finding more bowls to house their members, in addition to their mega deals with the Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl.
Currently, the Big Ten has eight tie-ins. This season, a year that featured two teams ineligible due to sanctions, the conference used just seven of their slots in the postseason. Those seven bowls included two trips to Texas, a jaunt to Arizona by Michigan State, the Rose Bowl and three trips to…
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