Boilers' Bowl picture remains
out of focus
 By
Paul Trembacki
Sports Editor
As schools around the country begin to accept bowl
bids, Purdue fans can only wait.
There will be no announcement regarding the bowl-eligible
Boilers' postseason destiny this week, coach Joe Tiller said Tuesday.
That means this week is a time for speculation.
Everyone knows that Purdue (6-4, 4-4 Big Ten),
which concludes its regular season against Notre Dame (4-6) at 4:30
p.m. Saturday in Ross-Ade Stadium, will not make a return trip to the
Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., this year's national championship game.
In fact, no Big Ten team is going to the national
championship. Conference champ Illinois (10-1, 7-1), No. 8 in the latest
BCS rankings, will play in one of the four other Bowl Championship Series
games.
Purdue will not go to the Citrus Bowl in Orlando,
Fla., or the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla. Second-place Michigan (8-3,
6-2) and third-place Ohio State (7-4, 5-3) will play in those games,
it was announced Monday.
With Wisconsin not qualifying for a bowl, Purdue
and Michigan are the only Big Ten teams that will play in a fifth consecutive
bowl, as long as Purdue is selected to play somewhere.
So there are two bowls remaining that have an obligation
to invite a Big Ten team — the Alamo Bowl and the Sun Bowl. However,
Iowa (6-5, 4-4) is also bowl-eligible and Michigan State (5-5, 3-5)
and Penn State (5-5, 4-4) can become bowl-eligible this weekend with
wins over Missouri and Virginia, respectively.
With that, here are the bowls that Purdue might
get invited to play in.
The Alamo Bowl
Purdue won this bowl in 1997 and 1998. However,
according to Tiller, who met with Purdue athletic director Morgan Burke
Sunday after Burke had participated in a conference call with bowl-eligible
teams from the Big Ten and bowl representatives, the Alamo Bowl will
pick Penn State, if that's an option.
If the Nittany Lions, who won the 1999 Alamo Bowl,
win this weekend they will have won six of their final seven games after
starting 0-4.
"We understand that; they've made this big run
at the end," said Tiller, whose Boilers started 4-0 and have gone 2-4
in their last six games. "Plus, you're dealing with perhaps the most
legendary coach in all of college football (Joe Paterno), so you're
going to want that program in your bowl game."
Michigan State, which would be the seventh bowl-eligible
Big Ten team and fourth among teams that haven't been invited to a bowl,
is not likely to get invited to this one, according to Tiller.
The Spartans have lost their last three games,
and Tiller said he gets the idea that Michigan State would be last in
any sort of pecking order if they even qualify for a bowl.
A Purdue win and a Penn State loss would leave
the Boilers and Hawkeyes in contention for an Alamo Bowl berth.
This year's Alamo Bowl will pit a Big Ten team
against the fourth-place team in the Big XII and will be played at 3:30
p.m. Dec. 29 in the Alamodome in San Antonio.
The Sun Bowl
Purdue has never played in this bowl, the fifth
bowl for Big Ten teams, even when it was called the John Hancock Bowl.
If Purdue and Penn State win this weekend, this
is the bowl the Boilers are most likely to play in.
The game, which already includes Washington State
(9-2), starts at noon Dec. 31.
The Tangerine Bowl
Previously known as the MicronPC.com Bowl, the
Tangerine Bowl, which is at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 20 in Orlando, Fla., returns
this year with the intent of featuring an ACC team and the Big East's
No. 5 team.
However, right now there are only four bowl-eligible
teams from the Big East. The conference's fifth-place team, Pittsburgh
(5-5), needs to beat Alabama-Birmingham (6-4) this weekend to clinch
a Tangerine Bowl berth. Otherwise, the bid set aside for a fifth Big
East team will be open to anyone the bowl officials want to invite.
"And they're interested in a Big Ten school," Tiller
said.
The Silicon Valley Classic
This bowl has an at-large berth to offer.
No. 21 Fresno State (10-2) has already qualified
to be one of the teams in this bowl, which is at 3 p.m. Dec. 31 in San
Jose, Calif.
The Humanitarian Bowl
This bowl in Boise, Idaho, picks an at-large team
to play the No. 3 team in the Western Athletic Conference.
The game is at 12:30 p.m. Dec. 31.
Motor City Bowl
In the most unlikely scenario, the Motor City Bowl
in Detroit could pick Purdue. The bowl, played at noon Dec. 29 in the
Pontiac Silverdome, the home of the Detroit Lions, usually pits the
Conference-USA champion against the Mid-American Conference champion.
However, there is a clause in the bowl's contract that allows it to
invite a Big Ten team instead of the Conference-USA champ, provided
the bowl selects a Conference-USA team for two years after that.
The Big Ten, which had six bowl alliances until
it lost its two-year contract with the MicronPC.com bowl after last
season, will add a sixth bowl next season — the Music City Bowl
in Nashville, Tenn. The Motor City Bowl is trying to become bowl No.
7 to ally with the Big Ten, which is why the possible bypass of a Conference-USA
team and subsequent two-year contract renewal with the conference would
not be beneficial to that effort.
Tiller said the Boilers would not reject any offer
from any bowl. He just hopes there is an offer.
"We are not guaranteed that we are going to a bowl,"
Tiller said. "I'm not saying that we won't, I'm just saying we're not
guaranteed."
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