Big Ten Football & Basketball Blog

New Year’s Day 2008 featured two Big Ten vs. SEC showdowns in bowl games as the Michigan Wolverines and Wisconsin Badgers matched up with SEC opponentts in their bowl games. #18 Wisconsin kicked off at 11 am in the Outback Bowl against #16 Tennessee and fell to the Vols 21-17. Just two hours later, unranked Michigan, led by head coach Lloyd Carr in his final game, faced heavy-favorite Florida in the Capital One Bowl. Michigan led 21-14 at the half over the #12 Gators and kicked two late FG’s and picked off a Tim Tebow pass to seal a 41-35 victory. With the win, Carr ends his coaching career at Michigan 122-40 overall and Chad Henne, Mike Hart & Jake Long, the three seniors who returned to Michigan this season to play for a National Championship, were able to get their first bowl win in four tries.

After Purdue kicked off the 2007-2008 bowl season for the Big Ten with a 51-48 win in the Motor City Bowl, Michigan State and Penn State were the next two teams up for the Big Ten. Michigan State faced off with Boston College on Friday in the Champs Sports Bowl and gave the Eagles a fight. But in the end, Boston College extended their bowl winning streak to 8 games with a 34-31 win over the Spartans. Meanwhile, Satuday’s Alamo Bowl featured the Penn State Nittany Lions in Joe Paterno’s 500th game as head coach @ PSU. The Lions fell behind 14-0 early but came back for a 24-17 victory.

As it stands now, the Big Ten is currently 2-1 in bowl games with Indiana playing on Monday, Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois on January 1st and Ohio State playing in the BCS Championship Game on January 7th.